Reflect on the Future Of Black-Jewish Relations

Jesse Jackson Has Left the Campus. 'Liberators' is Over. Now Harvard Can...

The event was over, but as 1,200 people filed out of Sanders Theater Monday night, conversation within racially-diverse groups of students continued--a measure of the success of the panel discussion on Black-Jewish relations that followed the showing of "Liberators."

The event, sponsored by the Office of the President, the Office of the Dean of Students and the Department of Afro-American Studies, was largely hailed as an effort by the administration to ease the heated tensions that flared last spring. The showing of the film, a documentary about Black troops' role in the liberation of Nazi concentration camps, was followed by the panel discussion and address by Rev. Jesse I.. Jackson.

Although conflicts between the Black Students Association (BSA) and Hillel seem to have subsided this past semester, the discussion was an important, peaceful chapter in race relations at Harvard because of the "unusual candor and openness from members of both communities," according to Assistant Professor of Law Charles J. Ogletree Jr., the panel's moderator.

While the relationship between the groups last semester was characterized by heated exchanges, Monday's five-hour program was a promising step in smoothing over past tensions and forging a new, more cooperative relationship.

"I think the quality was very high," Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III said. "I think we achieved a level of discussion I could not have imagined. The impact on people was extremely great."

Epps also said he thought the two communities would be able to use the film "to retrieve the nature of these interactions" and cooperate as the Blacks and Jews did at the time of the liberation of Buchenwald and Dachau. There is "a lot to be shared" by the two communities, Epps said.

And students, administrators and historians all said the message of cooperation between Blacks and Jews was not clouded by questions of the film's historical accuracy. The controversy surfaced last week after the publication of an article in The New Republic and a series of statements by a University of Texas professor who said he was falsely credited as the film's historical consultant.

'Beginning of a Neutral Dialogue'

Despite student sentiment that there are currently no tensions between the Black and Jewish communities, leaders of both groups say the panel--unprompted by crisis or conflict--will help the efforts to improve a historically rocky relationship.

"It is the beginning of a neutral dialogue in a very peaceful time," Ogletree said. "What we accomplish now will be very useful in overcoming difficulties in future months and years."

The string of difficulties last spring started with a conflict over a controversial BSA-sponsored speech by City University of New York Professor Leonard Jeffries in February.

In April, Harvard Foundation Director S. Allen Counter accused The Crimson of biased coverage of the Foundation and of race-related issues. The next month, the BSA door-dropped a flyer, "On the Harvard Plantation," that listed its grievances with the administration, the Harvard police and The Crimson.

But both organizations are ready to move beyond the troubles of last year, according to the remarks made by the student panelists, Hillel member Megan E. Lewis '95 and BSA Vice President Alvin L. Bragg '95. Bragg and Lewis could not be reached for comment yesterday.

"I thought it would lay down the groundwork for better relations in the future and in that respect it was a success," said Hillel Chair Jeremy A. Dauber '95, who added that the peaceful, crisis-free backdrop to the discussion will help re-define race relations.

"I'm hoping that we don't define race relations in terms of conflict anymore. We should define it in terms of cooperation," Dauber said.

In the introduction to the film and during the panel discussion, Jackson said the forum represented a positive step towards cooperation among all ethnic and religious groups.

"We must put the ethical above the ethnic because the ethnic is so particular, while the ethical is universal," Jackson said in his remarks which many have said strengthened the impact of the discussion.

"Ignorance leads to fear, fear to hatred, hatred to violence," Jackson said, stressing the need for understanding and education. "There must be some commitment to teaching a common base of good information."

DuBois Professor of the Humanities Henry Louis Gates, Jr. also said after the program that successful Black-Jewish relations will require understanding of the Black and Jewish sensitivities, like anti-Semitic and anti-Black remarks.

"Getting the source of our problems wrong is an obstacle for setting them right," Gates told the crowd.

Ogletree said Gates is planning conferences for this year to build on the gains made Monday night.

Acting Hillel Director Rabbi Saliv A. Einestone said she thought the panel "realistically laid out the challenges both groups face" and that the speeches by Ogletree, Gates and Jackson "gave backing to what we've been saying all along."

Former Hillel chair Shai A. Held 94 said Black Jewish relations have come to symbolize face relations between all ethnic and religious groups. Using Black Jewish relations as the springboard for discussion between other groups may burden the start of the open discussion between the two communities.

And though student leaders have touted discussion as a "new phase" in Black Jewish relations, there has been no communication between the BSA and Hillel since the panel discussion Monday.

Dauber called for the end of "Rolodex diplomacy" race relations, with communications bridged solely between the heads of the organizations. He also said the Hillel inter-ethnic committee will likely start talks with various ethnic groups on campus in addition to the BSA.

"I certainly hope we will be able to follow up the panel with more dialogue," Dauber said. "It marks a new phase of the relationship, or at least an old phase made new."

Required Reading

Harvard has made it onto the pages of GQ magazine once again. This time, however, the monthly publication is not scrutinizing the sex lives of young Harvardians, but the troubles at the Law School.

The article, "Beirut on the Charles," by John Sedgwick, examines problems, such as the allegations of racism and sexism at the Harvard Law REview, the ongoing grassroots student movement for increased faculty diversity and the past controversial parody of slain Professor Mary Joe frug's feminist writings.

"Ever since the Paper Chase, the John Jay Osborn Jr. novel, and the subsequent movie and TV show, and more especially SCott Turow's harrowing ONe L, students have probably been prepared to have their egos cracked by the academic rigors of the place. Of course, it can still be a little startling to be spattered by vomit from an unstrung classmate during an exam, as happened to one student long ago.

"But that's nothing compared to the stress fractures caused by the school's heavy politics, which have pitted faculty members against faculty members, faculty member against students and, perhaps most viciously of all, students against student. Relations have broken down so completely that Dean Clark recently appointed Professor Emeritus Roger Fisher, the famed negotiator who has attempted to reconcile Kuwait and Iraq, to act as a kind of marriage counselor for the law school 'community'."

The article does not hesitate to outline the troubles plaguing the country's second-best law school, second only to its rival down I-95 in New Haven. "Instead of directly decrying the ruling class, the students pick at its racism, sexism and homophobia-Harvard Law's holy trinity," the article states.

Holy Trinity? Holy triviality, Batman, say several Law School students. Marie-Louise Ramsdale, president of the Law School Council, criticized the article, saying it treated lightly the issue of faculty diversity and whit it was the source of friction.

But will any of them become libel lawyers?