Washington
Jewish Week
(Washington,
DC)
16 July 1998 Tax
aid for Holocaust denial draws
protest by
Julia Strongwater
Jewish
Telegraphic AgencyNEW
YORK
-- The Anti-Defamation
League
has urged the Internal Revenue Service to
rescind its recent decision to give
tax-exempt status to a group that promotes
Holo-caust denial. The
Institute
for Historical
Review
and its parent organization, Legion for
Survival of Freedom, Inc., were granted
5O1(c)(3) status, a form of tax exemption
given to nonprofit groups. The
institute is widely known for engaging in
Holocaust-denial activities, from
publishing materials to placing ads in
campus newspapers. |
"It
is very troubling to us that a group whose
identity centers on refuting the Holocaust
should receive tax-exempt status,"
Elizabeth Coleman, the ADL's civil
rights division director, wrote last month
in a letter to IRS Commissioner Charles
Rossotti. "Far
from being an educational or
public-service organization committed to
exploring historical events, IHR is the
major center far Holocaust-denial
propaganda and antisemitic vitriol," wrote
Coleman. "We question the decision
granting this group the benefits afforded
to legitimate nonprofit educational
institutions, and urge you to
reconsider." The
ADL is awaiting a response from the IRS.
Officials in Rossotti's office would not
comment on the matter.
 |
This site
has no connection with the IHR but we
are concerned about free speech.
There is NO reason to suppose that the
Internal Revenue Service reached its
decision in the IHR's favour without
giving it the most intense consideration.
 This
little episode shows the importance that
the multi-million dollar Anti-Defamation
League and the other traditional enemies
of free speech attach to crushing their
opponents financially rather than in fair
debate -- and, conversely, to the
importance of their own "tax exempt"
status which perhaps should now come under
renewed scrutiny. |
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