From London: Tonight at the ICA [Institute for Contemporary Art]

I shall be participating in a debate this evening at 7 p.m. at the ICA in London. From the ICA's website:

A new EU directive has made "publicly condoning, denying or grossly trivialising crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes" an offence which is punishable by law.

Should deniers of genocide be allowed to propagate lies and historical distortions when these distortions are designed to instigate violence? Does the proposed EU-wide legislation confuse the role of the judge and the historian, is such a ban workable, and what are the legal and philosophical implications of its passage into law?

Speakers: Deborah Lipstadt, Dorot professor of modern Jewish and holocaust studies at Emory University in Atlanta, defendant in the David Irving vs Penguin and Lipstadt case and author of History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier; David Cesarani, research professor in history at Royal Holloway College, University of London and author of Eichmann: His Life and Crimes; Frank Furedi, professor of sociology at the University of Kent and author of Politics of Fear: Beyond Left and Right; Francesca Klug, professorial research fellow at the Centre for the Study of Human Rights, LSE, and author of Values for a Godless Age.

Tickets: You can book tickets here or get them at the door.

Off to Krakov and Sarajevo

I am leaving shortly for Krakov and Sarajevo for the meeting of the International Association of Scholars of Genocide. I will be blogging from there.

"The New Global Antisemitism" Xavier University, Cincinnati

I will be speaking at Xavier University in Cincinnati this coming Sunday.

"The New Global Anti-Semitism"
Speaker: Dr. Deborah E. Lipstadt
When: Sunday, 18 March 2007, 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Where: Schiff Family Conference Center, Cintas Center

Limmud (NY) Spring Sampler: March 12, 2007

I will be speaking at the Limmud NY event on March 12th in NYC:
Limmud NY Spring Sampler

I will be giving two presentations:
6 p.m. "The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: Jewish Life in the 21st Century"

7:45: Reflections on Irving v. Lipstadt: What did this trial accomplish? How do we understand the trial in light of the current resurgence of Holocaust denial? What are the best strategic responses to denial?

Contact Limmud for Information: 212-284-6968,
info@limmudyny.org,

Colby College March 7, 2007

I will be appearing at Colby College on Wednesday, March 7th where I will deliver the Lippman Lecture:
In Every Generation They Wish to Destroy Us: Anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism as factors in Jewish history
Wednesday, March 7, 7 p.m.
Pugh Center, Cotter Union

Contact: Joseph Roisman, 859-4163, jsroisma@colby.edu

University of Colorado speech

The correct time for my talk in Boulder is 7 p.m. on this Wednesday. For details see an earlier blog

Lipstadt at University of Colorado, Wednesday 2/28: Students fear disruptions

I will be speaking at the University of Colorado on Wednesday, February 28th, in the Glenn Miller Auditorium at 7:00 [double check the time]. According to the student newspaper, this appearance has caused some concern at the university because of a faculty member who seems rather sympathetic to Holocaust deniers and whose essay won in 2004 from the white supremacist group Stormfront, an organization whose website proclaims that it is for "pro-White activists and anyone else interested in White survival."

While some students on the campus have expressed fear that he will disrupt the lecture, I have posted a comment on the student newspaper:

From my perspective, Mr. McNair is welcome to attend my lecture. He might actually learn something about David Irving, a man who was declared by Judge Charles Gray of the Royal High Court, to be a liar, Holocaust denier, a man with racist and antisemitic views, whose claims about history are a "travesty."

See Judge Gray's evaluation of Irving at www.hdot.org [click on Verdict and go to Part XIII].

See you this week.

Deborah Lipstadt, Ph.D.

Lipstadt at Oxford Chabad on January 30th

I will be speaking at Oxford Chabad on Tuesday, January 30th. For information and details see: http://www.oxfordchabad.org/templates/articlecco.html?AID=302294

Lipstadt in Seattle and Portland January 22-23

Deborah Lipstadt will be speaking at the University of Washington in Seattle on Sunday afternoon 1/22 at 3 p.m. in Kane Hall. For details contact the Jewish Studies office at the University.

On Monday the 23rd at 7 p.m. she will be at Portland State University in the Columbia Falls Ballroom at University Place. The lecture is sponsored by PSU's Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies and the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland.

Lipstadt in Sarasota January 17th

DEBORAH LIPSTADT will discuss "Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory" at 7 p.m. Tuesday January 17 at Temple Beth Israel, 567 Bay Isles Road, Sarasota. Call 365-4955.

