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Raphael Lemkin was a Jewish lawyer, scholar, and refugee who gave the world a vocabulary for one of humanity’s greatest evils. Out of the ashes of the Holocaust, in which nearly 50 members of his family were murdered, he coined the very word genocide to describe the Nazi attempt to annihilate the Jewish people and other targeted groups. His life’s work was to prevent such crimes, culminating in the United Nations Genocide Convention of 1948. For this, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 10 times.
Today, more than six decades after his death, Lemkin’s name is being dragged through the mud by a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit that claims to speak in his voice but does the opposite of what he believed in. The so-called Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Human Security has misappropriated his name and weaponized his legacy — not to fight genocide, but to smear Israel and its supporters.
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Only days after the atrocities of Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists butchered, raped, and kidnapped innocent civilians in Israel, the Lemkin Institute labeled Israel’s defensive response as genocide. Just five days later, it went so far as to call on the International Criminal Court to indict Israel’s prime minister for “the crime of genocide.” The organization’s posts have been viewed millions of times, magnifying this grotesque distortion across the globe.
Let us pause on the perversity here. The word genocide was created by a Jew, for the world to understand what happened to the Jewish people under Nazi Germany. Now, an institution cloaking itself in his name uses it to demonize the Jewish state itself. That is not advocacy. It is desecration.
Worse, the Institute has repeatedly defended or excused terrorist organizations. It condemned Israel for targeting Hamas leaders like Ismail Haniyeh, even portraying Hamas as part of a legitimate “response to European imperialism.” It has painted Hezbollah — another group sworn to Israel’s destruction — as a victim of “terrorism” at Israel’s hands. And in its rhetoric, the United States is no better. The Institute has accused America of complicity in “genocide” merely for standing by its ally.
This isn’t genocide prevention. This is antisemitism masquerading as human rights.
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The Lemkin family has had enough. Joseph Lemkin, a surviving relative and attorney, has joined with the European Jewish Association to demand action from Pennsylvania authorities. Their lawyers have filed a complaint to Gov. Josh Shapiro and the Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations, arguing that the Lemkin Institute is violating both state and federal law.
The list of potential violations is long: unauthorized use of name and likeness, post-mortem right of publicity, identity theft, false endorsement, cybersquatting, and violations of Pennsylvania’s charitable solicitation laws. The law is clear: you cannot hijack someone else’s name — much less one as revered as Raphael Lemkin’s — to raise money, peddle propaganda, and mislead the public.
The family’s outrage is not about silencing criticism of Israel. Anyone can debate Israeli policy. But no one has the right to falsely cloak their agenda in the name of Raphael Lemkin, a man who dedicated his life to protecting Jews, not condemning them. His legacy is being prostituted to fuel the very hatred he spent his life fighting.
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This moment matters far beyond one nonprofit. If Lemkin’s name can be stolen and twisted into a weapon against Israel, then any historic legacy is up for grabs. Imagine Martin Luther King Jr.’s name being used to justify racial hatred. Imagine Mother Teresa’s name promoting cruelty instead of compassion. The outrage would be immediate and universal. The Jewish people — and all who care about truth — deserve no less in defense of Raphael Lemkin.
Pennsylvania authorities must act. They should revoke the organization’s use of the Lemkin name and hold it accountable under the law. The stakes are not only legal but moral. At a time when antisemitism is rising at alarming levels, the last thing we need is for Lemkin’s legacy to be weaponized against the very people he sought to protect.
Words matter. Names matter. Legacies matter. To allow the Lemkin Institute to continue its campaign under this stolen banner is to allow history itself to be vandalized.
For the sake of justice, for the sake of truth, and for the sake of honoring Raphael Lemkin’s memory, this charade must end.
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