Washington Examiner
· collected 2026-09-16 · by Warren H. Cohn
Earlier this month, Macklemore walked onto the stage at MetLife Stadium in a keffiyeh, told 80,000 people to say “Free Palestine,” accused Israel of apartheid and genocide, and performed “Hind’s Hall” while images from Gaza played on the screens behind him.
asserted
images → walk → him
Robert Kraft confirmed that Macklemore had been barred from Gillette Stadium, pointing to those performances and to a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery.
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Macklemore → confirm → rhetoric
The rapper has since claimed that stadium owners gave Sheeran an ultimatum.
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owners → claim → ultimatum
You can argue about whether that was the right call.
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that → argue → ?
Reasonable people are arguing about it right now, and the free speech objections are not frivolous.
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objections → argue → it
A private citizen with a name on a building reviewed a set of facts, concluded a line had been crossed, and acted in days.
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line → review → days
There sits the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, a Pennsylvania 501(c)(3) that took the name of Raphael Lemkin, the Polish Jewish jurist who coined the word “genocide,” lost 49 members of his family to the Nazis, drafted the framework that became the 1948 Genocide Convention, and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 10 times.
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that → sit → Prize
The institute has no affiliation with the Lemkin family.
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institute → have → family
It simply took the name, and it has spent the years since Oct. 7 aiming Lemkin’s word at the Jewish state, while raising money and selling branded merchandise under that name.
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it → take → name
When Joseph Lemkin, a cousin of Raphael Lemkin and president of the Jewish Bar Association, asked the institute to stop, it refused.
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it → ask → institute
In October 2025 it publicly labeled the family “genocide deniers,” and on the same day launched an emergency fundraising appeal off the dispute.
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it → label → dispute
The institute denies wrongdoing, calls the campaign politically motivated, and says other Lemkin relatives support its work.
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relatives → deny → work
So the family went to the state.
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family → go → state
In April, Joseph Lemkin, the European Jewish Association chaired by Rabbi Menachem Margolin, and counsel Alan Milstein and Jeffrey Resnick of Sherman Silverstein filed a 30-page memorandum with Gov. Josh Shapiro’s (D-PA) office and the Pennsylvania Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations.
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Lemkin → chair → Corporations
More than 110 Holocaust and genocide scholars, organized by Dr. Rafael Medoff of the Wyman Institute, signed a letter backing them.
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scholars → organize → them
In June, 100 individually verified letters went to the governor, Attorney General Dave Sunday, the Justice Department, the IRS, and Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation.
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letters → verify → governor
Israel’s diaspora affairs minister wrote to Shapiro directly, asking that the matter move without unnecessary delay.
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matter → write → delay
In July, the state opened an inquiry, correctly scoped to the use of the name and compliance with charitable solicitation law rather than to anyone’s opinions.
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state → open → opinions
Sheeran’s tour resumes Friday in Philadelphia.
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tour → resume → Philadelphia
The Lemkin Institute will still be operating under a Holocaust survivor’s name, a few miles away, when the lights go up.
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lights → operate → name
Understand how modest the request is.
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request → understand → ?
Nobody has asked the institute to retract a position or soften a word.
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Nobody → ask → word
It can publish every opinion it holds about Israel tomorrow, forever, at any volume, under any name it invents.
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it → publish → name
The family is asking for the name back.
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family → ask → name
That is the entire ask, and it is the kind of ask that state charity regulators resolve as a matter of routine when the registrant is not politically fashionable.
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registrant → resolve → routine
Governor, you know this instinctively.
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you → know → this
You would not tolerate the Shapiro Institute for MAGA for a single business day.
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You → tolerate → day
Your lawyers would be filing before lunch, and nobody in Harrisburg would call that censorship, because it would not be censorship.
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it → file → that
It would be a man declining to have his name conscripted into a cause he finds abhorrent.
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he → decline → cause
A family that buried 49 people in the Shoah is entitled to the same courtesy under the same statutes.
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that → bury → statutes
You, of all people, understand what it is to have the Jewish part of your life turned into a target.
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part → understand → target
What this case needs is what the Macklemore case got: someone with standing who decides the delay itself has become the story.
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who → need → delay
Kraft did not wait for a commission.
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Kraft → wait → commission
He read the file and picked up the phone.
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He → read → phone
The Lemkin family has spent a year filing.
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family → spend → year
They should not need a billionaire to be heard.
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billionaire → need → ?
But if that is what it takes, then somebody with Kraft’s spine should call Harrisburg this week and say the obvious out loud.
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somebody → take → obvious
It should not still be happening.
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It → happen → ?
Warren H. Cohn is CEO of RocketshipPR and a contributing columnist at JNS.
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Cohn → contribute → JNS
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