February 14, 2017

The Honorable Bob Corker

Chairman
Senate Foreign Relations Committee
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Ben Cardin

Ranking Member
Senate Foreign Relations Committee
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Chairman Corker and Ranking Member Cardin:

As scholars specializing in study of the Holocaust, we strongly object to the way
President Donald Trumps nominee to be US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, has
distorted and misused events during that tragic period in order to advance his own
political goals.
In approaching the Holocaust, we believe that one must show scrupulous respect for the
facts as well as respect for the victims in all their humanity. We must also acknowledge
the unique nature of the tragedy we are describing. To do otherwise is to dilute the moral
and historical significance of this subject in human history.
We are especially troubled that Mr. Friedman has repeatedly compared fellow members
of the Jewish community whose views on Israel differ from his own to kapos or even
worse than kapos.
The historical record shows that kapos were Jews whom the Nazis forced, at pain of
death, to serve them in the concentration and extermination camps. These Jews faced
terrible dilemmas, but ultimately were made into unwilling tools of Nazi brutality. To
brand ones political opponents, members of ones own community, as kapos, merely for
engaging in legitimate debate, is historically indefensible and is a deeply disturbing
example of the abuse of the Holocaust and its victims for present political gain.
Mr. Friedman also trivialized the murder of six million Jews in the Holocaust in an effort
to discredit women who accused Donald Trump of sexual assault. At that time, he
declared, While the revelation of Mr. Trumps demeaning comments caught on tape
some 11 years ago brought him, as one would expect, widespread negative attention, The
New York Times ran with the story with all the journalistic integrity of the worst gossip
rag. If only the Times had reported on the Nazi death camps with the same fervor as its
failed last-minute attempt to conjure up alleged victims of Donald Trump, imagine how
many lives could have been saved.
Reporting on the Holocaust as it occurred is a complex historical question Friedman
oversimplified for the sake of politically expediency. Coverage of the serious allegations
against President Trump is wholly unrelated to the Holocaust. We reject the use of the
Holocaust to reinforce contemporary political messages and view this tactic as grossly
trivializing the historical reality of the death and concentration camps.
These examples show a callous disregard for history and for the suffering of the victims
of Nazism. As such, they are unbefitting of one who would become a diplomatic
representative of the United States and call into serious question his capacity to serve the
United States honorably and successfully in this role.
We hope that you will keep Mr. Friedmans disrespectful and politically cynical use of
the Holocaust in mind as you consider his nomination to serve as our ambassador to
Israel.

Sincerely,

** All signatories are signing as individual scholars and do not necessarily represent the
views of their institutions.

Dr. David Abraham, Professor of Law Emeritus, University of Miami

Lawrence Baron, Professor Emeritus of Modern Jewish History, San Diego State
University
Omer Bartov, John P. Birkelund Distinguished Professor of European History and
Professor of History and Professor of German Studies, Brown University
Elissa Bemporad, Associate Professor of History, CUNY
Waitman Beorn, Lecturer in the Corcoran Department of History , University of Virginia
Jeffrey Blutinger, Assistant Professor of History, Co-Director of Jewish Studies,
California State University, Long Beach
Kate Brackney, PhD Candidate, Department of History , Yale University
Laura Brade, PhD Candidate, Department of History , University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill
Deborah Dwork, Rose Professor of Holocaust History and Director of the Strassler
Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide
Studies, Clark University
Gabriel Finder, Associate Professor and Ida and Nathan Kolodiz Director of Jewish
Studies, University of Virginia
Jay Geller, Associate Professor of Modern Jewish Culture, Vanderbilt University
Idit Gil, Department of Sociology, Political Science and Communication, Faculty
Membe, The Open University of Israel
Matthew Girson, Associate Professor, Art, Media, and Design, DePaul University
Henry Greenspan, Lecturer, Social Theory and Practice, University of Michigan
Leonard Grob, Professor of Philosophy and Coordinator of Philosophy Studies, Fairleigh
Dickinson University
Veronica Grodzinski, Ph.D. Modern Jewish History / Art History / German History,
Alumna UCL London and Hebrew University, Jerusalem
Atina Grossmann, Professor, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Cooper Union,
New York
John-Paul Himka, Professor Emeritus of History, University of Alberta
Paul Jaskot, Professor of History of Art and Architecture, DePaul University
Marion Kaplan, Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies; Skirball Professor of Modern
Jewish History, New York University
Jeffrey Koerber, Assistant Professor of History, Chapman University
Lori Lefkovitz, Ruderman Professor and Director of Jewish Studies Program; Professor
of English; Director, Humanities Center, Northeastern University
Beth Lilach, Senior Director of Education and Community Affairs, Holocaust Memorial
and Tolerance Center
Deborah Lipstadt, Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies,
Emory University
Hubert Locke, John and Marguerite Corbally Professor of Public Service (Emeritus) ,
University of Washington
Jennifer Marlow, Adjunct Instructor in History, Gratz College
Andrew Mathis, Adjunct Professor, University of the Sciences
Jared McBride, PhD, History, UCLA
Joanna Michlic, Honorary Research Fellow, The UCL Centre for Collective Violence,
Holocaust and Genocide Studies, UCL, London
Ranen Omer-Sherman, Endowed Chair of Jewish Studies, University of Louisville
Avinoam Patt, Director of the Museum of Jewish Civilization, University of Hartford
Simone Schweber, Goodman Professor of Education and Jewish Studies, University of
Wisconsin-Madison
Joanna Sliwa, Archives Project Specialist, American Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee (JDC)
Ken Waltzer, Professor Emeritus, Social Relations and Policy, Michigan State U.
Leah Brown, Gallery Educator, Museum of Jewish Heritage