Jewish leaders attack PETA's Holocaust exhibit

[Guest guest]

Today's edition of the Jewish Bulletin of Northern California contains an

article in which Abraham Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation

League, and Leslie Kane, Executive Director of the Holocaust Center of

Northern California, express outrage at PETA's exhibit that compares

Holocaust victims with the animal victims of agribusiness. (That article

appears below.) As a member of the Jewish community I am usually proud to

support both of these groups but, this time, I cannot do so. I have written

a letter to the editor of the Bulletin (copied below after the Bulletin

article) disagreeing with those anti-PETA comments. I urge all members of

the Jewish community to join me in writing to the Bulletin

(letters), Abraham Foxman (webmaster), and Leslie Kane

(holocaustcenter) to express your opposition to their

sentiments.

 

 

ADL LABELS ANIMAL-RIGHTS EXHIBIT 'OFFENSIVE, ABHORRENT

 

by Alexandra J. Wall,

Bulletin Staff

 

" Taking chutzpah to new heights " is how the Anti-Defamation League

characterized an exhibit touring the Bay Area that compares the slaughter of

animals to the murder of Jews in the Holocaust.

 

The exhibit in question, called " Holocaust on Your Plate, " is sponsored by

PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. It has already been in

Berkeley and San Jose and will appear in Sacramento in March. Pictures of

how animals are treated in slaughterhouses are shown alongside those of

inmates in concentration camps.

 

" Outrageous, offensive and abhorrent " are a few more adjectives used by the

ADL to describe it.

 

" Just as the Nazis tried to 'dehumanize' Jews by forcing them to live in

filthy, crowded conditions, tearing children away from their mothers, and

killing them in assembly-line fashion, animals on today's factory farms are

stripped of all that is enjoyable and natural to them and treated as nothing

more than meat-, egg-, and milk-producing 'machines,' " the animal-rights

organization said in a press release.

 

According to the statement, hens have their beaks burned off to prevent them

from pecking at each other in overcrowded conditions, and pigs are castrated

without painkillers. That is " the very same mindset that made the Holocaust

possible -- that we can do anything we want to those we decide are

'different' or 'inferior' -- [and] is what allows us to commit atrocities

against animals every single day, " said Matt Prescott, PETA's youth outreach

coordinator in a statement. The PETA Web site includes the information that

members of Prescott's family were killed by the Nazis.

 

PETA uses a quote from the late Jewish writer and vegetarian Isaac Bashevis

Singer, that says, " In relation to animals, all people are Nazis; for them

it is an eternal Treblinka. "

 

Prescott said in a phone interview Tuesday that the campaign is funded by a

Jewish philanthropist who works for a well-known Holocaust educational

center, though he said she currently prefers to remain anonymous.

 

Furthermore, PETA's Web site claims that it sought approval for the campaign

from the Jewish community.

 

When asked which Jewish groups were contacted for their approval, Prescott

cited the ADL, but said that it refused.

 

That's a bit of an understatement, according to the ADL. Abraham Foxman,

national director of the ADL and himself a child survivor of the Holocaust,

said, " Rather than deepen our revulsion against what the Nazis did to the

Jews, the project will undermine the struggle to understand the Holocaust

and to find ways to make sure such things never happen again. "

 

Leslie Kane, director of the Holocaust Center of Northern California, said

that she would be very surprised if PETA had gained any support from Jewish

groups.

 

" This, to me, is reminiscent of the kinds of things going on since the

intifada started, " said Kane, " with those voices that are vehemently

anti-Semitic and anti-Israel. Many of these voices have tried to co-opt the

Holocaust and Holocaust imagery as justification for their cause, and

they've totally turned the meaning of the Holocaust on its ear. "

 

Prescott denied that PETA was deliberately trying to offend survivors, or

anyone for that matter. He agreed that the images in the exhibit were

shocking, but said treatment of animals was equally so.

 

" People turned their backs on the Jews in Europe and 12 million people were

murdered in the concentration camps, " said Prescott. " Twenty-eight billion

animals are breeding and being slaughtered per year. We are trying to teach

compassion for animals, and don't want to turn our backs on them. "

 

Neither Jonathan Bernstein, director of the Northern Pacific region of the

ADL, nor Kane of the Holocaust Center in San Francisco had received any

phone calls from people who were upset by the campaign. Both guessed it was

because PETA's effort had received no press coverage.

