Similarly, I can not help but ask if the Jewish Community and the Massachusetts Municipal Association used its full energy and resources to speak out against the denial of the Armenian genocide, could we prevent Antisemitism and Holocaust denial 20 years from now?

Excerpts from a recent publication: The Enemy of My Friend is My Enemy? The Jewish Diaspora and Genocide Denial.

“With all due respect to the numerous Jewish-born humanists, historians, writers, individual personalities, Chief Rabbi, Yona Metzger and many other that have had the courage to take a stand for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide and justice for this crime, it is none the less obvious that the official representatives of Judaism and above all Jewish/Israeli politicians still have a lot to catch up on.

Even though the internationally recognized and respected Jewish jurist and human rights activist Rafael Lemkin already concerned himself with and recognized the systematic destruction of the Armenians as a “murder of race” at the start of the 1930s, the fact remains that justice for the Armenian Genocide is still being aggressively denied by influential organizations of the Jewish Diaspora as well as by the State of Israel itself.”

Now more than ever the denial of genocide must be responded to, for denial is intrinsic to the methodology of genocide. Genocide is denied even as it is practiced.

From the beginning, the perpetrator seeks pretexts and justifications to conceal the real intentions. Thus, the extermination is referred to as “transporting,” as “deportation” or “resettlement” – “moving to secure places” or even as the “final solution.” A verbal code is used to camouflage and thus deny the annihilation, even as it is being committed.

Genocide without simultaneous denial is unthinkable – yes, even impossible. The first thing that must be done is to consider what the perpetrators want to attain through denial. Denial is not just the simple negation of an act; it is much more the consequent continuation of the very act itself. Genocide should not only physically destroy a community; it should likewise dictate the prerogative of interpretation in regard to history, culture, territory and memory. As the victims- Armenians – “never exists”.

The Turkish have not only murdered humans , destroyed an ancient culture/civilization and rewritten history, but they continue to legitimize the act as well as the racist ideology that led to the act. This includes the legitimization of any and all stereotyping of the Armenian people as a dangerous enemy, as a deadly bogeyman in the closet.

Denial is the final step in the completion of a mass extermination – and the first step towards the next genocide. If genocide is committed in Ruanda or Sudan, it is done with the knowledge that the rest of the world will only watch and then forget.

They look to Turkey and think themselves safe in the assumption that their actions will likewise remain unpunished! Whether in Sudan or Ruanda or any other potential hotspot of mass murder the accountable powers-that-be rhetorically ask – as Hitler supposedly did just before invading Poland – “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”

Both are genocide deniers.

Genocide denial is the worst type of hate crime. Not only does it murder the historical memories of the victims but it also murders the victims a second time by erasing them from the pages of history.

Although no one called the slaughter of Armenians (1915-23) as genocide because the word was not coined until twenty years later, the word “holocaust” has been widely used since the 17th century. Before World War II the word “holocaust” was used by Winston Churchill and others to describe the Armenian genocide.

Raphael Lemkin, a lawyer of Polish-Jewish descent and Holocaust survivor, created the word “GENOCIDE” in 1933 to describe what had happened to the Armenians. Lemkin explained that the Turks committed genocide with intent to annihilate.

The Anti-Defamation League’s recent alleged acknowledgment of the Armenian genocide, describing it as “consequence” of WWI, and “tantamount to genocide”, imply that Turkey did not intend to kill Armenians. The ADL knowingly contravened the UN’s official 1948 definition of genocide which uses the word “intent” not “consequence.”

The world doesn’t take seriously what American Jewish leaders have to say about the 6 million, not when it sees that the same Jewish leaders lobby the US congress against genocide affirmation, and silence everyone over the murders of 1.6 million other innocents.

To deny the Armenian genocide “is like Holocaust denial,” said human rights professor Gregory Stanton, vice president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) and president of Genocide Watch.

Rabbi Hillel said it best: “If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?”

The ADL is corrupt and morally bankrupt and has lost its authority to lecture on human rights.

For the past 15 years the ADL has continually traded its human rights agenda with that of a bizarre foreign policy agenda. It has been exposed for what it truly is and can no longer maintain the facade of a human rights organization.

Berge Jololian

The problems is, I tend to think Finkelstein DOES show a pretty clear view of how things looks, and and it’s not very good looking.

Of course he had become the “enemy of the people” for many, and was sued dozens of times – but always won.

i don’t think of it so much as recreating judaism as much as saying there’s more to being a Jew than anti-Semitism.

by the way, there’s an update to this story: I just saw on JTA that Andrew Tarsy has resigned.

guess this post turns out to be timely after all.

I knew there was a reason I sensed you’d be a good fit here. Bra-fucking-vo! Is it any wonder the bulk of American Jewish life sucks so hard in terms of stuff that’s, you know, actually Jewish? This focus on the Holocaust as the locus of Jewish identity smacks of some kind of twisted necrophilia (as opposed to normal necrophilia?). If that was the only Judaism I had, I’d drop that shit like a hot potato. I am heartened by the many secular Jews who feel the same way and have sought to recreate their Judaism into something that’s relevant to them. On the other hand, I do wish that some of this inventiveness was a little more, I dunno, Jewy?

But whatever, great post steve!