January 21, 2020
One hundred and fifty Holocaust scholars from around the world have signed a statement protesting the Palestinian Authority’s publication of a threat to murder participants in a ceremony next week at Yad Vashem.
“For the PA to publish this horrific threat in its official newspaper is nothing less than incitement to murder,” said Dr. Rafael Medoff, director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, which organized the protest.
The threat was contained in a January 19 article in the PA’s newspaper, Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah, by Yahya Rabah, one of its regular columnists. Rabah urged readers to “resist” next week’s Yad Vashem ceremony commemorating the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, and advised: “One shot will disrupt the ceremony and one dead body will cancel the ceremony.”
The protest statement called on the PA leadership to publicly disavow the threat and fire Rabbah.
The 150 scholars hail from the United States, Israel, England, Canada, Germany, Poland, France, Australia, and India.
The full text of the statement:
AN OPEN LETTER PROTESTING
THE THREAT MADE AGAINST YAD VASHEM
As scholars who have written or taught about the Holocaust or other genocides, we are horrified and outraged by the threat made against Yad Vashem, which was published in the official Palestinian Authority daily newspaper, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, on January 18, 2020.
The author of the article is one of the newspaper’s regular columnists, Yahya Rabah. He wrote:
“Israel…is now energetically planning to hold a ceremony for the Holocaust [at Yad Vashem] in occupied Jerusalem, and it is accustomed to the world participating with it in this ceremony, as the Jews’ Holocaust is terrible, but the Palestinian holocaust by Israel that still continues is insignificant, beautiful, spectacular, and good. Of course, the Palestinians will never accept this equation, and it can be assumed that they will resist the ceremony being held in Jerusalem itself, as Jerusalem is theirs, despite Trump who gave it to Israel as part of the filthy deal of the century. One shot will disrupt the ceremony and one dead body will cancel the ceremony. And despite the misery of the Arabs and their dissatisfaction with what is happening, they are capable, if even for just a moment, of not following in the steps of Israel and America who are determining for them who their enemies are and who their friends are.” (Translation courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch.)
This is a blatant attempt to encourage the murder of participants in the Yad Vashem ceremony.
We call on the leadership of the Palestinian Authority to publicly disavow Rabah’s threat against Yad Vashem and to fire Rabah from Al-Hayat Al-Jadida.
Dr. Navras J. Aafreedi
Presidency University, Kolkata, India
Prof. Irving Abella
York University, Toronto
Dr. Mehnaz M. Afridi
Director of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Interfaith Education Center
Manhattan College
Prof. Edward Alexander (emer.)
University of Washington
Dr. Kenneth Altman
Columbia University
Dr. Brian Amkraut
Case Western Reserve University
Prof. Alan J. Avery-Peck
College of the Holy Cross
Rabbi Shaina Bacharach
Green Bay, WI
Prof. Monique Rodrigues Balbuena
University of Oregon
Prof. Katherine Barbieri
University of South Carolina
Prof. Wendy Barker
University of Texas at San Antonio
Prof. Paul R. Bartrop
Florida Gulf Coast University
Prof. Fred Baumann
Kenyon College
Prof. Michael Berenbaum
Director, Sigi Ziering Institute
American Jewish University
Prof. Betty Berenson (ret.)
Iona College
Prof. Alan Berger
Florida Atlantic University
Prof. Jay Bergman
Central Connecticut State University
Prof. Daniel Bitran
College of the Holy Cross
Rabbi Andrew Bloom
Fort Worth, TX
Prof. László Borhi
Indiana University
Prof. Gabriel Noah Brahm
Northern Michigan University
Prof. George W. Breslauer
University of California, Berkeley
Prof. Jean Axelrad Cahan
Director, Norman and Bernice Harris Center for Judaic Studies
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Prof. Ellen Cannon
Northeastern Illinois University
Dr. Paula J. Caplan
Associate, Harvard University
Prof. Phyllis Chesler (emer.)
City University of New York
Prof. David Chinitz
Hebrew University
Prof. Daniel Dayan
CNRS-EHESS, Paris
Prof. Mark Diamond
Loyola Marymount University
Prof. Donna Robinson Divine (emer.)