Deborah's Speaking Schedule

Many readers and emailers have asked me to post where I will be speaking so that they can try to attend. And my friends and family are constantly commenting that they don't know where I am. This should help resolve the problem. [I have listed certain "private events" so that people will know if I am in their city on a particular date.]

[Hilary Ostrov will shortly create a link to my Emory webpage on which we will post and continuously update my schedule.]

December 4th: Denver Emory Alumni, private event. For information contact John Ingersoll at fingers@emory.edu

December 4th: Denver Jewish Book Fair at the Denver Jewish Community Center, 7 p.m. For information see Mizel Center .

December 7th: North Palm Beach, Fla. Jewish Federation, 4-6 p.m. City Club of the Palm Beaches 11780 US 1, contact: Randee Schneider, 561-242-6679.

December 8th: Palm Beach, 9:30-12 noon:One Woman’s Voice" - Eissey Theatre on Palm Beach Community College’s Palm Beach Gardens Campus. The program includes an address by Dr. Deborah Lipstadt and a special performance of "The Diary of Anne Frank" by Ballet Florida. Continental breakfast will be served. Contact:Sherri Siskin 561-640-0700, ext. 616 s.siskin@cjepb.org or Jewish Federation of Palm Beach.

December 13: JCC in Manhattan 7:00 PM. Upper West Side, Manhattan; For more information and to register or call 646-505-5708.

December 14: Princeton University, private event.

December 16th: Panama City, Panama, noon, for details contact Yvonne Snaider, 011 507 6616 1886

December 20th: Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Wexner Israel Fellows program, private event.

December 23-28th: Limmud, UK, University of Nottingham, UK.

January 7th: Jersey City, Jewish Community Centers of American [JCCA], quarterly board meeting, private event.

January 8-9th: St Mark's School, Dallas, Texas. Most events are closed. For information on any public events contact Roberta Lou Mailer: mailer@smtexas.org , Dennard Visiting Scholars Program,St. Mark's School, (214) 346-8130

January 13th: Manhattan Jewish Experience [MJE], Shabbat dinner, at the Jewish Center, W. 86th st. For reservations and information contact Jeannie Doppelt, 212.787.9533

January 22nd: University of Washington, Seattle. 2:30 p.m. For information contact Rochelle Roseman: roseman@u.washington.edu

January 30th: University of Miami. Details to follow.

Lipstadt in Denver December 4th

I will be participating in the Denver Jewish Book Fair which is sponsored by Mizel Center for Arts and Culture at the Denver Jewish Community Center.

My talk is on Sunday, December 4th at 7 p.m. For information check out the program of the Mizel Center .

I would be delighted to see you there.

Lipstadt at N.Y. Hebrew-Union College (Nov. 22)

Prof. Lipstadt will be speaking at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York on Nov. 22:

History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier. A Lecture by Emory University Professor Deborah E. Lipstadt.

Tuesday Nov 22 2005 - 7:30 pm to - 9 pm

Deborah Lipstadt, the Director of the Tam Institute for Jewish Studies and Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish Thought and Holocaust Studies at Emory University, will discuss her recent book, History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving, the story of her successful six year legal battle against Irving, who sued her for calling him a Holocaust denier and right wing extremist. Reception 7:00 PM; Lecture 7:30 PM. Photo ID req. RSVP to lkaplan@huc.edu.

Contact Information: lkaplan@huc.edu, (212) 824-2293

Lipstadt in Toronto (Nov. 13)

Prof. Lipstadt is one of the featured speakers at the 2005 UJC General Assembly, which will take place in Toronto:

Seeing Ourselves Through the Holocaust Looking Glass:
The impact of the Holocaust on Jewish identity
Sunday, November 13, 2005
2:30pm – 4:00pm

Lipstadt at Cleveland "Festival of Jewish Books and Authors" (Nov. 17)

Prof. Lipstadt will be one of the featured authors at the Jewish Community Center of Cleveland's seventh annual "book fest". Here is a review of History on Trial from the Cleveland Jewish News:

All you can read buffet

[…]

Debunking the lies of a Holocaust denier

By: MARILYN H. KARFELD Senior Staff Reporter

History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving. By Deborah E. Lipstadt. New York. HarperCollins Publishers. 2005. 346 pp. $25.95.

It seems hard to believe today that David Irving, whose name is almost automatically followed by the phrase Holocaust denier, would sue Emory University historian Deborah Lipstadt for libel for calling him just that.

