FOCUS The Wexner Foundation Most Dangerous Politician? Continued from preceding page Proudly Announces Its Third Class of Graduate Fellows Fellow Graduate Programs Yosef Abramowitz Shoshana Bechhofer Mark Bleiweiss Kenneth Carr Sandra Cohen Mojgan Javid Mark Koplik Susan Levitin Rebecca Meyer Hillel Novetsky Sara Paasche Rachel Sabath Jonathan Savett Miriam Senturia Marc Sirinsky Joel Sisenwine Rachel Tessler Columbia University National College of Education Jewish Theological Seminary Hebrew Union College —JIR Hebrew Union College—JIR HUC-JIR/Univ. of Southern California Jewish Theological Seminary Brandeis University HUC-JIR/Univ. of Southern California RIETS —Yeshiva University Jewish Theological Seminary Hebrew Union College—JIR Jewish Theological Seminary Reconstructionist Rabbinical College University of Judaism Hebrew Union College—JIR JTS/Columbia University The Wexner Foundation was created by Leslie H. Wexner, the founder and chairman of The Limited Inc., and his mother Mrs. Bella Wexner. The Foundation is committed to the enhancement and improvement of Jewish leadership. The Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program is designed to attract the most promising and talented Jewish men and women to pursue careers in professional Jewish leadership, in syna- gogue/temple, Jewish communal and Jewish educational set- tings. The program provides full academic tuition, generous living stipends for graduate studies in Jewish leadership pro- grams in North America and annual Foundation-sponsored institutes and learning experiences. The Foundation welcomes applications and inquiries. For more information write to: The Wexner Foundation Graduate Fellowship Program 41 South High Street, Suite 3390, Columbus, Ohio 43215 THE ATTIC THEATER IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE THE APPOINTMENT OF DANIEL KANTER AS BUSINESS MANAGER. 166 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1990 Lance Hill, executive director of the Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and Nazism, says the issue is not whether David Duke wins the Senate race but whether he will finish strongly enough to gain legitimacy. Beth Rickey, a member of the Republi- can State Central Committee, was wooed politically by Rep. Duke for over a year after she began criticizing him publicly. "I think he liked me and he's a very likable person on a very superficial level," she says in her fashionable apartment near downtown New Orleans. Ms. Rickey relates that last summer she and Rep. Duke had lunch at a Chinese restaurant in New Orleans "and we talk- ed about his bottom line — that race mix- ing causes the political and economic problems we have in society. The way to deal with it, he said, is separate races and he defines Jewish people as a race. He be- lieves that the Jewish people use blacks as mere dupes for their purposes." Ms. Rickey says that during their con- versation she felt the pull of Mr. Duke's verbal ministrations, "pseudo-scientific arguments" and references to various scholars. "He's very persuasive," says Ms. Rickey, who teaches at Southeast Louisi- ana University. She says she was aghast when Mr. Duke denied that the Holo- caust happened. (Her father helped lib- erate one of the Nazi death camps.) And she was amazed when Mr. Duke quoted Talmudic interpreters as saying it was permissible for Jews to have sex with lit- tle boys. At one point, she says, Mr. Duke drew a map on a napkin of the Mauthausen death camp which he had visited and said that he had inspected it and was convinc- ed that no extermination of Jews took place there. Ms. Rickey says she is shocked by the lack of knowledge her students have about the Holocaust and worries that "if you don't know anything [about it], I can Jane Buchsbaum is an official of the Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and Nazism and executive director of the New Orleans Jewish Federation. She says the key to stopping David Duke is to expose him and his views to the public. see how people can believe him. "I'm very disappointed in the leader- ship in this state," she says. "Maybe I was naive. I thought that David Duke was something that one was inherently opposed to." She says she is upset that "people are so willing to accept him at what seems to be face value today." Doug Seymour was an undercover cop at a conference of white supremacists in New Orleans in 1979. According to Mr. Seymour, the most significant event of that conference was David Duke's urging his compatriots to hide their racism and run for public office. Writes Mr. Seymour in a chapter from a book he is writing: "David Duke ... again spoke of working within the politi- Jewish leaders in Louisiana are less than sanguine about "the new David Duke." cal system. This talk foreshadowed Duke's decision to cloak his Klan affilia- tion to form the NAAWP. It would not be difficult to make the conversion from Klansmen to politicians, Duke told the group of 300 to 400. Simply announce the new organization and disassociate in- volvement with the Klan." Says Seymour today, "That's exactly what Duke is doing now. He hasn't changed a bit." Counters Rep. Duke, "I live in the present and future, not that past. And I'm going to win this election." ❑