YOM HASHOACH TRAVESTY

This is the one day in the year when we make a special effort to remember the Shoach - Yom HaShoah or Holocaust Remembrance Day - we remember the six million Jews and many others murdered by the Nazis.

This is a time for reflection; to remember the victims, to respect the dwindling number of survivors. A time also to wonder at the inhumanity of those who committed one of mankind's greatest atrocities.

Despite growing levels of hatred toward the Jewish people in some parts of the world, the day is marked by most with decency and respectfulness in this country.

A glaring exception has been on an obscure Adelaide radio station whose host Tim Brunero spoke to "journalist, author and blogger, Antony Loewenstein, to find out what this day means for the Jewish people."

Loewenstein?

Why not ask a Klansman what Martin Luther King Day means to the black people of the United States?

This is what Loewenstein's cousin Ronald Green posted to the station about the obscenity of discussing this day with such a person who had no qualms about using this solemn occasion as an opportunity to attack Israel, a haven for persecuted Jews everywhere, and the Jewish people:

I find it somewhat strange that of all people to represent the Jewish people, Radio Adelaide chose Antony Loewenstein, known for his extreme views on all things Jewish and his constant anti-Israel diatribes. Loewenstein, albeit the son of German Jews, has no background of Jewish history, ethics and practices, while, for reasons unknown, has made it his life's work to denigrate "the Jewish lobby" and Israel. I have some insight, since I am Loewenstein's cousin and hosted him inIsrael when he ostensibly "researched" his book. It was then that I became privy to his abysmal dearth of knowledge of history; not only of Jewish history, but of the Middle East and Islam. His bias was clear from the fact that he spent almost all of his time in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, interviewing local residents who justified his own already-formed opinions. For Radio Adelaide to have Loewenstein to talk about Yom HaShoah is not only a travesty, but is an insult to the memory of those to whom this day is dedicated.