But in 1993, when Lipstadt, a professor of Jewish studies, published her groundbreaking book Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory, Irving, a British citizen, was a World War II historian and Hitler biographer of some repute. Holocaust denial was still the province of fringe right-wing extremists, yet to emerge as a significant tenet of a global anti-Semitism movement.

In just a few paragraphs in her book, Lipstadt calls Irving one of the most dangerous proponents of Holocaust denial, who distorted and manipulated documents and historical evidence.

In his books and speeches and in the trial, held in London, Irving insisted that Hitler did not order the mass extermination of Jews and that he even tried to halt some of the killings. Among his many outrageous statements: The murder of six million Jews was a myth; most of the Jews who died in the Holocaust were the victims of typhus and unauthorized shootings by rogue soldiers at the front; and “more people died in the back seat of Edward Kennedy’s car at Chappaquiddick than ever died in a gas chamber at Auschwitz.”

Two years after the publication of her book on Holocaust denial, Irving sued Lipstadt and her British publisher Penguin UK for libel. He chose a British courtroom rather than an American one because the libel laws in Great Britain favor the person bringing the suit. The defendant must prove that what he or she wrote was the truth.

In America, the burden of proof falls on the plaintiff, not the defendant. And a public figure like Irving has to show that these statements were written with reckless disregard for the truth.

After five years of legal jockeying and $1.5 million in research expenses and legal costs, the case against Lipstadt finally went to trial in 2000.

During her 10 weeks in court, her attorneys refused to put her on the stand or allow her to talk to the press. The articulate professor chafed against the restrictions. In her latest book, History on Trial, Lipstadt finally has her chance to speak about the trial, which was heard by a judge, not a jury. She does so in absorbing, well-paced prose, and her personal memoir reads more like a novel than a nonfiction account.

Although most readers probably know the trial’s outcome, Lipstadt still provides a sense of drama, recording in vivid detail her misgivings and feelings and those of her legal team. The testimony of historians debunking Irving and his many distortions and lies makes for riveting reading.

Knowing that Holocaust survivors were counting on her to stand up for them, Lipstadt frequently worries that the case isn’t going well. She fears that the judge, who often appears to support Irving in his comments and questions, might rule in her favor but in such an even-handed way that she won’t be truly vindicated.

The highly publicized trial resulted in a huge victory for Lipstadt. The judge declared it “incontrovertible that Irving qualifies as a Holocaust denier.” His statements, the judge said, confirm that he was an anti-Semite and a racist who “deliberately skewed the evidence to bring it in line with his political beliefs.”

In Britain, the loser has to pay the defense costs. But after losing his appeals, Irving declared bankruptcy. Lipstadt decided that it wasn’t worth her time and energy, not to mention huge sums, to go after any of his assets.

The trial to her had not been about documents and money. It was, she writes, about “historical - as well as my personal - integrity.”

Deborah Lipstadt speaks on Thurs., Nov. 17, at 7:30 p.m. at Siegal College of Judaic Studies in Beachwood. Free, but limited space. Reservations required. 216-454-4050 or rsvp@siegal college.edu

Lipstadt at Houston Jewish Book & Arts Fair (Nov. 3)

Prof. Lipstadt will be discussing History on Trial on Thursday, November 3, at the Houston JCC's Jewish Book and Arts Fair:

Deborah Lipstadt
8:00 P.M.
History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving

Deborah Lipstadt, an acclaimed author, professor, and media commentator on Jewish matters, is also an expert on the Holocaust denial movement. When she called David Irving, a well-known writer on World War II, a Holocaust denier, he sued her and her publisher, Penguin UK, for libel in a London courtroom. Five years later, Lipstadt won a resounding victory. This book, a riveting chronicle of that legal battle, is also an inspiring personal story of perseverance and the definitive account of the trial that tested the standards of historical and judicial truths.

"Conversation with Deborah Lipstadt" Satellite Broadcast (Nov. 8)

Prof. Lipstadt will be discussing History on Trial at New York's 92nd Street YMHA on Tuesday, Nov. 8:

HISTORY — HISTORY ON TRIAL: A CONVERSATION WITH DEBORAH LIPSTADT

History on Trial is Deborah Lipstadt's chronicle of her legal battle with Holocaust denier David Irving, a sensational libel case that The Daily Telegraph of London proclaimed did "for the new century what the Nuremberg tribunals or the Eichmann trial did for earlier generations." Deborah E. Lipstadt is Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies and director of the Institute for Jewish Studies at Emory University. She is also the author of Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory. DR. MARGOT KREBS, chair of the English department at the Frisch School in Paramus, New Jersey, facilitates the discussion.

