Hedy Epstein
Encyclopedia
Hedy Epstein is an American
political activist known for her support of the Palestinian cause through the International Solidarity Movement
and for her background as a Holocaust survivor. Born in Freiburg, Germany, she immigrated to the United States
in 1948, and she currently resides in St. Louis
, Missouri
.
via the Kindertransport
to England. All but two of her family were killed at Auschwitz concentration camp
during the Holocaust. During World War II
she worked in munitions factories and joined a group of left-wing German Jewish refugees who hoped to re-introduce democracy in their homeland – "the foundation of my political education which still stands me in good stead today," she says. Some 60 years later, she was interviewed about this experience for the film Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport
.
After the war, Epstein worked with the Allied
occupying forces in Germany
, including working on the Doctors' Trial
at Nuremberg. In 1948 she immigrated to New York City
, then moved to Minneapolis, and then to St. Louis, Missouri
. There, she took up activism for affordable housing
, the pro-choice movement, and the antiwar movement.
In 1982, news reports of the internecine Arab Sabra and Shatila massacre
s committed by the South Lebanon Army, a Christian militia, during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, "horrified" Epstein, and her reaction was to take a different perspective on the Arab–Israeli conflict
; she began to express opposition to Israel
's military policies. In 2001, she founded a St. Louis chapter of the Women in Black
, an anti-war group that originally focused on Israel's occupation. In 2003 she traveled to the West Bank
to work with the International Solidarity Movement
. She has returned once a year since, claiming to "CounterPunch" that she had been strip searched and cavity search
ed in 2004 by guards at Ben Gurion International Airport
.
on 20 October 2004, fliers promoting her presentation "juxtaposed an image of Jews in Nazi Germany with an image of Palestinians at Israeli checkpoints," according to a news article in The Stanford Daily
. (Anonymous fliers also appeared which accused Epstein's ISM of advocating terrorism.) After an "appalled" reaction from members of Stanford's Jewish community, event organizers stated that no "direct comparison" was intended by the posters, or would be heard in Epstein's remarks. Epstein echoed these sentiments, avoided comparisons between Nazis and Israelis, and spent little time discussing her background in Nazi Germany, writes the Daily. However, throughout the speech, audience members, many associated with off-campus Jewish organizations, interrupted her talk with shouts of outrage, and extra campus security quietly moved in.
Reactions to the talk were sharply divided. Adina Danzig, president of Stanford's Hillel organization
called the lecture "an abuse of history," hoped that "this event and the isolated interruptions by a few individuals were an aberration," and, while acknowledging Epstein's general statement about avoiding comparison, said that "that disclaimer did not undo the damage" and that "[Epstein] made several remarks drawing the [Israeli-Nazi] parallel."
Nathan Mintz, vice-president of the Stanford Israel Alliance, condemned "Epstein’s rhetoric of drawing comparisons of the initial stages of the Holocaust to the current situation in Gaza and the West Bank" as "outright demonization of Jews" representing "only one piece of what is a much larger trend of anti-Semitism on college campuses today." He added that Epstein's ISM colleagues have "direct ties to terrorist organizations," and that "The atmosphere currently on campuses is not one in which a constructive dialogue about the conflict can legitimately take place."
In contrast, a supporter of Epstein condemned these as "misrepresentations and false charges," citing off-campus activists who, "with the intention of disrupting the event," handed out fliers "demonizing" Epstein and "frequently yelled at and interrupted" her. "At one point," he wrote a man suddenly jumped up while Epstein was talking and recited what appeared to be a prepared statement informing her of pending legal actions against her." He asked why Mintz "failed to mention any of the egregious events" of this sort and "submitted his op-ed before actually seeing the event."
In response to controversy over the paper's initial coverage of the story, "an issue that has come to define more than one volume of the paper," The Stanford Daily's reader editor Jennifer Graham acknowledged that "plenty — if not unfairly too much" coverage was given to the claims of Epstein's critics. She also apologized for the "wrong" and "misleading" decision to run Mintz's op-ed criticizing Epstein's speech before it had happened. "There are claims, that I can neither confirm nor deny, that Mintz’s column factually misrepresents the substance of Epstein’s speech," she wrote.
