4 May 2012

President Joseph E. Aoun
Northeastern University
716 Columbus Place
Boston, MA 02120

Dear President Aoun:

News is spreading regarding the activities of Northeastern University’s Holocaust Awareness Committee, which is apparently committed to using its funds and the University’s prestige in a shameless orgy of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel propaganda.

It leaves one wondering how a reputable university can allow such crass distortions of the truth by a coterie of virulent Israel-haters to pass for academic discussion. Differing views of Israel’s founding and of the lessons of the Holocaust failed to get a hearing. Is this an intelligent encounter of scholars or is it a political lynching mob?

The Committee is no doubt enjoying its cynical feat of using funds donated by Dr. Bernard Stotsky specifically for remembrance of the Holocaust to dismiss its reality.

I am a Holocaust Survivor deeply offended by this willful retreat from the objectivity one would expect from an institution of higher education. I am shocked that a major American university would allow itself to be manipulated by agitators in the service of rabid antisemitism.

At the very least, you need a new board to lead the Holocaust Awareness Committee into the post-Survivor era. Further, you owe a formal apology to the family of Dr. Stotsky and to Holocaust Survivors.

Sincerely,

Gerda Bikales

Copy: Provost Stephen Director