The following was a letter to the Editor that the Chicago Reader Published in September 2005.
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As a student at DePaul I took a class with Professor Norman Finkelstein ["Whose Holocaust Is It Anyway?" August 26]. Finkelstein was a professional who took his work and teaching as seriously as his dedication to justice.
To illustrate a point in class he once talked about a movie where a lawyer must defend her father in court against allegations that he was a Nazi war criminal. As the movie went on, she became the only person who stumbled across evidence that her father was indeed a war criminal who helped commit mass murder. She is faced with the moral dilemma: does she turn her father in to face justice, or does she defend him and hide the evidence because he is family?
In many ways, I think this illustrates Finkelstein's devotion to justice. While Alan Dershowitz supports Israel's use of torture and occupation because they are Jews like himself, Finkelstein has the courage to say that justice is for all people, no matter their nationality, religion, or relationship to family.
Matt Muchowski
Lincoln Park