As a "constructive response" to Epstein's presentation, members of several campus Jewish organizations invited Harvard professor Ruth Wisse
to speak at Stanford. "While her audience ate Challah bread and drank champagne for the Kiddush
," wrote The Stanford Daily, Wisse placed sole blame for Palestinian suffering on the Arab world and on Palestinian politics, and argued that since opposition to the Jews was the only thing that the Arab world had in common, the center of Arab politics became anti-Semitism. Stanford student Ahmed Ashraf responded with an op-ed contrasting the "pro-Israelis outraged by Epstein’s support for the Palestinians" to the "perfectly respectful" behavior of Arab and Muslim attendees to Wisse's talk, "even as the acidic torrent of hate rained down on them."
An Anti-Defamation League
report from the next year characterized Epstein's talk as an "example of anti-Israel campus activism" which "would meet both the United States government's and [Israeli cabinet] Minister Nathan Sharansky's definitions of anti-Semitism," for "comparing Nazi treatment of Jews to Israeli treatment of Palestinians."ADL Statement to US Commission on Civil Rights: Anti-Semitic Incidents on College Campuses. 18 November 2005. An online publication of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
cited Epstein's talk on the same subject at UCSC among "activities that spill over into various forms of hate-speech demonizing both Israelis and Jews," and which "compared Israel to a Nazi state and Israeli soldiers to Nazis." In 2008, the Missouri regional director for the Anti-Defamation League noted, "For someone like Hedy, who came out of the Jewish community at a very difficult time, to criticize Israel ... well, it's difficult. Some people perceive it as disloyal."
's ship attempting to break Israel's naval "blockade" of Gaza, but had to cancel due to poor health.
In 2010, she embarked on one of the ships that intended to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, but decided in Cyprus, not to take part in the trip.
She is planning to take place in the 2011 flotilla as well.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
political activist known for her support of the Palestinian cause through the International Solidarity Movement
International Solidarity Movement
The International Solidarity Movement is an organization focused on assisting the Palestinian cause in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict using nonviolent protests. It was founded in 2001 by Ghassan Andoni, a Palestinian activist; Neta Golan, an Israeli activist; Huwaida Arraf, a...
and for her background as a Holocaust survivor. Born in Freiburg, Germany, she immigrated to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1948, and she currently resides in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
.
Biography
Epstein was born to an anti-Zionist Jewish family in Freiburg, Germany, and in 1939 fled Nazi persecutionKristallnacht
Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...
via the Kindertransport
Kindertransport
Kindertransport is the name given to the rescue mission that took place nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. The United Kingdom took in nearly 10,000 predominantly Jewish children from Nazi Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and the Free City of Danzig...
to England. All but two of her family were killed at Auschwitz concentration camp
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
during the Holocaust. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
she worked in munitions factories and joined a group of left-wing German Jewish refugees who hoped to re-introduce democracy in their homeland – "the foundation of my political education which still stands me in good stead today," she says. Some 60 years later, she was interviewed about this experience for the film Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport
Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport
Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport is a 2000 documentary film directed by Mark Jonathan Harris and narrated by Judi Dench. It tells the story of the kindertransport, an underground railroad that saved the lives of over 10,000 Jewish children...
.
After the war, Epstein worked with the Allied
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
occupying forces in Germany
Allied Occupation Zones in Germany
The Allied powers who defeated Nazi Germany in World War II divided the country west of the Oder-Neisse line into four occupation zones for administrative purposes during 1945–49. In the closing weeks of fighting in Europe, US forces had pushed beyond the previously agreed boundaries for the...
, including working on the Doctors' Trial
Doctors' Trial
The Doctors' Trial was the first of 12 trials for war crimes that the United States authorities held in their occupation zone in Nuremberg, Germany after the end of World War II. These trials were held before U.S...
at Nuremberg. In 1948 she immigrated to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, then moved to Minneapolis, and then to St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
. There, she took up activism for affordable housing
Affordable housing
Affordable housing is a term used to describe dwelling units whose total housing costs are deemed "affordable" to those that have a median income. Although the term is often applied to rental housing that is within the financial means of those in the lower income ranges of a geographical area, the...