Smith College
Prof. Stanley Dubinsky
University of South Carolina
Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins
Jerusalem
Prof. R. Amy Elman
Kalamazoo College
Prof. Miriam F. Elman
Syracuse University
Executive Director, Academic Engagement Network
Dr. Eugene J. Fisher
Saint Leo University
Dr. Luis Fleischman
Palm Beach State College
Rev. Mark R. Francis, C.S.V
President, Catholic Theological Union
Prof. Evyatar Friesel (emer.)
Hebrew University
Prof. Zev Garber (emer.)
Los Angeles Valley College
Dr. Edyta Gawron
Jagiellonian University, Poland
Prof. Stephen G. Gerzof (ret.)
Tufts Medical School
Prof. George Glauberman (emer.)
University of Chicago
Prof. Chad Alan Goldberg
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Dr. Myrna Goldenberg (emer.)
Montgomery College, MD
Prof. David Golinkin
President, The Schechter Institutes, Inc.
Jerusalem
Prof. Lenn E. Goodman
Vanderbilt University
Prof. Lynn H. Green
Cheyney University of Pennsylvania
Prof. Gershon Greenberg
American University
Prof. Yudit Kornberg Greenberg
Rollins College
Dr. Elvira Grözinger
Berlin
Prof. Dr. Karl E. Grözinger (emer.)
Universität Potsdam
Prof. Gary D. Grossman
University of Georgia
Prof. Jeffrey Herf
University of Maryland
Prof. Peter H. Hoffenberg
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Prof. Ron Hollander (emer.)
Montclair State University
Prof. Steven Leonard Jacobs
The University of Alabama
Dr. Judith S. Jacobson
Columbia University
Prof. Gunther Jikeli
Indiana University
Prof. Ellyn Kaschak (emer.)
San Jose State University
Prof. Samuel Kassow
Trinity College
Prof. Stephen Katz
Indiana University
Prof. Steven T. Katz
Boston University
Prof. Steven G. Kellman
University of Texas at San Antonio
Hon. David Kilgour, J.D.
Ottawa, Canada
Prof. Lesley Klaff
Sheffield Hallam University, England
Prof. Rebecca A. Kobrin
Columbia University
Prof. Gerd Korman (emer.)
Cornell University
Prof. Marvin Koss
SUNY Upstate Medical University
Prof. Neil J. Kressel
William Paterson University
Prof. dr hab. Ireneusz Krzemiński
Uniwersytet Warszawski, Poland
Rabbi Paul Kurland
Nanuet Hebrew Center
Prof. Paul Kurlansky
Columbia University
Prof. Joseph Kushick (emer.)
Amherst College
Prof. Thomas M. Landy
College of the Holy Cross
Prof. Ruth Langer
Boston College
Rabbi Dr. Alan Lavin
Jerusalem
Prof. Laurel Leff
Northeastern University
Prof. David Leibowitz
Kenyon College
Prof. Lisa Leibowitz
Kenyon College
Prof. Robert J. Lieber
Georgetown University
Rabbi Dennis Linson
University of California, Berkeley / Chapman University
Prof. Deborah E. Lipstadt
Emory University
Prof. Marcia Sachs Littell (emer.)
Stockton University
Prof. Meir Litvak
Tel Aviv University
Prof. Joe Lockard
Arizona State University
Rabbi Haskel Lookstein
New York, NY
Prof. Jeffry V. Mallow
Loyola University Chicago
Dr. Rafael Medoff
The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies
Prof. Rochelle L. Millen (emer.)
Wittenberg University
Prof. Evan D. Morris
Yale University
Prof. Stan Nadel
University of Portland – Salzburg Austria Center
Prof. Sheldon Nahmod (emer.)
IIT Chicago / Kent College of Law
Rabbi David Nesson
Morristown, NJ
Prof. Cary Nelson
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Prof. Stephen H. Norwood
University of Oklahoma
Prof. Alexander Orbach (emer.)
University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Françoise S. Ouzan
Tel Aviv University
Dr. Zsuzsanna Ozsvath
Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies
The University of Texas at Dallas
Prof. David Patterson
University of Texas at Dallas
Rev. Dr. John T. Pawlikowski, OSM (emer.)
