Witness Statement of Robert Horenstein I, ROBERT HORENSTEIN of 6651 SW Capitol Highway, Portland, Oregon, 97219 WILL SAY as follows 1. I am employed by the Jewish Federation of Portland ("Jewish Federation") as the Director of Community Relations. The function of the Jewish Federation Community Relations Committee is to serve as an advisory and co-ordinating body for public affairs advocacy for the Jewish community. One of the activities of the Jewish Federation is to monitor anti-Semitic and racist activity in Oregon, in order for the Jewish community and others to be informed about, and there fore protected against, hate organisations and their practices. 2. The Coalition for Human Dignity ("CHD") (an organisation dedicated to monitoring and opposing right-wing attacks on civil and human rights) had received a letter, dated 22 September 1994, from the Institute for Historical Review promoting an event to be held in Portland on the evening of 10 October 1994, at which the Holocaust denier David Irving would give a talk (please see Appendix, page 1). The letter states that "For reasons of security, the exact site will be announced later", but provides two telephone numbers for interested parties to contact for more information. 3. The CHD prepared and circulated a paper to like minded organisations setting out the research that they had done into Mr Irving and his connections with the far right (please see Appendix, pages 2-4). 4. Almost a year later, the Jewish Federation received word that Mr Irving was to visit the region again. This meeting was to take place in Clark County and was again organised by the fictitious "Northwest Historical Society", but this time with the assistance of another well-known neo-Nazi sympathiser, Buck Boomhower (please see Appendix, page 5). 5. Mr Boomhower is a public champion of Mr Irving's and has written an article entitled "An argument with history", in defence of Mr Irving's and his ideology (please see Appendix, page 6). The contents of this statement are true to the best of my knowledge and belief Dated Robert Horenstein

See also Oregonian (October 16, 1992)
Affidavits of Jonathan Mozzochi (CHD), disallowed by High Court

Mr Robert Horenstein is one of the touchier representatives of his community. When the American phone giant AT&T was discovered in 1997 to have issued internal guidelines on the commercial pitfalls of selling to six different community groups, including Asians and Jews, ("Think of Korean Americans as the Asian Italians. Hard-working Jewish Americans often associate a monetary value with their complaints. Some Middle Eastern customers will not remember they are bound by a contract") and offered advice to accept coffee or tea when offered by Japanese customers but not to waste Jewish American customers' time as they would be likely to charge for it, Horenstein was riled.

According to the local newspaper The Oregonian, September 24, 1997, he complained that the AT&T memo seemed to imply that Jews were "cheap." Hard-to-please Horenstein even objected to the memo's seemingly innocuous comments, calling Jewish Americans hard-working, for example; he argued that positive generalizations laid the groundwork for negative ones. "If you can say all Jews are hard-working, what's to stop you from saying all Jews are cheap or whatever?" he said. "I think most people would find this offensive."

[APPENDIX]

 

INSTITUTE FOR HISTORICAL REVIEW
P.O. Box 2739 • Newport Beach, California • 92659

Thursday, 22 September 1994

Dear Journal subscriber:

This special mailing is to let you know that David Irving will be speaking in your area (this is not an IHR event, but we are helping promote it). Irving informs us that this may be his only speaking tour in the United States for the next couple years. It is also worth remembering that country after country is moving to have him banned, and there is no telling what might happen in the future, even here in this country. If you want to see him, now is the time.

Irving is scheduled to speak:

Monday, October 10,7:30 p.m..
East Portland, Oregon

For reasons of security, the exact site will be announced later. For more information, please call:

(503) 236.6613
or
(503) 226-0809

Irving will have a selection of his books for sale, and will autograph any purchases.