EDITORIAL: A spurious attack on Kuropas (02/06/05)

EDITORIAL

A spurious attack on Kuropas

A little over a week ago, the Knight Ridder chain released a news story titled "Activist critical of Jews was part of U.S. delegation to Ukraine." The activist is Dr. Myron B. Kuropas, identified as an adjunct professor at Northern Illinois University, who also happens to be one of the columnists whose writings regularly appear in this newspaper. (See story on page 4 of this issue.) The recipe for an article like the one circulated by Knight Ridder is really quite simple: go online, do a search, piece together quotes - taking them out of context makes the writing easier - and voila!

Thus, the Knight Ridder reporters found (or were given) two articles by Dr. Kuropas, one from 1996 and the other from 2000 (both published in The Weekly), and one story about a speech he delivered in Toronto in 1998 (from Ukrainian News of Edmonton). Never mind that these are three pieces in a long and distinguished career, and that you can't judge a person's oeuvre by these few samples.

In the 1996 column, Dr. Kuropas writes about "the ethnocide perpetrated by the Bolsheviks against the Ukrainian people" and the crimes of Soviet Communists. Among the many topics that he mentions as "worthy of further exploration" - including the Famine-Genocide, the killing fields of Vinnytsia, the destruction of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Catholic Church - is the "inordinate role played by Jews in bringing Bolshevism to power."

In the article from 2000, Dr. Kuropas reviews a book titled "The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering" by Prof. Norman G. Finkelstein of the City University of New York. It is his citations of the author's writing that are now being presented as Dr. Kuropas's anti-Semitism.

And finally, there is the 1998 news story about a presentation by Dr. Kuropas. Once again, the quotations cited are taken totally out of context. Dr. Kuropas's speech centered on Ukrainophobia, but you wouldn't know that by reading the stories that have cited the talk. To be sure, Dr. Kuropas did criticize three specific Jewish groups for their consistent efforts to portray Ukrainians as anti-Semites and to discredit the Ukrainian community, but he did not address those comments to Jews as a whole. In fact, the focus of his talk was on defending the Ukrainian nation from defamation.

Since the original news story was published, the Kuropas "scandal" has been picked up by other news media, and members of Congress have stepped forward to voice their opinions. In the process, the descriptions of Dr. Kuropas have escalated from "critical of Jews" to "accused of anti-Semitism." Next, the accusations of anti-Semitism were transformed into statements of fact. Thus, Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois referred to Dr. Kuropas as "a known anti-Semite," while Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York called him "one of this country's most vocal anti-Semites." A letter writer in a local newspaper in DeKalb, Ill., went even farther, saying Dr. Kuropas was engaged in "anti-Semitic and Holocaust-denial activities."

As a result, Dr. Kuropas has found it necessary to issue a statement to the press in hopes of telling the truth about his background and his writing. As a sign of how far this smear campaign has gone, consider the fact that the first sentence in a story in the Daily Chronicle of DeKalb, Ill., reads: "Myron Kuropas wants people to know that he is not a Holocaust denier or an anti-Semite."

The truth is, Dr. Kuropas's columns have always elicited strong reactions. There's nothing new about that. There are readers who don't like what he says, there are those who don't like how he says it, and there are those who love his column. In short, he's a columnist who is not afraid to express his opinion. And, just like the columnists in any major newspaper (when was the last time you read The New York Times or the Washington Post and agreed with every columnist's opinion?), he has his supporters and his detractors. He has written, and spoken, on a variety of topics - and he has criticized a range of people, organizations, institutions and governments, including Ukrainian leaders and groups (our own publisher, the Ukrainian National Association, among them). Dr. Kuropas has had plenty of time during his career as a polemicist to make many people angry.

The Ukrainian Weekly has a history of running letters and commentaries from all quarters - including representatives of the Jewish community. Many of these have been reactions, pro and con, to Dr. Kuropas's writing. Yet, we continue to publish them because we feel strongly about the need for a free press and the importance of freedom of speech. We believe our newspaper's pages demonstrate that.

We also know that Dr. Kuropas has been unfairly branded by the latest wave of attacks that has surfaced in the news media. We can only surmise that besmirching his reputation is an attempt by someone to silence him. We also wonder: why now? (Among the articles cited, the newest is nearly five years old!) There are many possible explanations and myriad interpretations. But, we'll leave that to the pundits.

Right here and right now, however, we must underscore that Dr. Myron B. Kuropas is no anti-Semite. The worst accusation one could reasonably make against him is that, like many other commentators, he's opinionated, acerbic and strident.

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