To the editor:
Andrea Folds’ article (“Columbia Right to Life hosts speaker on abortion,” Nov. 17, 2009) left us feeling confused and disappointed in Columbia Right to Life’s recent event, “Echoes of the Holocaust.”
No matter where one may stand politically on the issue of abortion, the event presented an offensive and insensitive framework through which to examine the issue. As a student group, Hillel welcomes discussion and plurality of opinion on all issues, even those as polarizing as abortion. However, speaker Stephanie Gray’s likening of abortion to Holocaust genocide, comparing stem cell research to Nazi medical experimentation on concentration camp prisoners, and likening procedures at abortion clinics to the mass killings that took place at Auschwitz overstepped the line of respectful discussion and unnecessarily hurt many students within the Jewish community and beyond.
We realize that no one group or person reserves the right to reference the Holocaust in discourse. As a Jewish student group, we struggle with the notion of Holocaust comparison and if or when drawing comparisons is appropriate. In this instance, however, the boundary is quite clear. Comparing abortion, a politically contested issue with a wide range of opinion, to the recognized, calculated, systematic genocide of specific peoples carried out during the Holocaust is simply inappropriate. Gray did not need to draw on the Holocaust to make her point—she did that simply as an inflammatory, eye-catching tactic, one which then horribly cheapened the sincere pain people feel when reflecting on the Holocaust.
One would have hoped that before bringing in this speaker, Columbia Right to Life would have consulted with Hillel or any other groups particularly affected by the atrocities of the Holocaust to gauge whether this event might prove offensive and diminish the respect owed to commemorating the atrocity. Instead, Columbia Right to Life chose to take the more provocative route for the sake of being provocative and with the consequence of causing serious offense. Next time, we hope they plan their events with a bit more sensitivity.
Sarah Brafman, CC ’10
President of Columbia/Barnard Hillel
Nov. 18, 2009
The views expressed in this letter represent those of the Hillel executive board.
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