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Sundown: Founder Disses Human Rights Watch

Plus fetal justice, and two kinds of Holocaust confusion

by
Hadara Graubart
October 20, 2009

• Robert Bernstein, founder of Human Rights Watch, turns against his creation for “issuing reports on the Israeli-Arab conflict that are helping those who wish to turn Israel into a pariah state” and hopes the organization will return “to its founding mission and the spirit of humility that animated it.” [NYT]
• An article on the Jewish take on abortion makes a leap of logic when it compares a fetus endangering a pregnant woman’s life to a murderer intentionally pursuing an innocent victim, but its heart is in the right place. [The Bible and Interpretation]
• A New Zealand gay dance party has been canceled due to outrage over its planned theme: Concentration Camp! “The whole idea was to concentrate on the word ‘camp,’” says one of the organizers. “It was not meant to have any pull on the Holocaust.” [Dominion Post]
• The trial of the alleged killer of a Wesleyan University student, Stephen Morgan, whose journals contained such sentiments as “I think it’s ok to kill Jews,” has been postponed to allow more evidence to be accrued. [WTNH]
• 25-year-old Holocaust denier Eric Hunt, who assaulted Elie Wiesel in 2007, is suing an 80-year-old Holocaust memoirist for “tormenting Gentiles and instilling hatred in Jews using such hideous lies.” [Boston Herald]

Hadara Graubart was formerly a writer and editor for Tablet Magazine.