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Purely Commentary

Menacing Threats to Academic Freedom Exposed
in Spreading Numerous Clausus . . . 'A Quota is a
Quota,' Dr. Hamburger's Critical Analyses Warn

`A Quota Is A Quota'—A Warning Agains tthe Re-Emerging Numerus Clausus

Dr. Joel Hamburger, editor of the Oakland Medical
Society Bulletin, in his editorial in the current issue,
touches upon very challenging matters of concern to
the collegiate community, to academics and more espe-
cially to the high school graduate who is confronted with
problems created by difficulties in the path of applicants
for university admissions.
Dr. Hamburger properly titled his current editorial:
"A Day in the Life of a Modern American Sociologist."
In the research Dr. Hamburger has conducted, he
has emerged as student of the
black-white issues, the aca
demic problem involving uni-
versity admissions and their
restrictions resulting from the
preferences being given to a
minority, and as a result he
displays knowledge in sociol-
ogy as it affects the present
generation.
While he does not mention
it by name, Dr. Hamburger
deals in his editorial analysis
with the prejudices that were
inherent in the numerus clau-
sus that had been practiced
against Jews in European uni-
versities, during the dark years JOEL HAMBURGER
of the latter part of the 19th
and the beginnings of the 20th centuries.
These were prejudices against Jews seeking univer-
sity admissions that also found roots in American uni-
versities in the first half of this century. To a degree,
they were either abandoned or reduced in the 1950s and
1960s, only to be reinstituted in recent years both against
Jewish applicants for admission to universities and also
against academics.
The views expressed by Dr. Hamburger defy cynicism
and technicality. They demand rational approach to an
issue that in a sense divided the American people while
reinstituting the bias of backward nations. In his current
approach to the problems that concern him sociologically,
Dr. Hamburger wrote:
A. The Problem
1. Disadvantaged children do not learn anything in
in school
2. Disadvantaged children can not qualify for college
3. Without education disadvantaged children breed
more disadvantaged children on ad infinitum
B. Sociologically Scientific Solution—Certified by Com-
puter (IBM—Leased at UnI , Lea States Government Ex-
pense)
1. Busing. Do not hire extra teachers. Fire teachers.
Discourage training of teachers. Do not provide
supplementary modern teaching aids. Do not pro-
vide extra books. Do not fatigue students with longer
hours of study, enrichment and remedial programs.
Hire bus drivers, purchase buses, provide children
with bus rides. If this fails to improve education,
proceed to step 2.
2. Bias: Victims of bias will now benefit from bias—
directed at someone else. Reinstitute the quota sys-
tem, excluding non-disadvantaged from college in
favor of disadvantaged, regardless of academic
qualifications. Never mind that American univer-
ties have only recently been cleansed of that abomi-
nation of bigotry—The Quota System. Ignore illegal-
ity of racial bias. Racial bias is racism only when
it is against you—not if it is against someone else.
Ignore the fact that unprepared students can not do
satisfactory college work. Proceed to step 3.
3. Black Studies. Ignore the fact that black studies
will not help the student in his quest for upward
mobility in the real competitive outside world. In-
dustry will be required to hire the disadvantaged
whether they can do anything useful or not. A di-
ploma is a diploma.
C. Result. Instant College Graduate. Never mind that
the graduate has been patronized, defrauded, emascu-
lated and stamped with the odious racist label: "He
could not have made it on merit." After all, instant
solutions cost something, too.
These ideas might prove puzzling, unless they are
linked to the initial approach by their author in his
comments on the quota system. Dr. Hamburger began
his case against the quota system some months ago when,
in an editorial in Medical Society Bulletin, under the
title "A Quota is a Quota," he declared:
It is only in the last few years that institutions of
higher education have largely discarded the racial and
religious criteria upon which discriminatory exclusions
had been based. Presumably, this change in attitude
reflected recognition of the inconsistency of such pol-
icies with a democratic society.
Having only so recently relegated discriminatory
exclusions to a tardy but unlamented demise, we now
have a new type of discriminatory admission policy
gaining acceptance. This time, rather than discriminat-
ing against, we have discrimination in favor of a cer-
tain ethnic group. Justification for this favoritism is the
fact in the past this group has been the victim of dis-
crimination, and, therefore, should now be entitled to
special consideration. The merit of such reasoning is
open to challenge. Surely, public support for tutorial