 

Bernstein said he discussed with the ADL's national office whether the group

should even respond to the campaign, since it might just draw further

attention to the exhibit.

 

" But this is really so outrageous that we decided that somebody needs to say

something, " he concluded.

 

 

[in response, I just sent the following letter to the Bulletin's Letters to

the Editor department and similar letters to Ms. Kane and Mr. Foxman:]

 

 

To the editor,

 

ADL National Director Abraham Foxman and the Holocaust Center of Northern

California's Leslie Kane are quoted in the Bulletin (2/28/03) as expressing

outrage at an exhibit by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)

that compares the Nazi's treatment of Holocaust victims with the plight of

animals raised for food. They have totally missed the point.

 

PETA is not comparing Jews to animals. It is comparing the unjust suffering

of humans to the unjust suffering of animals. It is regrettable that so

many people do not know or want to know that the animals they eat are raised

and treated in the most horrific ways imaginable, including dismemberment

while alive and conscious. A lack of compassion in the name of gluttony

should never be used as a justification for intentional cruelty.

 

Thousands of years ago the Jewish people turned to animal sacrifice in lieu

of the human sacrifice practiced by others. It is long past time for us to

make the next leap in compassion by going vegetarian. As Jewish vegetarian

author Isaac Beshevis Singer wrote: " How can we pray to God for mercy if we

ourselves have no mercy? " (New York Times, 9/14/77)

[Guest guest]

If memory serves me correct, didn't Dr Albert Schweizer, a holocaust

survivor himself, first made this same distinction that PETA is now

saying?

 

 

tony

 

 

 

On Friday, February 28, 2003, at 07:39 PM, Mr. Pete wrote:

 

> Today's edition of the Jewish Bulletin of Northern California contains

> an

> article in which Abraham Foxman, National Director of the

> Anti-Defamation

> League, and Leslie Kane, Executive Director of the Holocaust Center of

> Northern California, express outrage at PETA's exhibit that compares

> Holocaust victims with the animal victims of agribusiness. (That

> article

> appears below.) As a member of the Jewish community I am usually

> proud to

> support both of these groups but, this time, I cannot do so. I have

> written

> a letter to the editor of the Bulletin (copied below after the Bulletin

> article) disagreeing with those anti-PETA comments. I urge all

> members of

> the Jewish community to join me in writing to the Bulletin

> (letters), Abraham Foxman (webmaster), and Leslie Kane

> (holocaustcenter) to express your opposition to their

> sentiments.

>

>

> ADL LABELS ANIMAL-RIGHTS EXHIBIT 'OFFENSIVE, ABHORRENT

>

> by Alexandra J. Wall,

> Bulletin Staff

>

> " Taking chutzpah to new heights " is how the Anti-Defamation League

> characterized an exhibit touring the Bay Area that compares the

> slaughter of

> animals to the murder of Jews in the Holocaust.

>

> The exhibit in question, called " Holocaust on Your Plate, " is

> sponsored by

> PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. It has already been

> in

> Berkeley and San Jose and will appear in Sacramento in March. Pictures

> of

> how animals are treated in slaughterhouses are shown alongside those of

> inmates in concentration camps.

>

> " Outrageous, offensive and abhorrent " are a few more adjectives used

> by the

> ADL to describe it.

>

> " Just as the Nazis tried to 'dehumanize' Jews by forcing them to live

> in

> filthy, crowded conditions, tearing children away from their mothers,

> and

> killing them in assembly-line fashion, animals on today's factory

> farms are

> stripped of all that is enjoyable and natural to them and treated as

> nothing

> more than meat-, egg-, and milk-producing 'machines,' " the

> animal-rights

> organization said in a press release.

>

> According to the statement, hens have their beaks burned off to

> prevent them

> from pecking at each other in overcrowded conditions, and pigs are

> castrated

> without painkillers. That is " the very same mindset that made the

> Holocaust

> possible -- that we can do anything we want to those we decide are

> 'different' or 'inferior' -- [and] is what allows us to commit

> atrocities

> against animals every single day, " said Matt Prescott, PETA's youth

> outreach

> coordinator in a statement. The PETA Web site includes the information

> that

> members of Prescott's family were killed by the Nazis.

