Holocaust Denial on Campus: the Case of Pacifica Forum

• In Event: Memory and Denial

Abstract

My work follows Pacifica Forum, a discussion group that promoted Holocaust denial and revisionism in Eugene, Oregon from 1994-2010. Despite its dissemination of antisemitic conspiracy theories and protest from the Eugene Jewish community, the group met on the University of Oregon campus for the majority of its existence. After the Southern Poverty Law Center officially designated Pacifica Forum a hate group in 2009, the university administration issued a statement condemning Pacifica Forum's promotion of Holocaust denial; however, the administration ultimately failed to remove the group from campus despite pressure from student groups and Jewish organizations.

Although there is some excellent existing scholarship both regarding antisemitism on university campuses and the Jewish experience in the American West, there exists a historiographical gap regarding antisemitism within academic spaces in the Pacific Northwest. My paper addresses this gap, utilizing 24 archival boxes of previously unanalyzed material.

This story, however, has a larger significance beyond the Pacific Northwest, and my paper addresses several questions that are timely in the field of Jewish Studies today. First, through utilizing some secondary legal theory, the paper confronts questions of free speech and where Holocaust denial figures in the landscape of hate speech, especially on the college campus. Second, it analyzes the ways Pacifica Forum promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories under the guise of pro-Palestinian activism to explore Holocaust denial’s relation to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Third, it examines how hate groups like Pacifica Forum construct a facade of academic legitimacy to build credibility and how antisemitism functions within the construct of academic space.

Author

• Grace Weible