, the pro-choice movement, and the antiwar movement.
In 1982, news reports of the internecine Arab Sabra and Shatila massacre
Sabra and Shatila massacre
The Sabra and Shatila massacre took place in the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut, Lebanon between September 16 and September 18, 1982, during the Lebanese civil war. Palestinian and Lebanese civilians were massacred in the camps by Christian Lebanese Phalangists while the camp...
s committed by the South Lebanon Army, a Christian militia, during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, "horrified" Epstein, and her reaction was to take a different perspective on the Arab–Israeli conflict
Arab–Israeli conflict
The Arab–Israeli conflict refers to political tensions and open hostilities between the Arab peoples and the Jewish community of the Middle East. The modern Arab-Israeli conflict began with the rise of Zionism and Arab Nationalism towards the end of the nineteenth century, and intensified with the...
; she began to express opposition to Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
's military policies. In 2001, she founded a St. Louis chapter of the Women in Black
Women in Black
Women in Black is a women's anti-war movement with an estimated 10,000 activists around the world. The first group was formed by Israeli women in Jerusalem in 1988, following the outbreak of the First intifada.-History:...
, an anti-war group that originally focused on Israel's occupation. In 2003 she traveled to the West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
to work with the International Solidarity Movement
International Solidarity Movement
The International Solidarity Movement is an organization focused on assisting the Palestinian cause in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict using nonviolent protests. It was founded in 2001 by Ghassan Andoni, a Palestinian activist; Neta Golan, an Israeli activist; Huwaida Arraf, a...
. She has returned once a year since, claiming to "CounterPunch" that she had been strip searched and cavity search
Cavity Search
Cavity Search may refer to:* Body cavity search, a visual search or a manual internal inspection of body cavities for prohibited material , such as illegal drugs, money, or weapons...
ed in 2004 by guards at Ben Gurion International Airport
Ben Gurion International Airport
Ben Gurion International Airport , also referred to by its Hebrew acronym Natbag , is the largest and busiest international airport in Israel, handling 12,160,339 passengers in 2010...
.
2004 speaking tour and controversy
Epstein has spoken about the situation in the occupied territories, and about her own life and experiences, for audiences in the United States. Prior to a talk at Stanford UniversityStanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
on 20 October 2004, fliers promoting her presentation "juxtaposed an image of Jews in Nazi Germany with an image of Palestinians at Israeli checkpoints," according to a news article in The Stanford Daily
The Stanford Daily
The Stanford Daily is the student-run, independent daily newspaper serving Stanford University. The Daily is distributed throughout campus and the surrounding community of Palo Alto, California, United States. It has published since the University was founded in 1892.The paper publishes weekdays...
. (Anonymous fliers also appeared which accused Epstein's ISM of advocating terrorism.) After an "appalled" reaction from members of Stanford's Jewish community, event organizers stated that no "direct comparison" was intended by the posters, or would be heard in Epstein's remarks. Epstein echoed these sentiments, avoided comparisons between Nazis and Israelis, and spent little time discussing her background in Nazi Germany, writes the Daily. However, throughout the speech, audience members, many associated with off-campus Jewish organizations, interrupted her talk with shouts of outrage, and extra campus security quietly moved in.
Reactions to the talk were sharply divided. Adina Danzig, president of Stanford's Hillel organization
Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life
Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life is the largest Jewish campus organization in the world, working with thousands of college students globally...
called the lecture "an abuse of history," hoped that "this event and the isolated interruptions by a few individuals were an aberration," and, while acknowledging Epstein's general statement about avoiding comparison, said that "that disclaimer did not undo the damage" and that "[Epstein] made several remarks drawing the [Israeli-Nazi] parallel."
