Kentucky Courier-Journal under fire for Holocaust Memorial day op-ed

A major Kentucky newspaper published an op-ed on National Holocaust Remembrance Day telling Jewish people that they “do not have a monopoly on persecution and atrocities.”

Even though the January 27 memorial focuses on the monumental tragedy of six million Jews killed by Nazi Germany during the Second World War, the Courier-Journal – part of the USA Today Network owned by parent company Gannet – lectured that the day be used to memorialize “every genocide” for the sake of inclusivity.

The op-ed, titled “Holocaust Remembrance Day is a time to remember more than one atrocity,” warned that fixating specifically on the Holocaust during such a memorial results in people “negating and trivializing the horrors of the past and the injustices of today.” 

It also made a point to remind readers “Hitler was just one of many dictators.”

The claims made in the piece were blasted on Twitter for being insensitive and for obscuring the memorial of those killed with progressives’ “general identity grievance.”

The op-ed, composed by the outlet’s five opinion contributors on Holocaust Remembrance Day, began with the declaration, “As one Louisville rabbi recently said, January 27 is a teachable moment to remember all the hate speech and all the violence that is perpetuated against religions, races and genders, all those acts committed in the past and those that continue to this day.”

The piece then made a much more controversial remark, stating, “Jews do not have a monopoly on persecution and atrocities.”

The rest of the piece amounted to a mini-lecture for people who focus solely on the Jewish people during the memorial. It suggested they’re keeping other races, religions and creeds down by doing so. 

The op-ed added, “For one group, for one person, to claim that the hate and violence towards them is more important than another’s, only encourages more acts of violence against others, including Black people, Asians, Hispanics, Muslims, LGBTQ+, trans-gender and Native Americans. This list is not all-inclusive.”

The opinion contributors continued, saying, “If we as a community only focus on one religion, only one event, we are then negating and trivializing the horrors of the past and the injustices of today.”

They added, “International Holocaust Day is not just a mantra about one Jewish holocaust, but about every genocide, every mass tyranny that is carried out upon any group based on skin color, religion, gender identity and ethnic background.”

The piece additionally commented, “Hitler was just one of many dictators. The list of tyrants, past and present, continues with the addition of names from around the globe today.” 

After continuing to assert the obvious, that there has been more than one evil person in history, the piece concluded with a call for readers to “be brave and protest violence against others and to recognize that hate speech grows into hate violence.”

Though Twitter users were not impressed nor inspired by this commentary. 

Jewish conservative and prominent Twitter user Noam Blum demolished the piece on the social media platform. He tweeted out an image of the article with the caption, “Brain addled progressives cannot ever condemn antisemitism without burying it in a mountain of general identity grievance.”

Actress and writer Tracy-Ann Oberman urged the piece’s authors to go back to their history books on the subject. She tweeted, “You haven’t done your journalistic diligence have you. You have no idea about the Jewish Final Solution of The Third Reich the obliteration of one race. Do some homework and start by following @AuschwitzMuseum @HolocaustUK and @simonwiesenthal.”

User David Gaw reminded the authors, “No, Holocaust Remembrance Day is a day to remember the Holocaust. They even called it ‘Holocaust Remembrance Day’ to make this easy to understand.”

In response to the headline, NBC News social media editor Evan Rosenfeld claimed, “No, no it’s not.”