Richard Benkin is an American
human rights
Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...
activist, journalist, writer and lecturer. He has been a member of ''Folks Magazine''s editorial board since August 2011.
Career
Lexington Nursing & Rehabilitation Center
Dr. Richard Benkin ran the Lexington Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Lexington, Illinois. In January 2000, Michael Berens of ''The Chicago Tribune'' said that, " Benkin, the 48-year-old administrator of the facility as well as a part owner, was accused of luring a 27-year-old woman to the rural facility, improperly admitting her into the home, then arranging for a sexual encounter, according to records released Wednesday by the state Department of Professional Regulation."
The Lexington Nursing & Rehabilitation Center was shut in an emergency operation by authorities in March 2000 after a series of articles by ''The Chicago Tribune''. The Associated Press cited, "John Lumpkin, Illinois public health director, said the suspension of the Lexington Nursing and Rehabilitation Center’s license was necessary because of an ``immediate and serious threat″ to residents’ safety
The nursing home was closed, "amid allegations that homeless drug addicts terrorized staff and elderly residents after arriving from Chicago to fill beds at the financially troubled center."
Health Department spokesman Thomas Schafer said one staff member was attacked by a drug patient and another worker was injured when a patient jumped on the worker’s back.
In another instance, one of the drug patients tried to slash the throat of another after they returned from drinking at a bar, Lexington Police Chief Spencer Johansen said.
Human rights activities
Benkin participated in efforts to release Bangladeshi journalist
Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is a Bangladeshi journalist and the editor of the Bangladeshi newspaper 'Blitz'. Choudhury has faced a number of criminal charges against him including smuggling information out of the country, fraud, sedition, tr ...
, who was imprisoned after writing articles warning about the rise of Islamic radicals, and urging Bangladesh to recognize Israel. Benkin, like Choudhury, is an advisory board member of
Islam-Israel Fellowship.
The two together formed Interfaith Strength to disseminate information about Choudhury's case.
Choudhury was released from prison in 2004. Benkin said, "In almost seven years since
ewas arrested, the Bangladeshi government has not brought forward one scintilla of credible evidence against this journalist; and its sole 'witness' continues to not show up."
In September 2005, the Bangladeshi government asked Benkin if he would help build a "positive image" of Bangladesh in the United States. Wanting to help the Bangladeshi people and advance US-Bangladesh relations, Benkin was advised to accept the challenge because Bangladesh had recently taken positive steps. After one month, however, a frustrated Benkin resigned from the role after serious disagreements with the Bangladeshi government.
On February 15, 2007, House Resolution 64 passed the
United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs
The United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs, also known as the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is a standing committee of the U.S. House of Representatives with jurisdiction over bills and investigations concerning the foreign affairs o ...
without opposition. The resolution called on the government of Bangladesh to drop all charges against Choudhury
Congressman
Mark Kirk
Mark Steven Kirk (born September 15, 1959) is a retired American politician and attorney who served as a United States senator from Illinois from 2010 to 2017, and as the United States representative for Illinois's 10th congressional district fr ...
presented a Certificate of
Special Congressional Recognition to Benkin on May 22, 2005 at Benkin's synagogue, Temple Chai in
Long Grove. This was awarded for Benkin's "commitment and dedication to preserving human rights in the case of Shoaib Choudhury.
Benkin has documented the present-day Hindu genocide happening in Bangladesh. In 2012, he published, A Quiet Case of Ethnic Cleansing: The Murder of Bangladesh's Hindus. He believes the best way to stop Islamic militant gang rape of Hindu women and girls, killing of Hindu people, and destruction of Hindu temples is by boycotting the purchase of garments made in Bangladesh and protest allowing Bangladesh to participate in peacekeeping.
Views
In 2008 Benkin compared Islamist militants in
Kashmir
Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...
to
Palestinian
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
militants, stating that Kashmir is a transitory goal in the
Islamist goal to control
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
:
"Kashmir is South Asia’s West Bank. Just as Pakistan and its Islamist allies ultimately seek to turn all of India into an Islamic state; so, too, the Arabs have tried again and again to destroy the Israel and even had that as their stated policy. After their colossal failure to do so in 1967, they tried once more to invade Israel with national armies only to fail again. So they changed tactics and stopped talking about their ultimate goal. Instead they focused on “the occupation” (West Bank
The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
and Gaza). Their real aim-to destroy Israel and turn it into an Islamic state-never changed. This tactic successfully distracted a gullible Europe which supported Arab calls for their temporary goal. Similarly, South Asian Islamists still want more than Kashmir. Kashmir, like the West Bank, is a transitory goal, but a critical one."
Awards and recognitions
* Special US Congressional Recognition, 2005
* Nominated for 2006 Lorenzo Natali Prize for journalism
* Special Recognition 2007, Bangladesh Editors Forum
* Special Recognition 2007, Bangladesh Minority Lawyers Association
Publications
* ''The Social and Cultural Development of Jewish Communities in Eastern Europe'', 1976 Doctoral Dissertation,
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
Press
* ''The Battle Beneath Jerusalem'' (Dhaka Press, 2009)
* ''Our Fight for Freedom: The Story of a Falsely Imprisoned Muslim and one Jews’s Fight to Free Him''
* ''A Quiet Case of Ethnic Cleansing'' (monograph on Bangladeshi Hindus), published in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
and
Mumbai
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
, 2008
* ''Sociology: A Way of Seeing'', Wadsworth Pub Co (July 1981)
References
External links
Interfaith Strength
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benkin, Richard
American male journalists
American lobbyists
Human rights in Bangladesh
Jewish American activists
Living people
People from Mount Prospect, Illinois
Year of birth missing (living people)