>

> PETA uses a quote from the late Jewish writer and vegetarian Isaac

> Bashevis

> Singer, that says, " In relation to animals, all people are Nazis; for

> them

> it is an eternal Treblinka. "

>

> Prescott said in a phone interview Tuesday that the campaign is funded

> by a

> Jewish philanthropist who works for a well-known Holocaust educational

> center, though he said she currently prefers to remain anonymous.

>

> Furthermore, PETA's Web site claims that it sought approval for the

> campaign

> from the Jewish community.

>

> When asked which Jewish groups were contacted for their approval,

> Prescott

> cited the ADL, but said that it refused.

>

> That's a bit of an understatement, according to the ADL. Abraham

> Foxman,

> national director of the ADL and himself a child survivor of the

> Holocaust,

> said, " Rather than deepen our revulsion against what the Nazis did to

> the

> Jews, the project will undermine the struggle to understand the

> Holocaust

> and to find ways to make sure such things never happen again. "

>

> Leslie Kane, director of the Holocaust Center of Northern California,

> said

> that she would be very surprised if PETA had gained any support from

> Jewish

> groups.

>

> " This, to me, is reminiscent of the kinds of things going on since the

> intifada started, " said Kane, " with those voices that are vehemently

> anti-Semitic and anti-Israel. Many of these voices have tried to

> co-opt the

> Holocaust and Holocaust imagery as justification for their cause, and

> they've totally turned the meaning of the Holocaust on its ear. "

>

> Prescott denied that PETA was deliberately trying to offend survivors,

> or

> anyone for that matter. He agreed that the images in the exhibit were

> shocking, but said treatment of animals was equally so.

>

> " People turned their backs on the Jews in Europe and 12 million people

> were

> murdered in the concentration camps, " said Prescott. " Twenty-eight

> billion

> animals are breeding and being slaughtered per year. We are trying to

> teach

> compassion for animals, and don't want to turn our backs on them. "

>

> Neither Jonathan Bernstein, director of the Northern Pacific region of

> the

> ADL, nor Kane of the Holocaust Center in San Francisco had received any

> phone calls from people who were upset by the campaign. Both guessed

> it was

> because PETA's effort had received no press coverage.

>

> Bernstein said he discussed with the ADL's national office whether the

> group

> should even respond to the campaign, since it might just draw further

> attention to the exhibit.

>

> " But this is really so outrageous that we decided that somebody needs

> to say

> something, " he concluded.

>

>

> [in response, I just sent the following letter to the Bulletin's

> Letters to

> the Editor department and similar letters to Ms. Kane and Mr. Foxman:]

>

>

> To the editor,

>

> ADL National Director Abraham Foxman and the Holocaust Center of

> Northern

> California's Leslie Kane are quoted in the Bulletin (2/28/03) as

> expressing

> outrage at an exhibit by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

> (PETA)

> that compares the Nazi's treatment of Holocaust victims with the

> plight of

> animals raised for food. They have totally missed the point.

>

> PETA is not comparing Jews to animals. It is comparing the unjust

> suffering

> of humans to the unjust suffering of animals. It is regrettable that

> so

> many people do not know or want to know that the animals they eat are

> raised

> and treated in the most horrific ways imaginable, including

> dismemberment

> while alive and conscious. A lack of compassion in the name of

> gluttony

> should never be used as a justification for intentional cruelty.

>

> Thousands of years ago the Jewish people turned to animal sacrifice in

> lieu

> of the human sacrifice practiced by others. It is long past time for

> us to

> make the next leap in compassion by going vegetarian. As Jewish

> vegetarian

> author Isaac Beshevis Singer wrote: " How can we pray to God for mercy

> if we

> ourselves have no mercy? " (New York Times, 9/14/77)

>

 

[Guest guest]

On Saturday, March 1, 2003, at 05:56 AM, Tony Martin wrote:

 

> If memory serves me correct, didn't Dr Albert Schweizer, a holocaust

> survivor himself, first made this same distinction that PETA is now

> saying?

 

 

It must have been Isaac Bashevis Singer I was thinking of, who is

mentioned on PETA's Holocaust web page. It does say that the exhibit is

funded by a Jewish philanthropist, so why attack PETA (the messenger)?