Henry Herskovitz' Report on Beth Israel vigil 08-12-23

Does the First Amendment include a duty to listen?

Part of our First Amendment reads “Congress shall make no law … prohibiting … the right … to petition the Government for a redress of grievances”. But what if the Government refuses to listen? On August 7 this writer addressed the Government, specifically the Ann Arbor City Council, to shed some light on the mandated Holocaust education our students receive. But as the screenshot below shows, fully six members of this ten-member body left the room, rather than hear the words of Elie Wiesel. One member – Councilwoman Linh Song - turned her back during the presentation. Text of our presentation follows signature.

 

 (Fast forward to 31:09)

Just because we think we have something to say doesn’t mean that Mr. Average Citizen needs to listen, but when people who are paid to represent “the Government”, maybe they should be required to listen when their citizenry is petitioning them for a redress of grievances. Especially considering they are being paid in part by our own tax dollars. Fortunately for these government workers, Witness for Peace does not have the funds of a Marvin Gerber or Henry Brysk to take these slackers to court.

Comments from Council

Councilwoman Lisa Disch seems to scold this writer in her comments following Public Commentary, but the sound quality appears insufficient for us to transcribe her words correctly. Fast forward to 52:55 to hear what she has to say. And Linh Song, speaking right after Ms. Disch, vows to contribute $1,000 of her own money to Jewish Family Services every time a Holocaust revisionist dares address City Council with remarks that, as yet, remain unchallenged. Her words: “And I just want to, I will continue with my pledge every time a Holocaust Denier comes and gives public comments here, to give a thousand dollars. I'm happy to give that donation to an organization I love and to a community that still struggles with hate here.”

Note to Ms. Song: if the Jewish community struggles with hate, maybe they should challenge their own leaders when they advocate hatred. Again, here’s Elie Wiesel: “Every Jew, somewhere in his being, should set apart a zone of hate — healthy, virile hate — for what the German personifies and for what persists in the German.”

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Henry Herskovitz
Witness for Peace
216 Palestinians killed this year by “Israel”
ALL SO THAT JEWS CAN HAVE A “HOMELAND”


Address to City Council August 7, 2023

Good evening,

Sometimes it doesn’t take a revisionist to enlighten us about the exaggerations we find in the Holocaust narrative. Often the enlightenment comes at the hands of the Holocaust traditionalists themselves. Recommended reading from the Ann Arbor Public Schools Holocaust curriculum is the well-known novel Night, written by the famous Elie Wiesel. On page 32, he writes:

"Not far from us, flames, huge flames, were rising from a ditch. Something was being burned there. A truck drew close and unloaded its hold: small children. Babies! Yes, I did see this, with my own eyes ... children thrown into the flames. (Is it any wonder that ever since then, sleep tends to elude me?)"

And in another book from the same author – “The Jews of Silence”, he writes about the alleged massacre of 33,000 Jews at Babi Yar in the Ukraine. From p. 48 we read: “Eyewitnesses say that for months after the killings, the ground continued to spurt geysers of blood.”

Without supporting evidence, Wiesel wants us to believe that blood spurted out of the ground in geyser-like fashion for months, when no one has ever seen such an occurrence.

Yet in a third book, Legends of our time, Wiesel comes clean. In the introduction he writes about a conversation with the local rabbi:

"'What are you writing?' the Rebbe asked. "Stories", I said. He wanted to know what kind of stories: true stories. "About people you knew?" Yes, about people I might have known. "About things that happened?" Yes, about things that happened or could have happened. "But they did not?" No, not all of them  did. In fact, some were invented from almost the beginning to almost the end. The Rebbe leaned forward as if to measure me up and said with more sorrow than anger: "That means you are writing lies!" I did not answer immediately. The scolded child within me had nothing to say in his defense. Yet, I had to justify myself: "Things are not that simple, Rebbe. Some events do take place but are not true; others are - although they never occurred."

What will the reaction of Ann Arbor students be, when they read of such an admission?

Thank you