DETROIT
MICHAEL WEISS
Special to The Jewish News
Ann Arbor — The Universi-
ty of Michigan erupted into
controversy last week over the
Michigan Daily's publication
of a full-page advertisement
that claimed the Holocaust
never existed.
Outraged students pro-
tested on Friday both the con-
tent of the ad and the Daily's
decision to run it.
The ad, entitled "The,
Holocaust Controversy: The
Case for Open Debate" and
paid for by Bradley R. Smith
of the California-based "Com-
mittee for Open Debate on
the Holocaust," claimed that
"the figure of 6 million
Jewish deaths (in the
Holocaust) is an irresponsible
exaggeration," that "no ex-
ecution gas chambers existed
in any camp in Europe which
was under German control,"
and that the "myth" of the
Holocaust was created by
"Zionist organizations" who
were deeply involved in "pro-
"On the back page
they admit it was a
mistake to print it,
and on the front
page they defend
it with the First
Amendment."
mulgating anti-German hate
propaganda" in the years im-
mediately following World
War II.
More than 300 people
gathered in the rain on the
Diag (the campus center) on
Friday for a hastily-organized
rally in protest of the Daily's
publication of the ad.
"A lot of people who don't
usually get involved in
Jewish student organizations
and in political action came
out for the rally," said Uri Lev,
a student at U-M. "Emo-
tionally it was really impor-
tant for a lot of people to come
together at a time like this."
"We want everyone to know
that if you were hurt by this,
you are not alone. If you were
shocked and made angry by
this, you are not alone," said
Ken Goldstein, a political
science graduate student who
helped organize the rally.
Speakers at the rally refus-
ed to address specific points
raised by Mr. Smith in the ad,
arguing that to be drawn in-
to a debate on whether the
Holocaust occurred would
lend credibility to the
outrageous charges.
.
14
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1991
"If we start wrestling with
this skunk, we're all going to
get smelly," said Mr. Golds-
tein. "But if we ignore it, the
skunk can turn into a
monster!'
History Professor Todd
Endelman, one of the
speakers at the rally, discuss-
ed Holocaust revisionism in
the context of historical and
contemporary anti-Semitism.
"Bradley Smith is part of a
network of right-wing, racist
extremists in this country
and in France, Germany and
England," said Professor
Endelman. "They are not
scholars. They are not profes-
sional historians or resear-
chers. They have no interest
in history. Their only goal is
to sow hatred of the Jews."
Professor Endelman explain-
ed that Smith was formerly a
spokesman for the Institute
for Historical Review, another
California-based group of
Holocaust revisionists, and
that he has links with the
Washington, D.C.-based Liber-
ty Lobby, a white-supremacist
group. Among the publica-
tions of the Liberty Lobby
(which also operates as The
Noontide Press) are the "Pro-
tocols of the Elders of Zion,"
a Czarist anti-Semitic docu-
ment used by several genera-
tions of anti-Semites, in-
cluding the Nazi propaganda
machine in the 1930s and
1940s, said Professor
Endelman.
These "professional anti-
Semites," he said, have a
three-fold political agenda.
"First, they seek to find
new, sanitized ways of ex-
pressing old anti-Jewish and
anti-black theories!' said Pro-
fessor Endelman, citing the
revisionists' use of "code
words" like "Zionists,"
"establishment historians"
and "thought police" in place
of "Jews."
"Second, they desire to
rehabilitate the reputation of
the Nazi party and Adolf
Hitler. They perceive the
Nazis primarily as an anti-
Communist party, and believe
the United States fought on
the wrong side in the war," he
said.
"Third, they seek to under-
mine the legitimacy of the
Jewish state," said Professor
Endelman. "It is not a ques-
tion for them of what the
borders of Israel should be, or
what its policies should be.
They do not-want there to be
any Jewish state, anywhere!'
In an announcement on the
back page of Friday's paper,
Daily business staffers
Photo: by Sharon Musher
Anti-Semitic Ad
Sparks Controversy
U-M students gather on the Diag to protest Daily ad.
apologized for running the ad
and claimed that "an error in
the ad placement process"
resulted in its accidental
publication.
