Update on Recent Developments

In conjunction with the Wyman Institute, Academic Council member Prof. Paul Miller recently spearheaded a petition urging the British corporation IPC Media, which owns Homes & Gardens, to drop its objections to the reproduction and distribution of the 1938 article. (IPC had pressured a British journalist to delete it from his web site.)

In response to the petition, IPC Media last week withdrew its objections to the reproduction of the article. In a letter to the Wyman Institute, IPC Media stated, “your organisation is free to make use of the images and text” of the article. (The full text of the article can be viewed at www. WymanInstitute.org )

In an e-mail to the Wyman Institute, Simon Waldman of the British newspaper The Guardian, the journalist who was pressured by IPC to remove the article from his web site, wrote: “Many thanks for getting involved…without you, IPC would have continued to hide behind their sham copyright claim…

“Discussions are continuing between the Wyman Institute and IPC with regard to the Institute’s insistence that IPC publicly acknowledge its historical and moral responsibility for the 1938 article and express remorse for publishing it–just as various governments, banks, insurance companies, and other institutions have in recent years acknowledged their responsibility for actions they took during the Nazi era.

Meanwhile, there has been extensive international media coverage of the controversy, including the Institute’s role.

To see the Boston Globe’s article, go to:
http://www.boston.com/

To see the London Guardian’s coverage, go to:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/

Francine Klagsbrun is the author most recently of ‘The Fourth Commandment: Remember the Sabbath Day’. Her other books include ‘Jewish Days: A Book of Jewish Life and Culture Around the Year’; ‘Voices of Wisdom: Jewish Ideals and Ethics for Everyday Living’; and ‘Married People: Staying Together in the Age of Divorce’. Her column, “Thinking Aloud,” appears monthly in the New York Jewish Week, and she also writes a regular column for Moment Magazine. She has contributed articles to such national publications as The New York Times, the Boston Globe, Ms. and the Jerusalem Report, and was editor of the best-selling children’s book, ‘Free To Be You and Me’. She is a trustee of the Jewish Museum and sits on the boards of directors of numerous Jewish organizations. She lectures widely on social, ethical, and family issues.