Washington — Holocaust scholars this week are rallying around the appointment of John K. Roth as the first director of the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, the newly created scholarly arm of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
And museum officials seem to be lining up behind the embattled scholar.
Roth last week found himself under attack for a 1988 Los Angeles Times op-ed article that his attackers say “desecrates the memory” of Holocaust victims and compares Israel to the Nazis.

Leaders of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, under siege because of their appointment of John Roth to head a new academic think tank in Washington, this week voted overwhelmingly to reaffirm that decision.
 

But only hours after that vote, yet another troublesome article by Roth surfaced, sending council members scrambling. By Wednesday morning, the council was considering a motion to review the new material and to consider all documents relating to the appointment of the Claremont McKenna College scholar.