Topic: A Threat to Iran's Rich Cultural Heritage

Guest Speaker: Patty Gerstenblith, Distinguished Research Professor of Law; Faculty Director, Center for Art, Museum & Cultural Heritage Law

Moderated by Rabbi Sam Gordon, Professor Gerstenblith joins us to discuss her recent letter published by the New York Times, 'A Threat to Iran's Rich Cultural Heritage.'

President Trump has threatened retaliation against Iran by striking Iranian sites including “some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture.” If carried out, this threat would constitute a war crime under international instruments such as the 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, which the United States has joined. The American military has a proud history of avoiding intentional damage to and destruction of cultural sites, which began with President Abraham Lincoln’s law of war manual, known as the Lieber Code...

Patty Gerstenblith is a distinguished research professor of law at DePaul University and director of its Center for Art, Museum & Cultural Heritage Law. She is founding president of the Lawyers Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation (2005-2011), a director of the U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield and senior advisor to the ABA's Art and Cultural Heritage Law Committee. In 2011, she was appointed by President Obama to serve as the chair of the President's Cultural Property Advisory Committee in the U.S. Department of State, on which she had previously served as a public representative in the Clinton administration.