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The Tablet
April 17 2015
Jewish Organizations Must Stop Denying the Armenian Genocide
Staying silent in the face of radical evil is wrong. It's time for us to engage.
By Andrew Tarsy
April 17, 2015 11:45 AM
National Jewish organizations in the United States have played a
dangerous game for decades, giving safe harbor to denial of the
Armenian genocide. As its 100th anniversary arrives on April 24, there
is an opportunity to turn the page on a dismal chapter of Jewish
American history.
The bar is set higher now than simply uttering a particular word or
posting a statement to a website. Jewish leaders and organizations
have to demonstrate that they recognize the humanity of Armenian
people who still live in the long shadow of genocide. These families
have been robbed of everything they built and earned in centuries of
cultural continuity. Their injuries are compounded by Turkish denial
and the complicity of those who could be allies, including ourselves.
Over the past three decades, various national Jewish leaders have
urged Armenians to address their need for validation by taking up the
matter with the Republic of Turkey itself. Imagine Jews being told to
do the same with Germans. Jewish leaders have made public comments
that deliberately provide cover for those who willfully undermine the
truth; and in our name, they habitually advocate against congressional
efforts to acknowledge the genocide. Some even take steps to exclude
the Armenian story from genocide education curriculums and Holocaust
commemoration events.
The reasons provided to support these choices?
First, Turkey is an important ally to Israel and Jews cannot afford to
risk provoking their anger by telling the truth. In addition, Turkey
has been tolerant toward Jews within its borders and we owe them a
debt of gratitude. Paradoxically, we are also told that Jews in Turkey
will not be safe if Jews in America speak plainly about the Armenian
genocide.
Second, we are told that Armenian advocates might use the designation
of "genocide" and any platform we give them to make comparisons and
connections to the Holocaust that advance their own cause of
recognition. We should not support the Holocaust being used for this
kind of purpose.
No advocate for this position has been more outspoken than Abraham
Foxman, longtime National Director of the Anti-Defamation League. He
has hardly lacked for company among the most prominent professional
and volunteer leaders within the ADL and in other national Jewish
organizations.
Eight years ago the Jewish community in Greater Boston made a very
different choice. I was Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation
League there at the time. Our diverse Jewish community chose to
publicly acknowledge that the events beginning in Constantinople on
April 24, 1915, were indeed genocide, and that a congressional
resolution saying as much was in order.
Those involved in the Boston decision and those who supported it were
not poorly informed, nor did they take the challenges of Jewish and
Israeli security lightly. It would also be inaccurate to say, as Mr.
Foxman did shortly thereafter, that we were prioritizing an Armenian
cause above concern for Turkish Jews or Israel or that our judgment
was clouded by assimilation and intermarriage, charges he also made
via the media. In fact the decision to acknowledge the Armenian
genocide was a matter governed by the facts as well as they could be
understood. I believe that the frustration Mr. Foxman directed at the
Boston Jewish community was based on its refusal to defer to his
judgment and the commitments he may have made on the community's
behalf.
Since the episode in Boston, some of the most prominent national
Jewish organizations have followed suit in one way or another, using
the word genocide with varying degrees of sincerity and candor and
virtually no follow-through. Nevertheless, the dystopia our leaders
had long forecast if the taboo were to be broken has not come to pass.
And the treasured Israeli alliance with Turkey turned out to be weaker
than imagined, falling apart over the Gaza War in 2014. If Jews in
Turkey are less safe now than they were a few years ago, it is not
because some of us are using the "g-word."
Unfortunately, there is still not a perceptible increase in direct
Jewish engagement with Armenian Americans in the places where we both
live and contribute to the vibrancy of pluralism and democracy. I am
not sure there is even much greater awareness of the specific facts of
the genocide itself. What explains the slow growth in outreach to the
Armenian American community to build on the cautious statements that
national leaders have finally begun to make? If it is simply a lack of
leadership then the job again falls to the community to demand the
agenda it wants.
The American Jewish community would be wise to retire two morally and
strategically bankrupt imperatives that have contributed mightily to
this morass.
The first of these feckless imperatives is that anything said to be
necessary for Israel's safety and Jewish security can be justified
without rigorous and transparent analysis. The days of deference to
the individual judgments of national leaders on issues of strategic
importance have to end, no matter how experienced those leaders are.
Recent examples of the new landscape where individuals and communities
make up their own minds and adopt a wide array of opinions are
Israel's 2014 Operation Protective Edge in Gaza and the recent Israeli
elections.
A second imperative we must fully let go of is that the Holocaust has
to be insulated from comparison and even commemoration alongside other
catastrophic crimes like the Armenian genocide. As media outlets have
reported, the Anti-Defamation League has for decades had a policy
prohibiting its regional offices from participating in
Holocaust-related events jointly with organizations focused on the
Armenian genocide. If the ban has been lifted, there is certainly no
evidence of the organization moving beyond it today. Holocaust museums
and genocide-studies programs have crossed this bridge already. They
have rigorous methods for managing the analysis responsibly, and there
is no sign of damage to any of the important histories that need to be
remembered.
The occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide calls
for a new commitment by the American Jewish community to acknowledge
the experience of that catastrophe for Armenians and to validate the
further destruction caused by its denial. Jewish organizations should
also go further and indicate support for Armenian efforts to seek
reparations and the recovery of stolen property, not unlike our
community has pursued in the wake of the Holocaust. This should also
be the moment we commit at the local level to deeper engagement with
Armenian Americans. The burden is on us to reach out with sincerity
and patience. We can start by listening to their story.
http://tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/190274/jewish-organizations-armenian-genocide
April 17 2015
Jewish Organizations Must Stop Denying the Armenian Genocide
Staying silent in the face of radical evil is wrong. It's time for us to engage.
