Invoking well-known names from the Holocaust in order to score political points seems to be the latest fad. What a cruel and distasteful fad it is.

This past week, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz compared illegal migrants in his state to Anne Frank hiding from the Nazis in the infamous attic in Amsterdam. That outrageous analogy minimizes what Anne Frank suffered, and why she was targeted. It also gravely distorts the legitimate public debate concerning those who are living illegally in the United States.

Meanwhile, a group of extreme partisans have set up an institute named after the late Raphael Lemkin, the Polish Jewish scholar who first coined the term “genocide,” back in the 1940s. Media reports indicate that this Institute has no authorization from the Lemkin family. Yet it continues to use his name to advance an extremist agenda.

High on that agenda is the slanderous allegation that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Everything about the “genocide” slur is an obvious lie, from the fact that Israeli soldiers have risked their lives to avoid harming Gazan civilians, to the fact that more than 100,000 Gazans left that territory during the past two years, including many whom the “genocidal” Israelis allowed to leave so they could obtain medical aid abroad.

We were glad to see that more than 100 prominent Holocaust and genocide scholars from around the world signed a letter publicly challenging the Israel-bashers at the so-called Lemkin Institute. The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies is to be commended for mobilizing our leading scholarly authorities on the subject to speak out against the abuse of Raphael Lemkin’s name.

The scholars who signed the Wyman Institute’s letter pointed out that the Lemkin Institute was accusing Israel of “genocide” just ten days after October 7, which was two weeks before Israeli soldiers eve entered Gaza. For Israel-haters, everything Israel does is “genocidal.” Even Israel’s very existence is deemed genocidal!

Perhaps, one day, such appropriation and desecration of the Holocaust will come to an end. But until then, it’s good to know that we can count on the Wyman Institute and its many suppo