Published: 19 November 2020
Last updated: 4 March 2024
AUSTRALIA’S MOST SENIOR ZIONIST LEADER, Jeremy Leibler, has added his condemnation to that by leading Jewish academics against the proposed appointment of ex-Israeli minister Effi Eitam to the post of Yad Vashem chair.
The nomination has attracted criticism both within Israel and among diaspora Jews, who fear the former leader of the National Religious Party – who has a history of hateful comments towards Arabs – would damage the credibility of Yad Vashem, and the field of Holocaust education.
On Thursday, the President of the Zionist Federation of Australia, Jeremy Leibler, said he was deeply concerned about Eitam’s nomination to the position. “No act that politicises or compromises the mission of Yad Vashem should be taken,” he told The Jewish Independent.
“Eitam’s racist calls ‘to remove the Israeli Arabs from the [Israeli] political system’ and to ‘expel most of the Judea and Samaria Arabs’—among other statements—are completely unacceptable, especially for anyone who wants to hold public office in Israel.
“This is even more important in an institution like Yad Vashem, which memorialises and warns against not just the systematic murder of six million Jews, but also the stripping of Jewish civil rights that preceded this, and the mass expulsions of Jewish populations from across Europe.”
Eitam’s racist calls ‘to remove the Israeli Arabs from the [Israeli] political system’ and to ‘expel most of the Judea and Samaria Arabs’ are completely unacceptable - Jeremy Leibler
Leibler’s criticism comes as prominent Jewish Australian historians and educators, including Emeritus professors Suzanne Rutland and Konrad Kwiet, and Dr Avril Alba, have signed an international petition calling on Israel’s government not to appoint Eitam.
The petition – signed by high-profile academics including Deborah Lipstadt and Holocaust survivors – continues to gain supporters internationally.
Emeritus Professor Suzanne Rutland of Sydney University was one of several Australian Jewish and Holocaust history scholars to sign the petition in recent days. She said she was “extremely distressed” by the prospect of Eitam’s appointment.
“I believe strongly that to maintain the relevance of Holocaust education going forward, it is important to focus on the broader, universal, human rights messages – to fight racism, bigotry, prejudice and intolerance.”
Rutland said Yad Vashem needed to be able to model the concepts of equality and acceptance of “the Other.”
Yad Vashem needs to be able to model the concepts of equality and acceptance of 'the Other.' The appointment of Effi Eitam will do the opposite, and thereby degrade Yad Vashem in the eyes of the world - Suzanne Rutland
“Sadly, the appointment of Effi Eitam will do the opposite, and thereby degrade Yad Vashem in the eyes of the world. It will also feed into the anti-Israel narrative so prevalent in today’s universities and intellectual world and further undermine the case for Israel.”
Another signatory, Professor Andrew Jakubowicz of the University of Technology Sydney, was concerned about the prospect of Yad Vashem becoming an “ideological battering ram directly tied to the right-wing of Israeli politics”.
“It’s extremely dangerous for the whole narrative of the Shoah because Yad Vashem stands as the key institution that tries to guarantee the truth of the Shoah at a time when many would deny it, and when anti-Semitism around the world has accelerated.”
“It’s important that whoever runs that organisation stands with the principles of truth and scholarship and not with principles associated with any particular political party,” he said.
Jakubowicz, a sociologist whose research focusses on multiculturalism and race relations, said Yad Vashem needed apolitical leadership.
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“I’m a strong supporter of Yad Vashem, as long as it retains its integrity and its organisational capacity to tell truth, and I don’t believe that a significant political player who has his own history of seeing the world through a particular lens, should be allowed to place that lens across the eyes of the organisation.”
One of Australia’s leading Holocaust scholars, Emeritus Professor Konrad Kwiet of Macquarie University, also added his name to the petition. So too have Dr Avril Alba, University of Sydney (and former Education Director of the Sydney Jewish Museum), Daniel Kupfert Heller from the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation, Monash University, and members of the Australian Society of Polish Jews & Their Descendants.
Melbourne-based Gandel Philanthropy, a long-time financial benefactor of Yad Vashem, did not respond to an approach for comment from The Jewish Independent.
Australia’s Jewish Holocaust Centre, located in Melbourne, declined to comment on the appointment and petition, saying it was “best for academics to make comment on”.
The xenophobic comments he has made, some even deploying the language of ethnic cleansing, should disqualify him from leading an internationally respected institution - Avril Alba
As of Wednesday evening (Australian time) Eitam’s candidacy was approved by an internal government committee and will now go to Cabinet for final approval.
Meanwhile, the man who nominated Eitam for the role, Higher Education Minister Ze’ev Elkin, has rejected complaints about politicisation of Yad Vashem, pointing to senior posts previously held by “left-wing politicians”.
But Dr Avril Alba told The Jewish Independent: “contrary to assertions by Minister Elkin, the issue as to whether Eitam is qualified to undertake the leadership of Yad Vashem is not dependent on whether he sits on the right or left of the Israeli political spectrum.”
“Rather, it is xenophobic comments he has made, some even deploying the language of ethnic cleansing, that should disqualify him from leading an internationally respected institution that aims to harness the history of the Holocaust to warn against bigotry and racial persecution of all peoples.”
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Image: Emeritus Professor Suzanne Rutland (left), ZFA President Jeremy Leibler and Dr Avril Alba