By Andrew Tarsy
April 17, 2015 11:45 AM
National Jewish organizations in the United States have played a
dangerous game for decades, giving safe harbor to denial of the
Armenian genocide. As its 100th anniversary arrives on April 24, there
is an opportunity to turn the page on a dismal chapter of Jewish
American history.
The bar is set higher now than simply uttering a particular word or
posting a statement to a website. Jewish leaders and organizations
have to demonstrate that they recognize the humanity of Armenian
people who still live in the long shadow of genocide. These families
have been robbed of everything they built and earned in centuries of
cultural continuity. Their injuries are compounded by Turkish denial
and the complicity of those who could be allies, including ourselves.
Over the past three decades, various national Jewish leaders have
urged Armenians to address their need for validation by taking up the
matter with the Republic of Turkey itself. Imagine Jews being told to
do the same with Germans. Jewish leaders have made public comments
that deliberately provide cover for those who willfully undermine the
truth; and in our name, they habitually advocate against congressional
efforts to acknowledge the genocide. Some even take steps to exclude
the Armenian story from genocide education curriculums and Holocaust
commemoration events.
The reasons provided to support these choices?
First, Turkey is an important ally to Israel and Jews cannot afford to
risk provoking their anger by telling the truth. In addition, Turkey
has been tolerant toward Jews within its borders and we owe them a
debt of gratitude. Paradoxically, we are also told that Jews in Turkey
will not be safe if Jews in America speak plainly about the Armenian
genocide.
Second, we are told that Armenian advocates might use the designation
of "genocide" and any platform we give them to make comparisons and
connections to the Holocaust that advance their own cause of
recognition. We should not support the Holocaust being used for this
kind of purpose.
No advocate for this position has been more outspoken than Abraham
Foxman, longtime National Director of the Anti-Defamation League. He
has hardly lacked for company among the most prominent professional
and volunteer leaders within the ADL and in other national Jewish
organizations.
Eight years ago the Jewish community in Greater Boston made a very
different choice. I was Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation
League there at the time. Our diverse Jewish community chose to
publicly acknowledge that the events beginning in Constantinople on
April 24, 1915, were indeed genocide, and that a congressional
resolution saying as much was in order.
Those involved in the Boston decision and those who supported it were
not poorly informed, nor did they take the challenges of Jewish and
Israeli security lightly. It would also be inaccurate to say, as Mr.
Foxman did shortly thereafter, that we were prioritizing an Armenian
cause above concern for Turkish Jews or Israel or that our judgment
was clouded by assimilation and intermarriage, charges he also made
via the media. In fact the decision to acknowledge the Armenian
genocide was a matter governed by the facts as well as they could be
understood. I believe that the frustration Mr. Foxman directed at the
Boston Jewish community was based on its refusal to defer to his
judgment and the commitments he may have made on the community's
behalf.
Since the episode in Boston, some of the most prominent national
Jewish organizations have followed suit in one way or another, using
the word genocide with varying degrees of sincerity and candor and
virtually no follow-through. Nevertheless, the dystopia our leaders
had long forecast if the taboo were to be broken has not come to pass.
And the treasured Israeli alliance with Turkey turned out to be weaker
than imagined, falling apart over the Gaza War in 2014. If Jews in
Turkey are less safe now than they were a few years ago, it is not
because some of us are using the "g-word."
Unfortunately, there is still not a perceptible increase in direct
Jewish engagement with Armenian Americans in the places where we both
live and contribute to the vibrancy of pluralism and democracy. I am
not sure there is even much greater awareness of the specific facts of
the genocide itself. What explains the slow growth in outreach to the
Armenian American community to build on the cautious statements that
national leaders have finally begun to make? If it is simply a lack of
leadership then the job again falls to the community to demand the
agenda it wants.
The American Jewish community would be wise to retire two morally and
strategically bankrupt imperatives that have contributed mightily to
this morass.
The first of these feckless imperatives is that anything said to be
necessary for Israel's safety and Jewish security can be justified
without rigorous and transparent analysis. The days of deference to
the individual judgments of national leaders on issues of strategic
importance have to end, no matter how experienced those leaders are.
Recent examples of the new landscape where individuals and communities
make up their own minds and adopt a wide array of opinions are
Israel's 2014 Operation Protective Edge in Gaza and the recent Israeli
elections.
A second imperative we must fully let go of is that the Holocaust has
to be insulated from comparison and even commemoration alongside other
catastrophic crimes like the Armenian genocide. As media outlets have
reported, the Anti-Defamation League has for decades had a policy
prohibiting its regional offices from participating in
Holocaust-related events jointly with organizations focused on the
Armenian genocide. If the ban has been lifted, there is certainly no
evidence of the organization moving beyond it today. Holocaust museums
and genocide-studies programs have crossed this bridge already. They
have rigorous methods for managing the analysis responsibly, and there
is no sign of damage to any of the important histories that need to be
remembered.
The occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide calls
for a new commitment by the American Jewish community to acknowledge
the experience of that catastrophe for Armenians and to validate the
further destruction caused by its denial. Jewish organizations should
also go further and indicate support for Armenian efforts to seek
reparations and the recovery of stolen property, not unlike our
community has pursued in the wake of the Holocaust. This should also
be the moment we commit at the local level to deeper engagement with
Armenian Americans. The burden is on us to reach out with sincerity
and patience. We can start by listening to their story.
http://tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/190274/jewish-organizations-armenian-genocide