Tony Judt’s seminal history of modern Europe – Postwar – was released last month in German: Geschichte Europas von 1945 bis zur Gegenwart. Now we learn that Professor Judt – whose family was ravaged by the holocaust – was prevented from speaking last week at the Polish consulate in New York by the Israel lobby in the US:
"Two major American Jewish organizations helped block a prominent New York University historian from speaking at the Polish consulate here last week, saying the academic was too critical of Israel and American Jewry.
The historian, Tony Judt, is Jewish and directs New York University’s Remarque Institute, which promotes the study of Europe. Judt was scheduled to talk Oct. 4 to a nonprofit organization that rents space from the consulate. Judt’s subject was the Israel lobby in the United States, and he planned to argue that this lobby has often stifled honest debate.
An hour before Judt was to arrive, the Polish Consul General Krzysztof Kasprzyk canceled the talk. He said the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee had called and he quickly concluded Judt was too controversial."
Of course, this type of censorship makes Prof. Judt’s point much more forcefully than his speech might have. More on the underlying controversy over the American Israel lobby here. The irony of this most recent action by the lobby was noted succinctly by blogger M.J. Rosenberg:
"Suffice it to say that Prof. Judt could give his speech, without incident, in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. "
0 comment
Interesting!
What I don’t understand: If that pressure is so devastating that he cancels a talk in the last minute, then this pressure must be strong. However, if the pressure is strong, then he should be too intimidated to give such outspoken interviews about it and criticize the Jewish groups for basically constricting his sovereignty because, the Wash Post should be seen as embarrassing by the Jewish groups and the Polish governement.
Joerg,
I can only guess that the Polish consulate is particularly sensitive to any hint of anti-Semitism.
Judt is in a unique position. He commands considerable respecte among neoliberal and neocon academics for his scholarship and long-time association with pro-American intellectuals in France. But at the same time he is prepared to tell the truth about Israel’s mistaken foreign policy priorities and their impact on world peace. The NYU professor is quickly becoming a hero to a Left he has been criticising his entire career, and the pro-Israeli lobby has no way to combat him other besides naked censorship.