JCRC JOINS BATTLE FOR GENOCIDE RECOGNITION
By Ted Siefer – Thursday April 27 2006
Jewish Advocate , MA
April 27 2006
Massachusetts Attorney General Tom ReillyLocal Jewish groups back
teaching the Armenian genocide in public schools
The Jewish Community Relations Council has firmly allied itself with
the Armenian community in its fight against a lawsuit challenging the
way the Armenian genocide is taught in Massachusetts public schools.
Coinciding with the anniversary of the start of the Armenian genocide
in 1915, a rally organized by kNOw Genocide, a coalition of several
cultural and religious groups, including JCRC, was held last week
in front of the State House. Among the speakers at the event were
Lt. Governor Kerry Healy and Attorney General Tom Reilly, both
gubernatorial candidates, and Congressman Ed Markey.
“We have to defend the right of the Department of Education to teach
what happened to the Armenians. This is not about free speech. It’s
about facing truth,” Reilly told the crowd. The attorney general’s
office is defending the Department of Education in the lawsuit brought
by the Assembly of Turkish American Associations.
About 1.5 million Armenians were killed during World War I by Turkish
forces; Turkey has long contended that the deaths were the unintended
consequences of war, not a deliberate campaign against Armenians.
The Turkish association’s lawsuit charges the Department of Education
with violating academic freedom and free speech by removing from its
curriculum guide materials that presented the Turkish point of view
on the genocide.
Lawyer and academic freedom advocate Harvey Silverglate is representing
the Turkish Association. “I believe that in the long run the
Jewish organizations, as well as the Armenian organizations and all
other organizations currently on the ‘censor the contra-genocide
views’ bandwagon, will be sorry that they have contributed to
the institutionalization of ethnic group censorship in matters of
education,” he said.
JCRC Executive Director Nancy Kaufman rejected this argument. “I
think it’s bogus. Does this mean we should let the KKK teach in
schools because they want to share their view of slavery?” she said.
“What if someone had wanted to make room for a Holocaust denier in a
textbook? We in the Jewish community have to be sensitive to genocide,
whether the Rwandan, Jewish or right now in Sudan.”
This point was emphasized by speakers at last week’s rally, which
prompted a contingent of pro-Palestinian activists to shout: “Stop
the Zionist invasion of Sudan.”
The Armenian genocide is widely recognized by scholars. Last year,
the International Association of Genocide Scholars sent a letter to
the Turkish president urging the country to reexamine its version of
the catastrophe.
A bill introduced earlier this month in the House (H.R. 193) and Senate
(S. 164) would include language recognizing the Armenian genocide
as part of a commemoration of the 15th anniversary of the U.S.’s
adoption of the Genocide Convention. The U.S. does not officially
recognize the Armenian genocide.
A documentary titled “The Armenian Genocide,” narrated by Julianna
Margulies, was screened on Capitol Hill shortly before the bills were
introduced. The documentary aired on PBS this month.
There are many significant connections between the Armenian genocide
and the Holocaust, according to Adam Strom. His organization, Facing
History and Ourselves, provides curriculum materials for teaching
about historical atrocities, including the Armenian genocide.
Strom pointed out that Hitler cited the world’s indifference to the
Armenian genocide as he laid the groundwork for the Holocaust.
“Hitler said: ‘Who today still speaks of the massacre of the
Armenians?'” Strom noted.
Jews have long played an important role in calling for recognition of
the atrocity and justice for its victims, Strom said. He pointed to the
role of Rafael Lemkin, who defined the term “genocide” in a treatise
on the subject that would become a cornerstone of human rights law.
“He lobbied for years to find a way to outlaw what happened to the
Armenians. He asked his law professor, ‘Why can’t they put these guys
on trial, why is it not against the law to murder a million people
but it is to kill just one?'” said Strom.
Strom also pointed to the role of Henry Morgenthau, the Jewish U.S.
ambassador to Turkey during World War I who railed against the
anti-Armenian campaign.
Morgenthau is revered in Armenia, according to David Sacks, a Boston
doctor who helped set up a women’s clinic in the newly independent
republic in the 1990s.
Sacks said that in his time spent in Armenia, he found many qualities
of the people familiar. “Their love of family and culture … reminded
me of our people,” he said.
“We need to honor their pain and suffering and we need to remind the
world that there was more than one Holocaust,” Sacks added.
s_issue/news/?content_id=1179