First I will say Higgins made a major faux-pas and talked in a place of 'reverence' and he
already apologized for doing so.
But let's not forget the Anne Frank Center has pulled off some boners on it's own in recent history (note: This does not dispute their message in this instance),
Most of these are cut/copies from
The Atlantic.
1) Claimed for instance to have been founded by Anne Frank's father, but had no documents to back that up (reported by the Atlantic earlier this year).
2) They completely went political with one of their headlines when they claimed Sean Spicer said that the Germans didn't gas the Jews (
note Spicer did screw up his statement he did make at the time and did so badly), and used that to accuse President Trump's travel ban of being anti-Semitic, stating and I quote (I'm still trying to figure that one out). "he [president trump] reiterated his lying demonization of Muslims as terrorists as an excuse to curtail religious freedom".
3) The guy that made this statement their Executive Director has ZERO involvement in holocaust studies,
In fact, last year Steven Goldstein (their Exec. Director) changed their "mission statement' from dealing with Anti-Semitism to dealing with "conventional issues'. (read SJW issues): "Will significantly broaden its work on contemporary issues to become a national leader in exposing and fighting hate".
4) and this is the big one:
Quote:The Anne Frank Center in the U.S. no longer sees itself this way. Rapaport, the organization’s new board chair, said it is neither a Jewish organization nor a Holocaust organization. Teaching about the Holocaust is “a valuable thing, but that’s not what we do,” he told me. “We teach about the thing that we think will prevent future Holocausts. … It isn’t our focus to be pro-Jewish or to be just a Holocaust-education [organization]. We want to use the knowledge of the Holocaust and go further.'
Quote:William Shulman, the president of the Association of Holocaust Organizations and emeritus professor of history at the City University of New York, was another adviser. He said the Anne Frank Center has been “inactive” in the association, which brings together all of the major Holocaust groups in America. The Anne Frank Center “[pays] their dues,” he said, “but rarely do we see anyone from the organization.” In general, the Anne Frank Center’s outspokenness is “an outlier,” he added. “There’s been universal distaste for doing this. … Our function is not to engage in politics. It’s to engage in Holocaust education, remembrance, and research. Anything that deviates from that damages our mission.”
Quote:In other words, it is a tiny organization in the process of reinventing itself. The Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect and Understanding may not be a Holocaust organization or a Jewish organization, and it has an unclear connection to Anne Frank’s father. It may not have leaders with a scholarly background, a mass membership, or institutional standing among Jewish groups and Holocaust museums. But because it talks a big game and wields the name of Anne Frank, the media has awarded it authority it never earned
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Anne Frank Center calls GOP lawmaker's Auschwitz video a 'global disgrace'
