Antisemitic tropes have no place in The Courier Journal: Opinion
The Feb. 8 column by Courier Journal Executive Editor Mary Irby-Jones, “Op-ed regarding Holocaust Remembrance Day is teachable moment for our newspaper,” was a step in the right direction.
In that column, Ms. Irby-Jones writes that a commentary published on Jan. 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, “was offensive to many individuals” and that “we sincerely apologize to those who were offended.” Regrettably, however, her column does not illuminate in any way, shape or form how this particular commentary was not just offensive but beyond the pale.
The op-ed in question − “Holocaust Remembrance Day is a time to remember more than one atrocity”− was not only replete with antisemitic rhetoric. Its authors minimized the Holocaust and argued that the six million European Jews murdered by Nazi Germany and its accomplices do not merit a separate commemoration.
A one-sentence paragraph, “Jews do not have a monopoly on persecution and atrocities,” is an antisemitic trope pure and simple, setting the scene for the op-ed as a whole. This age-old canard accuses Jews of caring only about themselves and refusing to acknowledge atrocities committed against other groups.
The authors of the Jan. 27 op-ed proceeded to double down by declaring, without any basis or support whatsoever, “For one group, for one person, to claim that the hate and violence towards them is more important than another’s, only encourages more acts of violence against others.” Once again, the op-ed insinuates that Jews are indifferent to the plight of others.
The insidious premise of both of these antisemitic slurs is glaringly, demonstratively false.
One of the teachable moments of this entire controversy is that antisemitic tropes such as the two above-quoted sentences should never, ever appear in The Courier Journal or any other respectable or self-respecting publication or platform. Allowing them to remain unchallenged on The Courier Journal’s website sends a dog whistle to white supremacists, neo-Nazis and other antisemites that such expressions of bigotry can be freely expressed in mainstream civil society.
The Jan. 27 op-ed also disparaged and trivialized the singular scope and enormity of the Holocaust, arguing that it does not merit a separate remembrance. Its authors insultingly wrote there, “International Holocaust Day [sic] is not just a mantra about one Jewish holocaust.” In other words, according to the authors, the systematic genocide of six million Jews does not warrant its own commemoration. It is important to emphasize that, contrary to the article’s pernicious implication, it was the United Nations − decidedly not the “Jews” − which designated January 27, the date when the Auschwitz death camp was liberated in 1945, precisely as an “annual International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.”
Finally, a word about Adolf Hitler. He was not, as the Jan. 27 op-ed maintains, “just one of many dictators.” Teachable moment: Hitler was a mass-murdering tyrant who was responsible for the perpetration of the most widespread, most systematic genocide in history. Equating him with “religious leaders or elected officials, grandstanding with worthless ‘facts’ and ‘solutions’ to non-existent problems, like teaching about race in schools and banning books” demonstrates either unparalleled ignorance or an intentional distortion of history. I am not sure which is worse.
In a recently added “Editor’s note,” one of the Jan. 27 op-ed’s authors, Honi Goldman, apologizes “to those who were rightly offended” and seeks to clarify that it “was never the intent to diminish of [sic] the horrors of the Holocaust.” And yet, this is exactly what her op-ed did. Moreover, Ms. Goldman does not retract either her antisemitic tropes or her trivialization of the Holocaust by equating Hitler with politicians she does not like or with whom she disagrees.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has declared that “There is no place for antisemitism in Kentucky. Not in our communities and not in our government.” The same should certainly hold true for the Courier Journal.
Simply put, the above-quoted antisemitic tropes should be deleted online from the Jan. 27 op-ed with an explanation as to why this was done. The Courier Journal has taken similar action before when it removed an antisemitic phrase from another article by the same Ms. Goldman with the following accompanying Editor’s note: “This op-ed has been updated to remove an antisemitic paragraph. On Feb. 26, 2021, the state of Kentucky signed a resolution condemning anti-Semitism as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. Comparing Jews or Jewish leaders to the Nazi regime goes against this resolution, which the op-ed did in an earlier publication.”
The Courier Journal’s intention to “host a forum this year addressing the rise in antisemitic incidences in our country and the impact on our local Jewish community” is laudable. But this must be in conjunction with a commitment by the publication that it will make sure that no article along the lines of the Jan. 27 op-ed will appear there in the future. Otherwise, the Courier Journal will merely be compounding a serious problem of its own making.
Menachem Z. Rosensaft is the general counsel and associate executive vice president of the World Jewish Congress. He teaches about the law of genocide at the law schools of Columbia and Cornell Universities.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Antisemitic tropes have no place in The Courier Journal: Opinion