Nathan Mintz, vice-president of the Stanford Israel Alliance, condemned "Epstein’s rhetoric of drawing comparisons of the initial stages of the Holocaust to the current situation in Gaza and the West Bank" as "outright demonization of Jews" representing "only one piece of what is a much larger trend of anti-Semitism on college campuses today." He added that Epstein's ISM colleagues have "direct ties to terrorist organizations," and that "The atmosphere currently on campuses is not one in which a constructive dialogue about the conflict can legitimately take place."
In contrast, a supporter of Epstein condemned these as "misrepresentations and false charges," citing off-campus activists who, "with the intention of disrupting the event," handed out fliers "demonizing" Epstein and "frequently yelled at and interrupted" her. "At one point," he wrote a man suddenly jumped up while Epstein was talking and recited what appeared to be a prepared statement informing her of pending legal actions against her." He asked why Mintz "failed to mention any of the egregious events" of this sort and "submitted his op-ed before actually seeing the event."
In response to controversy over the paper's initial coverage of the story, "an issue that has come to define more than one volume of the paper," The Stanford Daily's reader editor Jennifer Graham acknowledged that "plenty — if not unfairly too much" coverage was given to the claims of Epstein's critics. She also apologized for the "wrong" and "misleading" decision to run Mintz's op-ed criticizing Epstein's speech before it had happened. "There are claims, that I can neither confirm nor deny, that Mintz’s column factually misrepresents the substance of Epstein’s speech," she wrote.
As a "constructive response" to Epstein's presentation, members of several campus Jewish organizations invited Harvard professor Ruth Wisse
Ruth Wisse
Ruth R. Wisse is the Martin Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature at Harvard University.She is the sister of David Roskies, professor of Yiddish and Jewish literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary.-Career:...
to speak at Stanford. "While her audience ate Challah bread and drank champagne for the Kiddush
Kiddush
Kiddush , literally, "sanctification," is a blessing recited over wine or grape juice to sanctify the Shabbat and Jewish holidays.-Significance:...
," wrote The Stanford Daily, Wisse placed sole blame for Palestinian suffering on the Arab world and on Palestinian politics, and argued that since opposition to the Jews was the only thing that the Arab world had in common, the center of Arab politics became anti-Semitism. Stanford student Ahmed Ashraf responded with an op-ed contrasting the "pro-Israelis outraged by Epstein’s support for the Palestinians" to the "perfectly respectful" behavior of Arab and Muslim attendees to Wisse's talk, "even as the acidic torrent of hate rained down on them."
An Anti-Defamation League
Anti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League is an international non-governmental organization based in the United States. Describing itself as "the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency", the ADL states that it "fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects...
report from the next year characterized Epstein's talk as an "example of anti-Israel campus activism" which "would meet both the United States government's and [Israeli cabinet] Minister Nathan Sharansky's definitions of anti-Semitism," for "comparing Nazi treatment of Jews to Israeli treatment of Palestinians."ADL Statement to US Commission on Civil Rights: Anti-Semitic Incidents on College Campuses. 18 November 2005. An online publication of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs is a public policy think tank devoted to research and analysis of critical issues facing the Middle East. The center is located in Jerusalem, Israel...
cited Epstein's talk on the same subject at UCSC among "activities that spill over into various forms of hate-speech demonizing both Israelis and Jews," and which "compared Israel to a Nazi state and Israeli soldiers to Nazis." In 2008, the Missouri regional director for the Anti-Defamation League noted, "For someone like Hedy, who came out of the Jewish community at a very difficult time, to criticize Israel ... well, it's difficult. Some people perceive it as disloyal."
Activism
In August, 2008, Epstein planned to be on board the Free Gaza MovementFree Gaza Movement
The Free Gaza Movement is a coalition of human rights activists and pro-Palestinian groups formed to challenge the Israeli-Egyptian blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip by sailing humanitarian aid ships to Gaza...
's ship attempting to break Israel's naval "blockade" of Gaza, but had to cancel due to poor health.
In 2010, she embarked on one of the ships that intended to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, but decided in Cyprus, not to take part in the trip.
She is planning to take place in the 2011 flotilla as well.