Why on earth, considering what we know about Gertrude Stein and her dalliances with Nazis, would the White House cite her in a presidential proclamation marking Jewish American Heritage Month?
From the proclamation:
From Aaron Copland to Albert Einstein, Gertrude Stein to Justice Louis Brandeis, generations of Jewish Americans have brought to bear some of our country’s greatest achievements and forever enriched our national life.
The timing is particularly ironic given the current controversy over the Gertrude Stein-related exhibition at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. In response to complaints that the exhibit ignored the writer’s relationship with fascism, the museum is now changing its exhibit.
UPDATE: White House spokesman emails to say:
A version of this proclamation was sent out in error. The corrected final version has now been issued.
The corrected version removes the above sentence. Otherwise, , as far as I can tell, the proclamation is the same.
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