Lemkin family files legal challenge over use of "genocide" coiner's name in fundraising

The family of Raphael Lemkin, the Holocaust survivor who coined the term “genocide,” lost forty-nine relatives to the Nazis, and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize ten times, has filed a comprehensive legal memorandum with the office of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and the Pennsylvania Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organisations, formally requesting state action against the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, Inc.

According to Reuters, the filing was submitted by Joseph Lemkin, a cousin of Raphael Lemkin and president of the Jewish Bar Association, together with the European Jewish Association, chaired by Rabbi Menachem Margolin, and legal counsel Alan Milstein and Jeffrey P. Resnick of the law firm Sherman Silverstein.

The 30-page memorandum, supported by ten exhibits, sets out a documentary record alleging that the institute has used Raphael Lemkin’s name to fund and amplify activism that his family says he would have rejected, and that it has done so in violation of Pennsylvania law.

According to the filing, the Lemkin family issued a cease-and-desist letter on February 4, 2025, requesting that the organisation stop using the Lemkin name. The institute responded at the time that it was “not closed to a name change,” but the memorandum states, took no further action.

The document also cites an October 13, 2025, public statement in which the institute described the Lemkin family and the European Jewish Association as “genocide deniers” engaged in a “politically motivated smear campaign.” On the same day, the filing says, the institute launched an emergency fundraising appeal linked to the dispute raised by the family.

The memorandum further points to the institute’s ongoing fundraising activities, including the sale of branded merchandise such as T-shirts, hoodies, and mugs bearing the Lemkin name, as forming the basis of claims under Pennsylvania’s Solicitation of Funds for Charitable Purposes Act.

It also highlights a declaration issued by the institute on October 17, 2023, in which it accused Israel of genocide, ten days after the Hamas attack and before those killed in Israel had been buried. According to the filing, the institute later revised earlier language that had described the October 7 attack as having “genocidal dimensions,” instead referring to it as “an unprecedented military operation,” while continuing to characterise Israel’s actions as genocide.

Among the supporting materials is a letter signed by 112 Holocaust and genocide scholars condemning what they describe as the misuse of Raphael Lemkin’s legacy. The memorandum also includes documentation of Lemkin’s own views, noting his support for Zionism and for the establishment of a Jewish state, as well as the loss of forty-nine members of his immediate family in the Holocaust.

At the centre of the complaint is the allegation that the institute has solicited donations from the public under the Lemkin name without authorisation from Raphael Lemkin’s family or estate, in apparent violation of Pennsylvania’s charitable solicitation statutes.

“This isn’t a debate about free speech, and it isn’t a debate about Israel,” said Joseph Lemkin. “The Lemkin Institute can say whatever it wants. What it cannot do is raise money — under Pennsylvania law and under our family’s name — by exploiting the legacy of a man whose entire family was murdered by the Nazis. They were given a chance to change the name. They refused. Then they called us genocide deniers and used the dispute to raise more money. That is what this filing is about.”

“For more than a year, we have been told this would be addressed,” said Rabbi Menachem Margolin. “The Institute itself acknowledged in writing it was ‘not closed to a name change.’ Then it weaponised our request to fundraise. Pennsylvania law exists for exactly this circumstance. We are simply asking the Commonwealth to enforce it.”

“The legal record we have submitted is comprehensive and supported by primary documents — the Institute’s own statements, fundraising pages, and public filings,” said attorney Alan Milstein. “We are confident any neutral examination of these materials will lead to the conclusions we have reached.”

Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-Jewish lawyer who fled Nazi-occupied Europe, coined the word “genocide” in 1944 and authored the United Nations Genocide Convention of 1948. He lost forty-nine members of his family in the Holocaust and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize ten times. He was also a documented Zionist and supporter of the State of Israel.

The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, Inc., founded in 2021 and registered in Pennsylvania (EIN: 87-1787869), has repeatedly accused Israel of genocide since October 2023 while raising funds under the Lemkin name.

The European Jewish Association, based in Brussels, describes itself as the largest and widest-reaching association of Jewish organisations and communities in Europe, representing hundreds of communities and thousands of Jews across the continent, from Portugal to Ukraine, and working to strengthen Jewish identity, expand Jewish activities, and defend Jewish interests while maintaining ties with key European Union institutions.

By Tamilla Hasanova