Catholic Theological Union
Prof. Judea Pearl
University of California-Los Angeles
Prof. Monty Noam Penkower (emer.)
Machon Lander Graduate School of Jewish Studies
Prof. Andrew Pessin
Connecticut College
David Pfenninger, PhD
Carmel, IN
Dr. Eunice G. Pollack
Coeditor, Encyclopedia of American Jewish History
Prof. Elena G. Procario-Foley
Iona College
Rabbi Dr. Samuel B. Press
Dayton, OH
Lauri B. Regan, J.D.
Scholars for Peace in the Middle East
Prof. Sara Reguer
Brooklyn College
Prof. Walter Reich
George Washington University
Dr. Gil Ribak
University of Arizona
Dr. Carol Rittner, R.S.M. (emer.)
Stockton University
Dr. Asaf Romirowsky
Scholars for Peace in the Middle East
Prof. Judith Mendelsohn Rood (emer.)
Biola University
Paul Nellen
Hamburg, Germany
Sue Polansky
Zionist Affairs Team Leader, Hadassah
Prof. Mark D. Rosen
IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law
Prof. Thane Rosenbaum
Distinguished University Professor, Touro College
Prof. Alvin H. Rosenfeld
Director, Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism
Indiana University
Prof. Tammi Rossman-Benjamin (ret.)
University of California Santa Cruz
Prof. John K. Roth (emer.)
Claremont McKenna College
Dr. Hannah R. Rothstein
Baruch College, City University of New York
Prof. Elisha Russ-Fishbane
New York University
Prof. Suzanne Rutland (emer.)
University of Sydney
Prof. Philip Carl Salzman
McGill University
Dr. Myer Samra
Government of New South Wales, Australia
Prof. Jonathan Sarna
Brandeis University
Prof. David L. Schaefer
College of the Holy Cross
Prof. F. K. Schoeman
University of South Carolina
Prof. Irvin Schonfeld
The City College of the City University of New York
Prof. Daniel B. Schwartz
George Washington University
Prof. Michael Scrivener
Wayne State University
Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller
Director Emeritus,UCLA Hillel
Prof. Doreen Seidler-Feller
School of Medicine at UCLA
Prof. Robert Moses Shapiro
Brooklyn College of City University of New York
Prof. Theodore J. Sheskin (emer.)
Cleveland State University
Patrick Siegele
Director, Anne Frank Zentrum
Berlin
Dr. Phillip Silver
University of Maine
Prof. Jonathan Skolnik
University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Prof. Gerald Sorin
Director, Resnick Institute for the Study of Modern Jewish Life
SUNY at New Paltz
Rev. Dr. Kevin P. Spicer, C.S.C.
Stonehill College
Prof. Ernest Sternberg
University at Buffalo
Rabbi Dr. William M. Strongin
SUNY at New Paltz
Prof. Norton S. Taichman (emer.)
University of Pennsylvania
Prof. Jarrod Tanny
University of North Carolina Wilmington
Dr. Klaus Thörner
Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, Germany
Prof. Ilan Troen
Brandeis University
Prof. Jeremiah Unterman
Herzl Institute
Dr. Lenore Walker
Fort Lauderdale, FL
Prof. Kenneth Waltzer (emer.)
Michigan State University
Dr. Esther Webman
Tel Aviv University
Prof. Susan Weinger (emer.)
Western Michigan University
Dr. Ann Weiss
Director, Eyes from the Ashes Educational Foundation
Prof. John Hubbel Weiss
Cornell University
Dr. Mark Weitzman
Simon Wiesenthal Center
Prof. Sonja Wentling
Concordia College
Prof. Mina Westman
Tel Aviv University
Rabbi Alan J. Yuter
Springfield, NJ
Prof. Randall C. Zachman (emer.)
University of Notre Dame
John C. Zimmerman
University of Nevada Las Vegas
Prof. Bat-Ami Zucker
Bar-Ilan University
(Institutions listed for identification purposes only.)
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ABOUT THE WYMAN INSTITUTE: The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, located in Washington, D.C., is a research and education institute focusing on America’s response to the Holocaust. It is named in honor of the eminent historian and author of the 1984 best-seller The Abandonment of the Jews, the most important and influential book concerning the U.S. response to the Nazi genocide.