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Letters They Wouldn't Publish
September 13, 2006
Letters to the Editor The New York Times letters@nytimes.com Dear Editor: Nicholas Kristof (Sept. 12) quotes former Pentagon official Dov Zakheim as claiming that "Iran doesn't treat its 20,000 Jews as wretchedly as its rhetoric would suggest." Relativizing the persecution of minorities in this manner can distort the reality of their suffering and the oppressive nature of the regime. Hitler's treatment of German Jews during the 1930s --prior to the Holocaust-- may not have been as wretched as Nazi rhetoric threatened, but that was not evidence of Nazi moderation. Or, to cite an example of a cause that Mr. Kristof has so eloquently championed, the enslavement of Sudanese blacks by Arab militias in years past was not as wretched as the mass murder they have more recently experienced, but that is no reason to understate the severity of those earlier phases of persecution. One should also be careful not to read too much into the fact that, as Mr. Kristof puts it, "Iran continues to be home to more Jews than any Middle Eastern country save Israel." There are many factors affecting the rate of emigration, and even in Nazi Germany, prior to the Holocaust, not all Jews sought to leave. As for the Iranian Jewish community --down from 80,000 before the 1979 Khomeini revolution to 20,000 today-- the U.S. government's "International Religious Freedom Report" for 2005 found that the possibility of Iranian Jews emigrating was hampered by the fact that Jews "often are denied the multiple-exit permits normally issued to other citizens. With the exception of certain business travelers, the authorities require Jews to obtain clearance and pay additional fees before each trip abroad. The Government appears concerned about the emigration of Jewish citizens and permission generally is not granted for all members of a Jewish family to travel outside the country at the same time." Sincerely, Rafael Medoff |
Letters: Compassion Fatigue on Darfur? Yes, Let's Be Candid About the Mideast Brandeis and the White Paper Iran and Germany Rescue Was Possible The Jews in Iran The Failure to Bomb Auschwitz Mel Gibson's Critics Jo Davidson: Sculptor and Activist Nazi War Criminals in Arab Countries Israel and Auschwitz William Safire and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion Suppressing Holocaust News Betty Friedan and the Nazis Civil Liberties, in Nazi Germany and the U.S. Paul McCloskey and the Deniers Holocaust Denial is Bigotry Not Just "Following Orders" Melvin Lasky and the Holocaust Saudi Arabian Holocaust-Denial Iranian Holocaust Denial Anti-Semitism in Jordan |