"I have the ultimate
authority for deciding which
ads are acceptable and which
are not," said Beth Warber,
the Daily's business manager.
"Due to a mix-up in produc-
tion, this ad never came
across my desk for approval.
I first saw it at 11 a.m. on the
day it ran. Had I seen it
before we went to press, it
would never have appeared in
the paper."
In an announcement on the
front page of Friday's paper,
however, Daily editorial staf-
fers defended the publication
of the ad on the grounds that
"as a newspaper committed to
upholding the principles of
the First Amendment and the
unrestricted exchange of
ideas, we cannot justifiably
condone the censorship of un-
popular views from our pages
merely because they are of-
fensive, or because we
disagree with them!"
Many students and faculty
were angered by what they
perceived as a mixed message
coming from the Daily's two
announcements.
"Frankly,' after looking at
today's Daily, I'm even more
confused than I was yester-
day," said Mr. Goldstein at
Friday's rally. "On the back
page they admit it was a
mistake to print it, and on the
front page they defend it with
the First Amendment.
"But the First Amendment
has nothing to do with this.
The First Amendment doesn't
say that if there is in-
competence at the Daily, then
the staffers can cloak
themselves in the Constitu-
tion and avoid responsibility
for what they print," said
Mr. Goldstein.
"What is infuriating about
the Daily's response is its
characterization of Holocaust
revisionism as 'unpopular
views' that are 'merely . . . of-
fensive,' " said Joseph
Kohane, director of the cam-
pus Wnai B'rith Hillel
Foundation.
"These claims are not
`merely' anything. They are
lies," said Mr. Kohane. "The
revisionists are in a direct
line of Jew-haters going back
hundreds of years. The Nazi
SS believed that if they coni-
mitted a crime monstrous
enough, no one in their right
minds would believe it. The
revisionists have exactly the
same thing in mind!'
Andy Gottesman, the Daily
editor-in-chief, took pains to
explain that the Daily is
divided into two separate
departments, business and
editorial, and that each
department made a different
response.
"I'm sorry that the people
at the rally didn't understand
that. Perhaps we weren't
clear enough," he said. "I
realize it's difficult for people
to believe this, but nobody at
the paper ever made a con-
scious decision to run the ad.
It just slipped through the
cracks and got printed
without ever being read by
the business staffers!'
But, Mr. Gottesman said,
"While it was not my decision
to print or reject the ad, if it
had been my decision I would
not have rejected it, on First
Amendment grounds!"
"Regardless of what the
editorial staff feels, the
business staff does not feel
the ad should have been run,
and should it have come
across my desk it would not
have run," said Ms. Warber.
"I think it's apparent that
people were outraged by this
ad, and I think the large tur-
nout at the rally demon-
strates that we're not going to
stand for it!" said Barry
Hirsch, a student who attend-
ed Friday's protest. "People
get relaxed about anti-
Semitism, and it isn't until
something like this happens
that it resurfaces and re-
ignites people's fears!'
❑
State Budget Impact
. Worries Area Agencies
ALAN HITSKY
Associate Editor
L
ocal Jewish organiza-
tions which have
received grants from
the State of Michigan in the
past are expecting little help
from the state this year.
The announcement last
week that the Holocaust
Memorial Center will lose
its $100,000 state grant from
its $600,000 annual budget
did not surprise other Jew-
ish organizations. Those
groups which have state con-
tracts, not grants — such as
Jewish Vocational Service
and JARC (Jewish Associ-
ation for Residential Care
for Persons With Develop-
mental Disabilities) — are
expecting a 2.5 percent in-
crease. But no one believes
that glimmer of hope offsets
state budget cuts in health
and welfare services which
are affecting clients of the
agencies.
"We have sufficient
resources to run our pro-
grams," said Albert Ascher,
executive director of JVS.
"But we have nothing for
expansion, and the need for
expansion is there."
As an example, Mr. Ascher
cited JVS' adult day pro-
gram for persons with
disabilities. Persons who
must leave special education
programs — those reaching
age 26 — must now wait 10
years to get into an adult