A group of leading US rabbis has joined the family of Raphael Lemkin, the Jewish jurist who coined the word “genocide,” in calling on Pennsylvania officials to act against a US institute that uses the Lemkin name while accusing Israel of genocide.
Last month, Arutz Sheva - Israel National News reported that Lemkin’s relatives appealed to Pennsylvania authorities, asking them to stop what they described as unauthorized use of his name to defame Israel. Now, senior rabbis are formally backing that effort with letters to Governor Josh Shapiro and state officials.
Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Rabbi Aryeh Ralbag, Rabbi Yitzchak Lasry and Rabbi Tal Peretz all submitted letters supporting the family’s request. They argue that using Lemkin’s name in this way turns his life’s work against the very people he tried to protect.
Raphael Lemkin, a Polish Jewish lawyer, first coined and defined the term “genocide” during the Second World War. His work, rooted in the destruction of European Jewry, helped shape the 1948 UN Genocide Convention. According to his relatives, the idea that a group carrying his name would label Israel “genocidal” only days after the Hamas massacre on October 7 is not only offensive, but absurd.
The family points in particular to an “Active Genocide Alert” issued under the Lemkin name on October 13, 2023, less than a week after Hamas terrorists murdered some 1,200 Israelis and abducted hundreds more.
“For us, that was a breaking point,” family members say. “Four days after Jews were slaughtered in their homes and at a music festival, an alert goes out under the Lemkin name warning about Israel.”
Joseph Lemkin, Raphael’s great-nephew, is a New Jersey attorney, a partner at Stark and Stark, and founder of the Jewish Bar Association of New Jersey. He told Arutz Sheva - Israel National News that the family is not trying to silence criticism of Israel, but to defend the truth of his uncle’s legacy.
“My uncle coined the word ‘genocide’ to describe what was done to the Jewish people, not to accuse Israel of it. Using his name this way turns history upside down,” he said.
Lemkin also described the emotional impact on the family.
“Raphael Lemkin’s name came out of loss and responsibility,” he added. “It is painful to see his name used as a weapon against the Jewish state, instead of as a shield for the Jewish people and other vulnerable communities.”
Thanking the rabbis for stepping forward, he added, “We are grateful to Rabbi Marvin Hier and to all the rabbis who spoke up. Their support tells our family we are not alone in this, and it sends a clear message that the Lemkin name should not be turned against Israel.”
The US institute involved has denied the allegations, but the family is asking Pennsylvania to review how the “Lemkin” name appears in its registrations and public materials and to act under existing rules to prevent public confusion.
For the Lemkin family and the rabbis who joined them, the issue goes beyond legal details. It is about making sure that the name of the man who first defined “genocide” is not twisted to smear the only Jewish state, less than a century after the Holocaust.
The organization has denied the allegations.