The national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman, is for the first time publicly referring to the murder of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire during World War I as a "genocide."

Mr. Foxman's decision, released in a press statement yesterday morning, follows a week of turmoil emanating from the Massachusetts city of Watertown — home to America's third largest community of Armenian Americans — as well as the Armenian Library and Museum of America.

Watertown's city council voted last week to rescind its participation in an ADL tolerance program, "No Place for Hate," over the group's reluctance to use the term. Later in the week, the ADL's regional director for New England, Andrew Tarsy, and the regional board broke with the national organization over the issue. Mr. Tarsy, a popular and highly regarded leader, was subsequently fired.

"We have never negated but have always described the painful events of 1915–1918 perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenians as massacres and atrocities," Mr. Foxman's statement said. "On reflection, we have come to share the view of Henry Morgenthau Sr. that the consequences of those actions were indeed tantamount to genocide. If the word genocide had existed then, they would have called it genocide."

In announcing his decision, Mr. Foxman said conversations with a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Elie Wiesel, and other scholars had influenced his decision to embrace the "consensus."

"I hope that Turkey will understand that it is Turkey's friends who urge that nation to confront its past and work to reconcile with Armenians over this dark chapter in history," he added, referring to the current Turkish government's policy of protesting other countries' formal acknowledgment of the mass killings.

Speaking to The New York Sun, Mr. Foxman said the flap had confronted the group with "competing moral concerns," and invoked Rabbi Hillel's famous aphorism, "If I am not for myself, who will be? If I am only for myself, what am I?"

"With the Jewish community under attack throughout the world and not a lot of friends, the first imperative has to be Rabbi Hillel," Mr. Foxman said. "You have to address the first part before you can consider the second."

The relationship of groups such as the ADL and the organized Jewish community with Turkey, a secular nation with a largely Muslim population, is a sensitive one. In discussing Congress's "Armenian Genocide Resolution," House Resolution 106, the ADL cited concerns over the Jewish community in Turkey, the country's status as an American ally, and its relationship with Israel: "We continue to firmly believe that a congressional resolution on such matters is a counterproductive diversion and will not foster reconciliation between Turks and Armenians, and may put at risk the Turkish Jewish community and the important multilateral relationship between Turkey, Israel, and the United States."

Previously, the ADL had said it took "no position" on the action. Steve Grossman, a former president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and a leader in Boston's Jewish community, praised Mr. Foxman's decision. "As somebody who has not hesitated to criticize Abe Foxman and the national ADL for their failure to secure the moral high ground on the issue of the Armenian genocide, I give Abe Foxman a lot of credit for his willingness to change his position," Mr. Grossman said. "It is a distinguished leader indeed who can change a long-held position and acknowledge that this position is no longer legitimate or tenable."

Boston's Jewish Community Relations Council also came out in support of the move. "We applaud the statement released today by Abraham Foxman changing the position of the National ADL in response to the concerns expressed by the NE Regional Office about recognition of the Armenian Genocide perpetrated from 1915–1918 by the Ottoman Empire," the group said in a statement.

Mr. Grossman also called for Mr. Foxman to give Mr. Tarsy his job back. "I hope they can see it in their hearts and in their best interests to reinstate Andy Tarsy as the New England regional director of the ADL." Mr. Foxman called Mr. Tarsy's termination "a management decision."