I FOCUS I DOUBLE YOUR CLOSET SPACE • Adjustable do-it-yourself and custom closet systems in epoxy- coated wire or laminate • Custom plans for remodeling or new construction SEE US AT THE WOMEN'S CENTER SHOIATHOLISE LUTTER ONTROL 2NC The Complete Closet Store 28956 Orchard Lake Road, Frm. His. OPEN 7 DAYS 1 855-9678 `N. • •••, :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Shirley Stern. SImil 110:s PhySic'itin Rei&Tra A nice hot bowl of chicken soup can often make you feel better. But sometimes you need more. Sometimes you need expert medical advice. Then it's time to turn to the medical experts at Sinai Hospital. We have specialists who can help with everything that's got you krechtzing, from the minor "oy vat's" to the serious "gevalt!"s. The doctors on our staff have offices convenient to your home or business, whose office hours fit into your busy schedule. If you need a good cup of soup, try our recipe. If you need medical care, try our doctors. For a referral to a doctor on staff at Sinai, call Shirley Stern, our physician referral maven, at 1-800-248-DOCS (248-3627). THIS IS SINAI Michigan's Only Jewish Hospital 22 FRIDAY, MAY 6, 1988, Should Free Speech Ever Be Abridged? KENNETH LASSON Special to the Jewish News I n a free society, should Nazis be allowed to march in public, preaching genocide and in- flaming racial passions? Can an ethnic group that has been maliciously defamed collect damages in court? Do mere words cause injury? These and other questions were debated last week by scholars from around the world, who assembled in New York for a three-day con- ference entitled "Group Defamation and Freedom of Speech: The Relationship be- tween Language and Vio- lence." The gathering at Hofstra University, co- sponsored by the Anti- Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, the NAACP and an Asian American group, in- cluded academics and practi- tioners from the humanities, sciences, linguistics, and the law. All of them suggested ap- propriate responses to in- creasing incidents of racial hatred, particularly in western democracies. Elie Wiesel, Nobel Laureate and currently a pro- fessor of humanities at Boston University, told the conference participants that the "most despicable enemies" of free people everywhere remain in the sophisticated pseudo-scholars who would rewrite history and deny the Holocaust ever took place. Speaking with his usual quiet eloquence, Wiesel said that even now he receives hundreds of hate let- ters a year. Somewhat ironically, per- haps, announcement of the conference at Hofstra also resulted in racist mail to the university — most of it anti- Semitic but some directed against Catholics and blacks. A succession of other scholars examined the causal effect between group defama- tion and oppression. Psychol- ogist Kenneth Clark traced patterns of prejudice both overt and subtle that have caused what he termed pal- pable harm to blacks, con- cluding that, in his lifetime at least, racial defamation has equaled oppression. Historian Laurence Hauptman pointed to the devastating effects upon Pequod Indians when they were labeled "Children of Satan." Dr. John Dower described a litany of epithets aimed at the Japanese during World War II, when they were most frequently likened to "yellow vermin" and "apes." And sociologist Michael Blain presented the chilling development of linguistic defamation in mid-20th Cen- tury Germany, where the Nazis propaganda machine had first labeled Jews as "egotistical" and then, pro- gressively more perjorative, as "cunning," "sly," and "destructive." Ultimately, of course, all Jews were depicted as "racial monsters" and "un- Freedom of speech is a noble guarantee of the First Amendment, and liberty-loving Americans have been loathe to abandon the principle .. . termenschen" (subhumans). "A particular speech or series of speeches attacking a minority group may not pre- sent a clear and a present danger of violence," noted Law Professor Monroe H. Freedman, the conference director. "We know intuitive- ly, however, that group defamation can create a social climate that is receptive to and encourages hatred and oppression. If a minority group can be made to appear less than human, deserving of punishment, or a threat to the general community, op- pression of that minority is a likely consequence." Other proofs were offered that language itself can hurt — that there are words which by their very utterance can inflict injury by demeaning dignity and inducing fear. Nevertheless, to allow pun- ishment of group defamation raises serious questions of social policy and, in the United States at least, con- stitutionality. Freedom of speech is a noble guarantee of the First Amendment, and liberty-loving Americans have been loathe to abandon the principle with but precious few exceptions. Those thoughts that are abhorrent to a free society, we say, will wither when aired but fester if suppressed. Moreover, who is to decide which ideas are offensive? The traditional arguments against the constitutionality of group-libel laws are that to