Curbing free speech
Is that an oxymoron? Well, we all know that you can’t shout “fire!” in a movie theater. But where are the bounds beyond that obvious standard?
You decide. Here’s an interesting story in the Washington Post about a scheduled talk that got cancelled because it was potentially offensive.
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.
But before he could make that argument, they…uh…stifled his speech.
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.
Was it a strong-arm warning, or a reasonable request?
“The phone calls were very elegant but may be interpreted as exercising a delicate pressure,” Kasprzyk said. “That’s obvious — we are adults and our IQs are high enough to understand that.”
Oh, enough said. Or not…
Judt, who was born and raised in England and lost much of his family in the Holocaust, took strong exception to the cancellation of his speech. He noted that he was forced to cancel another speech later this month at Manhattan College in the Bronx after a different Jewish group had complained. Other prominent academics have described encountering such problems, in some cases more severe, stretching over the past three decades.
The pattern, Judt says, is unmistakable and chilling.
“This is serious and frightening, and only in America — not in Israel — is this a problem,” he said. “These are Jewish organizations that believe they should keep people who disagree with them on the Middle East away from anyone who might listen.”
And what do the leaders of these organizations say?
The leaders of the Jewish organizations denied asking the consulate to block Judt’s speech and accused the professor of retailing “wild conspiracy theories” about their roles. But they applauded the consulate for rescinding Judt’s invitation.
“I think they made the right decision,” said Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League…David A. Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Congress, took a similar view. “I never asked for a particular action; I was calling as a friend of Poland,” Harris said. “The message of that evening was going to be entirely contrary to the entire spirit of Polish foreign policy.”
Why is it that anti-Christian talks, tirades or rants make it to the stages and air waves on a regular basis without this kind of conscientiousness? Do you know of any person or group that has reconsidered an anti-Christian talk, or even talk critical of Christianity, because of concern raised by Christian leaders? Please let me know if you do.
