A relative of Raphael Lemkin and the chairman of the European Jewish Association met with elected officials in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 26, seeking action against the Philadelphia-based nonprofit Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, arguing that the group’s claim that Israel is committing genocide distorts the legacy of the man who coined the term.
In December 2023, the institute released a statement explaining why the “Israel-Palestine situation constitutes an instance of genocide.”
Lemkin’s first cousin once removed, Joseph Lemkin, has undertaken legal action to get the institute to remove the family name, claiming that the organization misrepresents the lawyer’s legacy, Philadelphia Jewish Exponent reported in October. Joseph Lemkin partnered with the European Jewish Association and obtained legal counsel.
“They’re using the definition of genocide for antisemitic and anti-Israel purposes,” he told Philadelphia Jewish Exponent at the time.
Joseph Lemkin and Rabbi Menachem Margolin, the EJA’s chairman, met with elected officials to bring attention to this issue, including Mark Walker, the principal advisor for global religious freedom at the United States Department of State, and Ambassador Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism.
“It’s been part of our life: trying to keep Raphael Lemkin’s heritage and … legacy alive, and [we] see what we feel is a total twisting of the word [‘genocide’], a bastardization of what he was about, what he meant,” Joseph Lemkin said at a Feb. 26 strategy meeting attended by Washington Jewish Week.
“Most importantly, we want a lot of help and support from politicians,” he added.
“We’re going to the Hill after this. We just came from the State Department, and the idea is to get the State Department, the [Department of Justice] and get this on everyone’s radar because an organization and words [are] being weaponized against Israel,” said Warren Cohn, a public relations representative helping Joseph Lemkin and his team.
Margolin described the Lemkin Institute as an entity that “pretend[s] to be an institute for human rights and to combat against genocide, but its purpose is to destroy the reputation and speak against the State of Israel/the Jewish people.” The rabbi said the institute does so by using the name of a Holocaust survivor, Raphael Lemkin.
“He was a Zionist. He wrote for a Zionist paper. He was involved in Zionist activities. We just see this as a cover for using his name,” Joseph Lemkin said, adding that Raphael Lemkin likely would not have supported the pro-Palestinian cause.
But it’s not just misrepresenting the family name, in Joseph Lemkin’s words. The Lemkin Institute’s claim that Israel was committing a genocide against Palestinians may have led to anti-Israel protests, including some in Europe.
“Our team found lots of evidence online that one of the things that motivated many people to demonstrate against the Jewish people in Israel was the Lemkin Institute,” Margolin said. “[The protesters] were convinced they’re fighting for the right thing because the Lemkin Institute said that Israel commits a genocide.”
The institute is far from the only organization to make such a declaration, but since it’s named for a Holocaust survivor and appears to be a “serious academic institution,” Margolin said the Lemkin Institute’s word carries more weight.
“This was an excuse, I would say, for many antisemites to go out in the street and to demonstrate and to spread the hatred against Jewish people and the State of Israel,” he said.
Joseph Lemkin and those working with him have sent multiple letters to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, asking his administration to investigate whether the institute is improperly using the Lemkin name and likeness, to require the organization to stop using the name and take “any further appropriate action to protect the public from further confusion,” Philadelphia Jewish Exponent reported.
The letter claims that the institute is “rooted in anti-Israel advocacy” and accused the organization of using the family name without authorization to raise funds. At the time of publication, Joseph Lemkin said he has not received a response from Shapiro.
The institute’s online store includes branded merchandise such as T-shirts, hoodies, phone cases and mugs, many of which read, “Say no to genocide.”
Proceeds from the sales go toward helping the Lemkin Institute continue its work, according to the website. The website’s store includes mugs containing the flags of Palestine, Ukraine, Sudan, Assyria, Yezidi, Artsakh and Karakalpakstan, as well as the transgender flag, reflecting the communities that the institute claims are victims of genocide.
“This is pure propaganda against Israel,” Joseph Lemkin said. “To me, that’s not what an institute does — it has an academic pursuit in mind. [The Lemkin Institute has] an agenda in mind: who they want to promote and who they want to take down.”
In an October statement, the Lemkin Institute disputed these claims, asserting that Joseph Lemkin does not represent the entire Lemkin family. In fact, some other family members contacted the institute after Oct. 7, 2023, to express their support.
“Like the members of his family who support our work, we strongly believe that Raphael Lemkin would be in agreement with our methodology, which is based on his historical studies,” the statement read.
The institute was named for him because Raphael Lemkin’s works strongly influenced the two founders’ scholarship, according to the statement. The institute’s “10 Patterns of Genocide” tool was largely created from a study of Lemkin’s cases.
“While we cannot say one way or the other what his exact sentiments would be about Israel’s current actions towards Palestinians, we do not believe that his Zionism — his belief in the need for a Jewish national home — is at all suggestive of his support of everything that Israel does,” the statement continued. “It is very hard to imagine that Raphael Lemkin would not have seen the genocidal dynamics of the present conflict early on, given his definition of the term and his historical studies. We share Raphael Lemkin’s belief in the need for a Jewish national home, but that has not meant that we are unable to see the genocide before our eyes.”
