Joseph Lemkin and the European Jewish Association delivered a 30-page legal memorandum to Governor Shapiro and the Pennsylvania Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations documenting unauthorized use of the Lemkin name, charitable solicitation violations, and a fundraising campaign run on the back of a Holocaust survivor’s family.

HARRISBURG, PA, April 28, 2026 (EZ Newswire) -- 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, today filed a comprehensive legal memorandum with the office of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and the Pennsylvania Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations, formally requesting state action against the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, Inc., a Philadelphia-based 501(c)(3).

The filing was made by Joseph Lemkin, Esq., cousin of Raphael Lemkin and President of the Jewish Bar Association, together with the European Jewish Association (EJA), chaired by Rabbi Menachem Margolin, and counsel Alan Milstein and Jeffrey P. Resnick of Sherman Silverstein.

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

What the Filing Documents

• A February 4, 2025 cease-and-desist letter sent on behalf of the Lemkin family. The Institute responded that it was “not closed to a name change” — and then took no action.
• An October 13, 2025 public statement in which the Institute publicly labeled the Lemkin family and the European Jewish Association “genocide deniers” engaged in a “politically motivated smear campaign” — and, on the same day, launched an emergency fundraising appeal off the very dispute the family had brought.
• Active fundraising and merchandise sales — branded T-shirts, hoodies, and mugs sold under the Lemkin name — forming the basis of claims under Pennsylvania’s Solicitation of Funds for Charitable Purposes Act.
• The Institute’s October 17, 2023 declaration accusing Israel of genocide — issued ten days after Hamas’s attack, before the Israeli dead had been buried.
• The Institute’s subsequent walk-back of its initial language describing October 7 as carrying “genocidal dimensions,” later downgrading the Hamas attack to “an unprecedented military operation” — even as it maintained the genocide label against Israel.
• A letter signed by 112 Holocaust and genocide scholars condemning the Institute’s misuse of Raphael Lemkin’s legacy.
• Documentation of Raphael Lemkin’s own Zionism, his published support for a Jewish state, and the murder of forty-nine members of his immediate family in the Holocaust.

The Charitable Fraud Question

The memorandum centers on a charge the Institute has not publicly answered: that it solicits donations from the public under the Lemkin name without authorization 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, Esq. “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, Chairman of the European Jewish Association. “The Institute itself acknowledged in writing it was ‘not closed to a name change.’ Then it weaponized 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.”

Background

Raphael Lemkin (1900–1959) coined the word “genocide” in 1944 and authored the United Nations Genocide Convention of 1948. A Polish-Jewish lawyer who fled Nazi Europe, he lost forty-nine members of his family in the Holocaust and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize ten times. He was a documented Zionist and supporter of the State of Israel.

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

The full memorandum and exhibits are available to credentialed media on request.

Legal Counsel

• Sherman Silverstein Alan Milstein, Esq. / Jeffrey P. Resnick, Esq. 
• European Jewish Association
• Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Chairman 

About European Jewish Association (EJA)

The European Jewish Association (EJA) is the largest and widest-reaching association of Jewish organizations and communities in Europe. Representing hundreds of communities and thousands of Jews across the continent — from Portugal to Ukraine — the EJA is dedicated to strengthening Jewish identity, expanding Jewish activities, and defending Jewish interests in Europe. Based in Brussels, at the heart of the European Union, the EJA maintains close ties with key decision-makers in the European Commission, Parliament, and Council to advocate for the safety, traditions, and future of European Jewry. For more information, visit ejassociation.eu.

Media Contact

Warren Cohn
warren@rocketshippr.com

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