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Protesting Iran
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the U.N.
in September.
U.S., Israel, U.N., Jewish groups lash out at Iran's Holocaust deniers.
ewish groups protested
outside the Iranian
mission to the United
Nations on Monday as a con-
ference for Holocaust deniers
opened in Tehran.
A news conference in New
York was convened by the
Ad Hoc Leadership Coalition
for Justice, the Conference of
Presidents of Major American
Jewish Organizations and the
Jewish Community Relations
Council of New York.
The two-day Holocaust
denial conference, hosted by
Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, aimed at ques-
tioning the genocide without
what he called the obstacle of
supposed Western taboos.
Among those attending the
Tehran conference were for-
mer Ku Klux Klan member
David Duke and members of
the Neturei Karta, a right-wing
Orthodox Jewish sect that
opposes a Jewish state and often
allies itself with Israel's enemies.
At the New York protest, a rep-
j
resentative of U.S. Sen. Hillary
Clinton, D-N.Y., said the Tehran
conference was an "insult not
only to the memory of the mil-
lions of Jews who suffered and
died in the Shoah, but also to
the troops of the United States
and its allies who ... bore witness
to the reality of the Holocaust!'
Conference of Presidents
Executive Vice President
Malcolm Hoenlein said, "We
wanted to send a message to the
Iranians that this will not pass
quietly."
The Bush administration
issued a statement Tuesday
condemning the conference:
"While people around the world
mark International Human
Rights Week and renew the
solemn pledges of the Universal
Declaration on Human Rights,
which was drafted in the wake
of the atrocities of World War II,
the Iranian regime perversely
seeks to call the historical fact
of those atrocities into ques-
tion and provide a platform for
hatred.
"The gathering of Holocaust
deniers in Tehran is an affront
to the entire civilized world:' the
White House said, "as well as to
the traditional Iranian values of
tolerance and mutual respect ..."
The Israeli government issued
a strong condemnation: "The
Holocaust has been ridiculed in
Iran by a Holocaust Caricatures
Contest and Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who
continuously calls for the
destruction of Israel, has com-
pared Auschwitz to Israel, thus
falsifying past and present.
"The memory of the
Holocaust is essential to the
entire international community,
and not only to Israel and the
Jewish people.
"By denying the Holocaust, the
president of Iran seeks to cre-
ate legitimacy for his declared
intention to destroy Israel and
to spread his extremist doctrine,
which contravenes the values of
the free world. The world must
unite in clear word and deed in
order to give true meaning to the
words 'never again!
"The statements and acts by
the Iranian president are clearly
counter-factual and stand in
stark contradiction to history, as
endorsed unanimously by the
international community.
"By denying or questioning
the Holocaust, the most extreme
form of genocide to date, he
is challenging the essence of
the notion of universal human
rights, which was developed by
the international community
after — and because of — the
Shoah."
In Rome, the Vatican con-
demned Iran's Holocaust confer-
ence, saying the Nazi genocide
against the Jews was a historical
fact that served as a warning to
people to respect each others'
rights.
"The last century saw an
attempt to exterminate the
Jewish people, which led to the
killing of millions of Jews of all
social categories merely because
of the fact that they belonged to
that people the Vatican state-
ment said. "The Shoah was an
immense tragedy before which
one cannot remain indifferent."
United Nations Secretary
General Kofi Annan said, "Only
a year ago, the General Assembly
passed a resolution which rejects
any denial of the Holocaust as
an historical event, either in full
or part.
"Iran's further statements
regarding its wish for the
destruction of the State of Israel,
a member-state of the U.N.,
should be seen as threatening
another genocide.
"Such positions, which contra-
vene the U.N. Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of
the Crime of Genocide, adopted
by the General Assembly on Dec.
9, 1948, endanger civilization
and demand universal rejection.
"The Secretary General per-
sonally believes -that any attempt
to cast doubt on the reality of
this unique and undeniable hor-
ror must be firmly resisted by all
people of goodwill and of what-
ever faith!' Ill
Photo courtesy Yad Vashem/BPH lmages/JTA
Birthright Boost
Adelsons pledge $5 million to send 2,000 to Israel.
Jacob Berkman
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
New York
C
asino mogul Sheldon
Adelson and his wife,
Miriam, will donate an
estimated $5 million for 2,000
young adults to participate in a
Birthright Israel trip.
The individuals are among
the 20,000 to 40,000 who are on
the waiting list for Birthright,
which provides free 10-day trips
to Israel. The waiting list has
grown for the popular program
for college and post-college Jews
because of insufficient funding.
The development comes amid
speculation that Adelson is about
to start a foundation that would
give $200-250 million annually
to Jewish causes and Israel.
24
December t4 • 2006
Birthright officials would not
comment on the gift in advance,
but the organization announced
it at its banquet Monday evening.
Associates of Adelson said he is
contemplating underwriting the
entire Birthright Israel waiting
list, but that deal is not yet in its
final stages.
Adelson, the CEO of Las Vegas
Sands Corp., which owns and
operates the Sands and the
Venetian Casino Resort in Las
Vegas, seems to be position-
ing himself as one of the top
American Jewish philanthropists.
The son of a Boston cab driver,
Adelson, 74, first made the Forbes
Fortune 400 list in 1995 after
selling his computer trade-show
company Comdex for more than
$800 million. After buying the
Sands and taking it public, his
wealth skyrocketed.
Adelson, who is building a
ita
Vegas-like strip in Macao, China,
is estimated to make $1 million
an hour. His publicist said he
is expected to overtake Warren
Buffet as the second wealthiest
American sometime in the next
year.
In Octber, Adelson and his
wife, an Israeli-born doctor, gave
$25 million to the Yad Vashem
Holocaust Memorial in Israel.
Adelson is also building a state-
of-the-art, $25 million Jewish
community high school in Las
Vegas, where he lives. He has also
built a Chabad center there.
Adelson, a major funder
of Republican candidates, is
also involved with the Anti-
Defamation League and the
American Israel Public Affairs
Committee.
According to his longtime
friend Arthur Marshall, the
chairman of the Bank of Nevada,
Adelson is fulfilling
his dream by giving
to Jewish causes. "We
were at an AIPAC
meeting several years
ago at the Venetian:'
Marshall said.
"The room was
dark and quite filled,
and Sheldon leaned Sheldon and Miriam Adelson visited
over to me and said, October.
`Art, at the end of
my life, all of the money and
jointly funded by private philan-
hotels won't mean anything to
thropists, the Israeli government
me. The only thing that will
and the North American federa-
count is if I do something for
tion system.
my people!"
But as its popularity grew,
Birthright, which started
Birthright has struggled to find
providing free trips to Israel
enough funding for everyone
for Jews aged 18 to 25 in 2000,
who wanted to go.
sent its 100,000th participant
"We have to get a lot bigger
to the Jewish state this sum-
quicker if we hope to stem the
mer. Started by philanthropists
tide" of declining Jewish identity
Michael Steinhardt and Charles
in the diaspora, Steinhardt said
Bronfman, the program has been this summer.