2—Friday, June 15, 1973

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

assistance, and even for full scholarships (tuition, books
room, board and miscellaneous expenses) can be justi
fied to assure that no one, by virtue of socio-economi c
deprivation, should be denied the opportunity to achiev e
his full potential in a society which requires academi c
success for maximum advancement. Truly equal oppor
tunity must be the sine qua non of any society 'whic h
claims to be democratic.
However, does a democratic society have the obli
gation, or even the right, to pursue discriminatory pol-
icies of admission to instiutions of higher education,
even for the professed purpose of righting past wrongs?
In other words, should some of this generation's well
qualified students be denied admission to colleges and
professional schools to provide for the admission, of
some arbitrary number or proportion of students from
a specified group, whether qualified or unqualified? As
long as total admissions are limied in number, discrimi-
nation IN FAVOR OF one group of applicants (regard-
les of the justification) inevitably necessitates descrimi-
nation AGAINST the remaining applicants.
What moral principle demands that certain of the
present generation of students either benefit from or
suffer for past injustice? Is present injustice a suitable
penance for past injustice? Is the substitution of less
qualified for more highly qualified students really in
the public interest, present or future? At least for
public education institutions, is not the adherence to
discriminatory admission policies clearly Hiegel? Can
the arbitrary institution of such policies by nuiversity
administrations without public sanction be described
as anything less than outright tyranny?
No one can deny that certain groups have suffered
and continue to suffer injustice in the United States.
Such injustice was not, and is not, limited to any single
group but has been generously distributed among the
various races. religious and ethnic groups which make
up the public to do away with injustice, as might seem
to be the case, then let us substitute justice—not simply
injustice directed at someone else. No good is derived
from evil. A quota is a quota.
University of Michigan and Wayne State University
spokesmen were drawn into the dispute by this outspoken
declaration and it was understandable that the issuse
would be ducked by those under challenge. But the fact
remains that a quota is a quota and academic freedoms
can not be attained through race bias or by creating
bias in reverse through special privileges accorded out
of a sense of guilt for historic wrongs.
"Reverse discrimination" was admitted by a spokes-
man for the Office of Civil Rights of the Department of
Health, Education and Welfare. Also President William
J. McGill of Columbia University, expressing a deep ap-
preciation of the apprehensions of those "who view numer-
ical goals .. . as a thinly veiled revival of anti-Semitism"
in faculty hiring, conceded that "America's best colleges
were rampant with anti-Semitism" in admissions and
faculty appointments. Other forms of bias have been ad-
mitted by a number of college heads.
The case against quotas was interestingly tackled by
a very distinguished leader of the Black community, Roy
Wilkins, executive director of the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People. It was writ-
ten for the Bnai Brith Anti-Defamation League and was
welcomed as a view, "while not entirely consonant with
ADL policy with regard to numerical goals, (it) gives
a respected black leader's recognition of the injustices
inherent in. quotas. Wilkins expressed his attitudes as
follows:
Some Americans were so busy with the Watergate
affair that they failed to note that the "ins" disowned
quotas and the "outs" gave an unintelligible defense of
the practice.
The Committee to Re-Elect the President, pausing
in the midst of its manifold operations, denied that its
widely-heralded plans for the employment of a certain
percentage of minority workers on construction jobs
meant that the Administration favored quotas. They
solemnly affirmed that these were simple goals and not
ironclad quotas.
Senator McGovern mumbled something. Of course
nobody means quotas in the sense which had been built
up by the contortionists who knew that quotas could not
be explained in the midst of a campaign. So goals it
became.
But the administration did mean by its Philadel-
phia Plan (and all similar plans named after the cities
which drew them up) that contractors must hire a cer-
tain number of workers from minority groups. This was
a minimum figure and was not related to the alleged
minority population of the city.
It has been found out, as any black man with two
ounces of sense has long since learned, that voluntary
compliance is so much hot air. So the federal govern-
ment was setting purely a compliance guideline. It was
not setting an absolute quota.
Some white elements, aided by greedy, unthinking
blacks who began to claim consideration "for blacks"
on the basis of the estimated black percentage of the
population' started a backlash on quotas. It is ridicu-
lous for Negroes to claim that because they are 40 per-
cent of the population, they should have 40 per cent of
the jobs, 40 per cent of the elected offices, etc.
This is self-defeating nonsense, for no person of
ability wants to be limited in his horizons by an
arbitrary quota or wants to endure unqualified people

