Washington Jewish Week (Washington, DC)
16 July 1998
Tax aid for Holocaust denial draws protest
by Julia Strongwater
Jewish Telegraphic AgencyNEW YORK — The Anti-Defamation League has urged the Internal Revenue Service to rescind its recent decision to give tax-exempt status to a group that promotes Holo-caust denial.
The Institute for Historical Review and its parent organization, Legion for Survival of Freedom, Inc., were granted 5O1(c)(3) status, a form of tax exemption given to nonprofit groups.
The institute is widely known for engaging in Holocaust-denial activities, from publishing materials to placing ads in campus newspapers. |
“It is very troubling to us that a group whose identity centers on refuting the Holocaust should receive tax-exempt status,” Elizabeth Coleman, the ADL’s civil rights division director, wrote last month in a letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rossotti.
“Far from being an educational or public-service organization committed to exploring historical events, IHR is the major center far Holocaust-denial propaganda and antisemitic vitriol,” wrote Coleman. “We question the decision granting this group the benefits afforded to legitimate nonprofit educational institutions, and urge you to reconsider.”
The ADL is awaiting a response from the IRS. Officials in Rossotti’s office would not comment on the matter.  |
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This site has no connection with the IHR but we are concerned about free speech. There is NO reason to suppose that the Internal Revenue Service reached its decision in the IHR’s favour without giving it the most intense consideration.  This little episode shows the importance that the multi-million dollar Anti-Defamation League and the other traditional enemies of free speech attach to crushing their opponents financially rather than in fair debate — and, conversely, to the importance of their own “tax exempt” status which perhaps should now come under renewed scrutiny.
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