Letters to the Editor

Horwitz responds to Princetonian's 'Abuse'

I have attempted to place an ad in college papers expressing the view that reparations for slavery 136 years after the fact is a bad idea. According to current polls, four out of five Americans (including Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans and other minority Americans) agree with this viewpoint. Yet 35 college papers have found my ad too hot to handle and have refused to publish it. Worse, the campus left — abetted by papers like the 'Prince' — has mounted a national hate campaign to slander me and demonize me as a 'racist' for expressing what are obvious, commonly held, respectfully expressed opinions. The tactics of this hate campaign are as underhanded as any Joseph McCarthy ever used and if successful would silence not only me, but anyone attempting to express a viewpoint on racial matters that is at odds with the politically correct orthodoxy of the left.

I am a Jew. My people have been persecuted by Christians for 2,000 years. Within the lifetimes of millions of people in Germany and America, 6 million Jews were exterminated in a systematic campaign to eliminate Jews from the face of the earth. Yet I have not received a single penny of reparations just for being a Jew. Nor would I accept any. The only Jews who have been compensated through reparations by Germany are those Jews who are direct survivors of the Holocaust or — if they did not survive — their immediate families and children. The Holocaust reparations were paid to individuals who had their property and lives taken from them, and to the state of Israel — which is a state built by survivors of the Holocaust — and because no other state would provide refuge for Jews during the Holocaust. Reparations were not paid to Jews generally just because they were Jews.

If reparations were offered to me merely for being a Jew, I would not only refuse to accept them, but I would take out an ad calling it a bad idea for Jews and racist too.

Since many Americans belong to nations and ethnic groups that have been terribly persecuted through history, I believe I can speak for them as well. They would not claim reparations for injuries that were not done directly to them. Nor would they ask them from Americans who had not directly injured them.

For these reasons, I would also not support a reparations plan demanding that all Christians pay reparations to Jews just because some Christians persecuted some Jews or because most Christians persecuted all Jews in the past. Yet that is exactly what the black reparations movement proposes for blacks — that all Americans pay black Americans for deeds that were done by some Americans (or even all Americans) more than a century ago.

According to the black reparations movement, every black alive today is a victim of the government of the United States and therefore should be paid reparations by all Americans who are alive today. This includes those whose ancestors fought against slavery and segregation and discrimination, as well those whose ancestors came to this country long after slavery was abolished. But why should even the descendants of slave owners pay reparations today? We do not punish the children of murderers for crimes they have committed. Why should the great-grandchildren of slave owners be held responsible for the crimes their ancestors committed?

As a Jew, I know that whatever injustices my people have suffered in this country and others, America is the best, freest and safest place for Jews to live in the entire world. As a Jew I owe a debt to America for giving me the opportunities and freedoms I have and for creating a society that is a paragon of tolerance compared to any other place I know. It is my opinion that black Americans — who are richer, freer and safer in America than they would be anywhere else on earth — should feel the same way.

That is basically what my ad said. The vicious campaign against the ad and myself is really a campaign to close down free speech and to intimidate anyone from expressing views critical of the ideas of the left. I urge the editors of the 'Prince' to withdraw their unsubstantiated and indefensible slander. I urge members of the Princeton community to support not only my right to express these views, but to express them without being subjected to character assassination and abuse. This is the only way to protect the free speech rights of every member of this community. David Horowitz