By Philip
Slomovitz

JNF and Continuity in Family Devotions

Diane and Jerome Hauser are, in their own rights,
such outstanding activists in our community that the
honor being accorded them by the Jewish National Fund
is a most deserved recognition for devoted labors.
This year's JNF function draws attention to the con-
tinuity in family devotions to Jewish causes.
Mrs. Hauser's father, the late Israel Davidson, was
a pioneer in Zionist activties in De-
troit. He was associated with the
Zionist Organization of Detroit from
its inception and he was active in
the movement in the days of Dr.
A. M. Hershman's presidency of
the Detroit District of the Zionist
Organization of America.
He was famed as "I.D." not only
in business circles but in the gen-
eral community — as one of the
leaders of Shaarey Zelek, as an
active force in Allied Jewish Cam- ISRAEL DAVIDSON
paigns, as one of the original investors in the Roc'
Products undertaking by Detroiters who 'sponsored ft
great financial venture in Israel.
"I.D." was one of the early members of the JNF
Council in Detroit. He loved Israel and traveled there
frequently, and his wife and his family shared his inter-
est in the Zionist cause.
Similarly, the chairman of
this year's JNF function, Al-
fred Deutsch, marks a con-
tinuing family interest in the
cause. His father the late
Adolph Deutsch, rose from
bank teller to banker. His en-
tire life was linked with the
synagogue, and he was much
more than president of Bnai
Moshe. He was among its out-
standing lay leaders. He was
a builder and a supporter, he
gave encouragement to the
city's and his own congrega-
tion's cultural-spiritual efforts.
ADOLPH DEUTSCH
He was dedicated to the com-
munity in his affiliation with the Allied Jewish Campaign,
the JNF, the Zionist movement and many social needs.
It was under his leadership that cultural programs
were introduced in Bnai Moshe and he was a great sup-
porter of the late Rabbi Moses Fischer.
Interestingly, the speaker at the JNF dinner on Tues-
day also continues a family tradition. John Tunney, a
Democratic member of the U. S. Senate, is not a prize
fighter, like his father. But like his father, Gene Tunney,
he loves good literature and has shown his qualities in
Senate speeches.
Gene Tunney gained fame not only as a champion
boxer but also as a lover of Shakespeare. His son John
emulates it. He also follows the father's social interests.
He has displayed his craving for justice in his unwavering
support of Israel, his backing of legislation in defense
of the Jewish state, and of the battling Jewish minority
in the Soviet Union.
His understanding of the issues classifies him as a
scholar like his fighting father.
Perhaps that also summarizes the overall objectives
of the JNF function: to pay honor to a deserving couple
and to continue the fight for justice by strengthening the
hands of the builders of Israel through the great JNF
objectives.

in positions that they fill only because of a numerical
racial quota.
The people who pulled a black population percent-
age out of a hat as a method of measuring what "the
race" is entitled to receive are the ones who have made
"quotas" a nasty word , and every black effort for fair-
ness suspect. Once the enemies of the senseless quota
system ,got started, they really zeroed in on items not
connected with the almost lily-white echelons of the
construction industry.
They went into general employment and ridiculed,
as well they might, the idea of blocking out a definite
quota of jobs for blacks, irrespective of whether there
were qualified 'black people to fill them. Ignoring thf
decades in which black college students were on
"zero quota" basis, they went into college admissions
policies which on some campuses set aside a percentage
of places for black applicants. In some places white
applicants with excellent records have been made to
stand aside for blacks with inferior records.
Such practices and, in fact, the whole black-tilted
system are doing no favors to Negro applicants. God
knows it is true that the cards have been deliberately
stacked against blacks. Every feasible step, even those
costing extra money, should be taken to correct this
racialism.
But, there must not be a lowering of standards.
Negroes need to insist on being among the best, not
on being the best of the second—or third-raters.
The quotas may effect Jews alone now; they will
come home to roost as a menace to those who may now
benefit from discrimination in reverse. The point is, as
Dr. Hamburger has defined the issue, that regardless of
arguments to the contrary a quota is a quota. it is dam-
aging to the American way of life. It is destructive of
basic democratic principles. It should be fought to a
finish without hesitation.

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