Dear John,

What started out as a discussion on the popular ABC daytime TV show “The View” about the appalling decision by a Tennessee county’s school board to remove “Maus,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust from the school’s curriculum veered into a national conversation after one of The View’s hosts, Whoopi Goldberg, inaccurately asserted that the Holocaust was not about race.

We criticized this misinformed statement and called for Goldberg to get her facts right and apologize. She did so, and graciously invited our CEO Jonathan Greenblatt to come onto The View to talk about the racial underpinnings of the Holocaust and the problems caused by comments like Goldberg’s. Once again it’s ADL that’s called upon to provide needed perspective when controversies like this erupt.

Goldberg’s error comes at a time when antisemitism is on the rise not only in the U.S. but around the world — with yet another spate of disturbing antisemitic incidents in just the past few weeks — whether it be the recent neo-Nazi rally in Orlando, the white supremacist flier drops across the country last weekend, the seemingly endless and baseless comparisons made to the Holocaust by politicians and pundits, and the terrifying hostage situation in Colleyville motivated by Islamist radicalism.

ADL has accepted her apology, as we have always known her as someone who stands up for the Jewish community. Goldberg has been suspended for two weeks by ABC News. Hopefully these next two weeks can be a time for introspection for her and healing for those who were hurt. In situations like this, we support a counsel culture, not a cancel culture. We have invited her to have more discussions with ADL, to visit the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and to reach out to her Jewish colleagues. She has an important voice in our country and there’s much she can do.

If you are discussing this situation with friends and colleagues who may not understand why Goldberg’s comments were so problematic, remind them that you can’t talk about the Holocaust without talking about race. The Nazis considered Germans the “master race” and claimed all other non-Aryans were inferior. They had their scientists create charts to help identify whether a person was Jewish or even had a Jewish “bloodline.” The ultimate result was that six million Jews were slaughtered during the Holocaust, as were millions of others including LGBTQ individuals, Roma, the mentally ill, Catholics and communists.

You can also share links to ADL’s Holocaust education resources. Holocaust education has long been an ADL priority, something that goes hand-in-hand with our efforts to fight antisemitism and all forms of hate.

It is important for you to speak out alongside ADL whenever Holocaust misinformation is spread, whether it comes from voices on the left or the right side of the political aisle. Holocaust distortion is real and dangerous. In a world where there are people who deny the very existence of the Holocaust, everyone must be on guard to respect Jewish memory, and not give aid and comfort to those who want to wipe that memory from the historical record.

Thank you for your support,

Frederic L. Bloch

Chief Growth Officer

ADL