President Ahmadinejad organizes conferences on Holocaust denial, enriches uranium for the possible production of nuclear weapons, and threatens the eradication of Israel. Hamas controls Gaza and promises to destroy the Jewish State. Yet Washington’s Holocaust Memorial Museum Web site features a new interactive feature about the crisis in Darfur.

According to the museum’s home page, Crisis in Darfur is “an unprecedented online mapping initiative from the Museum and Google Earth, lets you visualize, better understand, and respond to the genocide currently unfolding in Darfur.”

The Web site also features President Bush’s April 2007 speech at the museum, almost three-quarters of which was devoted to Darfur. The president declared, “As we continue to pressure the government of Sudan to meet its commitments, we will continue our engagement in support of the people of Darfur.”

Indeed, Darfur is a tragedy. But is it an appropriate major focus for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum when the existence of Jews in Israel is threatened by Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, and Hamas, and when British academics support anti-Semitism by boycotting their Israeli counterparts?

In a strikingly timely way, the use and abuse of Holocaust commemoration is the subject of a new satirical novel, “My Holocaust,” by Tova Reich. This book addresses the degradation of Holocaust memory by those who have taken the responsibility to maintain it upon themselves — the leaders of the museum.

Some might argue that in response to Mr. Ahmadinejad and his Holocaust deniers, Jews have to be careful not to voice any criticism of Holocaust memory nor criticize institutions such as the Holocaust Memorial Museum. But a satire illuminating abuses of memorialization provides a cautionary tale that will not aid Mr. Ahmadinejad — it can prevent worse abuses in the future.

The novel depicts the appropriation of the Holocaust, as if it has become a brand name, by many self-styled victims groups. Ms. Reich describes how these groups, in the service of advancing their own causes, have latched onto the Holocaust and attached its name to related causes such as the “African-American Holocaust,” the “Native-American Holocaust,” the “Tibetan Holocaust,” and the “Chinese Holocaust.”

The author shows how other victim groups, envious of such power, funding, and recognition claim that their Holocaust is larger than the Jewish Holocaust. They too hope that money will flow to them from the public and private sectors, along with prestige and personal aggrandizement.

Another issue raised by “My Holocaust” concerns the displays of power and profligacy that have proliferated in Holocaust organizations. Unseemly rituals of status — meetings with the president; hobnobbing with the wealthy; being pursued by senators, congressmen, and world leaders; associating with Hollywood stars and other celebrities — have become routine.

The book has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from many well-respected publications, including the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post.

It has also received its share of criticism.

Writing in the New York Times, David Margolick gave the book a negative review even though he admits that “ghoulish commemoration has become the core of Jewish observance.” He insists that “the business of publicizing and exploiting the mass murder of European Jewry for political, financial or institutional gain is something we Jews would rather not discuss, except among ourselves.”

And New York’s Jewish Week complains that the book provides ammunition for those such as Norman Finkelstein who speak disapprovingly of an exploitative “Holocaust industry.”

The critics are wrong. The issues raised in the book are not only meritorious but also are crucial.

There are about two dozen Holocaust memorial museums in America alone, and they have accounted for a large share of philanthropic giving to Jewish causes.

Private funds that are going to Holocaust memorials aren’t being used for Israel, where Jews are under attack, or for local Jewish community needs. These contributions to Holocaust memorials lead to reduced donations to other Jewish organizations, such as synagogues and schools.

Furthermore, when institutions can attract large amounts of money, they acquire enormous community influence and even political power. The Holocaust Memorial Museum receives $40 million in federal funds and $22 million in private funds, annually. It is quite legitimate to ask whether its mission is being fulfilled, or distorted.

Of paramount importance is that there is an incipient second Holocaust germinating in the Middle East. There are many similarities to what was happening in Germany during the 1930s — the anti-Semitic propaganda, the demonization of the Jews in Arab schools, the boycotts, the articulated desire of the Arab world to rid the Middle East of Jews. All of this takes place with nearly all of the international community standing by, seemingly indifferent.

Even the very museum in Washington created to remember the Holocaust devotes more attention to Darfur, at least based on its Web site, than to the current threats against Israel.

In the 1930s and 1940s the American Jewish community did not speak loudly enough about what was happening to Jews in other parts of the world. Mr. Ahmadinejad and his ilk hear this silent echo today.

Ms. Furchtgott-Roth, former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor, is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.