Shavuah tov. Sadly, we are starting the news week with a disturbing item of political news. Last week President Bush sent Myron Kuropas to fly to Ukraine with then-Secretary of State Colin Powell as part of the American delegation to the Ukrainian Presidental Inauguration. Mr. Kuropas is a holocaust deniar, who wrote that the Jews drive the Holocaust industry. Specifically, he said, “Big money drives the Holocaust industry. To survive, the Holocaust industry is always searching for its next mark. Ukraine’s turn is just around the corner.”

According the NJDC, He has argued elsewhere that Jews played a driving role behind Soviet leader Josef Stalin’s murderous policies in Ukraine and Mr. Kuropas’ has demonstrated his hostility towards Jews for some time; Michael Kotzin, executive vice president of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, explained to the Chicago Tribune, “This is not new stuff. …If you go back over the decades, he’s taken these kinds of positions highly antagonistic to the Jewish people and Jewish interests and causes.”

Mr. Kuropas has not only been honored by Bush, but is a frequent contributor to House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

Want to read Mr. Kuropas’ words? Here is a link to his own words titled “Faces & Places: Holocaust Exploitation”.

You can find out more about this from the NJDC, including suggested language for contacting Hastert and Bush.