This event will be broadcast via Live from NY's 92nd Street Y, the Y's satellite broadcast program, to other participating venues, including Naples, FL. Temple Shalom.

Lipstadt at University of Maine (Oct. 16)

On Sunday, Oct. 16, Prof. Lipstadt will address the participants at the groundbreaking ceremony for a Holocaust Education Resource Center at the University of Maine:

Groundbreaking set for Holocaust center

By DAN McGILLVRAY
Staff Writer

AUGUSTA -- A scholar who has researched the Holocaust and human rights issues will speak Sunday at the University of Maine at Augusta.

Deborah Lipstadt is director of an institute in Emory University that is devoted to Jewish studies. Earlier this year her book, History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving was published.

"She will probably talk for about 45 minutes and then have a question and answer (period)," said Sharon Nichols, executive director of the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine.

Lipstadt, who teaches at Emory University in Atlanta, will be the featured speaker at a groundbreaking ceremony for the Michael Klahr Holocaust Education Resource Center that will be built on the University of Maine at Augusta campus.

Work on the building will start next spring, said Nichols.
[...]

The ceremony Sunday begins at 1 p.m. with a lecture in Jewett Hall Auditorium by Professor Phillip Silver of the University of Maine. From 2 to 4 p.m., Silver and his wife, Professor Noreen Silver, who also teaches music at UMaine, will conduct a cello-piano duo in the auditorium. The price is $10 and tickets are available at the door.

The outdoor groundbreaking begins at 4:15 p.m.

Lipstadt begins her speech at 5 p.m. She is expected to talk about her 6-year legal battle in London with David Irving. He had accused Lipstadt of saying that he denied the Holocaust in Europe. In the end, a judge concluded that Irving was a Holocaust denier, a falsifier of history, and a racist.

Historians estimate that approximately 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazi regime and collaborators

After Lipstadt concludes her address at 6 p.m., a social reception hour will be held until 7 p.m.

Lipstadt in Des Moines (Sept. 21)

Prof. Lipstadt will present a lecture in Des Moines, on Wednesday, Sept. 21:

Professor to speak about Holocaust

Deborah Lipstadt, a professor of Holocaust studies at Emory University, will present "History on Trial: Holocaust Denial and False History" at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Embassy Suites, 101 E. Locust St. in Des Moines. Advance tickets are $10 and available at the Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines, 910 Polk Blvd. in Des Moines. Tickets are $15 at the door.

Lipstadt to speak at Kansas University

Professor Lipstadt will be speaking at the University of Kansas, (Lawrence, Kansas) on Sept. 14:

Author Lipstadt to Speak at KU About Winning Libel Suit by Holocaust Denier

Humanities Lecture Series is the oldest continuing series at KU

Lawrence, Kan. - infoZine - The University of Kansas' Hall Center for the Humanities will open its 2005-2006 Humanities Lecture Series with professor and author Deborah Lipstadt, who will speak on "History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving," at 7:30 p.m., Sept. 14 in the Woodruff Auditorium of the Kansas Union. The event is free and open to the public.

Lipstadt, professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University, will expound on her book "History on Trial," which details her 2000 libel trial in London when Irving sued her for calling him a Holocaust denier and right wing extremist. The judge handed down a stongly worded decision declaring Irving to be a Holocaust denier, a falsifier of history, a racist, an anti-Semite and a liar.

The libel trial was described by London's Daily Telegraph as having "done for the new century what the Nuremberg trial did for earlier generations." Lipstadt's lecture will analyze the major issues involved in her lawsuit in London and link them to the rise of the "new anti-Semitism."

Lipstadt is also the author of Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory and Beyond Belief: The American Press and The Coming of the Holocaust.

Founded in 1947, the Humanities Lecture Series is the oldest continuing series at KU. More than 150 eminent scholars from around the world have participated in the program, including author Vladimir Nabokov, painter Thomas Hart Benton and author Aldous Huxley. Recent scholars have included Edward Said, Dava Sobel, Sherman Alexie and E.O. Wilson. Shortly after the program's inception, a lecture by one outstanding KU faculty member each year was added to the schedule.

Upcoming speakers in the 2005-2006 series include author Salman Rushdie, human rights scholar Samantha Power, and attorney and author Scott Turow.

For more information, please contact the Hall Center at hallcenter@kuedu or call (785) 864-7822