Re: Chi Tribune on Barnes & Noble

[Trudi Goodman <goobietheg...>]

  Way cool, hunh?  I'm a beliver in free speech, but this was an absurdist 
situation.
   Trudi the G
>From: MaxwellSt (at) aol(dot)com
>Reply-To: jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
>To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
>Subject: Chi Tribune on Barnes & Noble
>Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2000 09:37:33 EST
>
>JEWISH GROUP ASKS RETAILER TO HALT SALES OF `HATE' BOOK
>
>By Stevenson Swanson
>Tribune Staff Writer
>March 25, 2000
>NEW YORK -- A leading Jewish advocacy group has called for bookseller 
>Barnes
>and Noble to stop selling a notorious anti-Semitic book, charging that 
>sales
>of the book help support right-wing hate groups.
>
>In a letter this week to Barnes and Noble Chairman Leonard Riggio, the
>American Jewish Committee complained about the company selling two editions
>of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" that the committee contends are
>published by anti-Semitic and racist organizations.
>
>"The Protocols," first published in Russia in 1902, paints a picture of
>Jewish conspirators plotting to take over the world. The Jewish committee's
>letter describes it as "a main staple of anti-Semitic movements around the
>world."
>
>Editions of the book published by Noontide Press and The Book Tree are
>available by special order at Barnes and Noble and at the bookseller's
>on-line operation, barnesandnoble.com. Rival on-line bookseller Amazon.com
>also offers both editions.
>
>Spokesmen for the booksellers said they would continue to offer the book.
>
>According to the Jewish committee's Ken Stern, Noontide Press is the
>publishing arm of the Liberty Lobby, a right-wing extremist group that
>questions whether 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust during World
>War II.
>
>The Book Tree markets a number of anti-Semitic and conspiracy-theory 
>titles,
>according to a committee statement.
>
>Neither publisher could be reached for comment.
>
>American Jewish Committee President Bruce M. Ramer and Executive Director
>David A. Harris, who requested that Barnes and Noble stop selling "The
>Protocols," did not challenge the company's right to sell the book.
>
>"While you certainly have the right to distribute this book, you also have
>the right not to," Ramer and Harris wrote to Riggio. "We ask that you 
>choose
>not to sell this book."
>
>Stern, a specialist in anti-Semitic groups, said the Jewish committee would
>likely make a similar request to Amazon.com, possibly as early as next 
>week.
>
>"The Protocols" purports to be the record of how Jewish elders, meeting in
>secret, laid out a plan to overthrow Christian society. A British 
>journalist
>showed in 1921 that the work was a fake, probably by Czarist Russians. But
>the book, which reached Western Europe and America after World War I, was
>widely influential in stirring up anti-Semitic feeling and was cited
>approvingly by such figures as Adolf Hitler and American industrialist 
>Henry
>Ford.
>
>"If you're going to pick one work of the last couple hundred years that has
>been used to fuel violence against Jews, this is it," Stern said.
>
>But who is publishing "The Protocols" is as important to the Jewish group 
>as
>the book's anti-Semitic message.
>
>"`The Protocols' is going to be out there," Stern said. "It is available. 
>The
>question for us is whether it's appropriate for Barnes and Noble to sell 
>hate
>literature and an even more critical issue is do they want to help fund 
>these
>groups. We want them to think through the consequences of selling this."
>
>Barnes and Noble spokeswoman Debra Williams said the company had changed 
>the
>book's classification from "Judaica" to "World History" at the request of
>customers who objected to finding the book with mainstream books about 
>Jewish
>culture and religion.
>
>But the company has no plans to drop the title, she said.
>
>"As booksellers, it is our policy to make available every book in print,"
>said Williams.
>
>Similarly, Amazon spokesman Bill Curry said the on-line retailer had 
>changed
>the description for the Book Tree edition of "The Protocols" at the request
>of the Anti-Defamation League to make clear to shoppers that Amazon does 
>not
>endorse the book's contentions. The ADL did not ask Amazon to drop the 
>title.
>
>

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