Fighting Against
The Religious Right

After 23 years as Michigan ACLU's director, Howard
Simon transfers to Florida.

JULIE WIENER STAFF WRITER

I

n the 1988 presidential cam-
paign, George Bush attacked
Michael Dukakis by calling
him a "card-carrying member
of the ACLU [American Civil Lib-
erties Union]."
As a leader of this much-ma-
ligned and misunderstood orga-
nization, Howard Simon is not
fazed by such attacks.
For 23 years, Simon has
served as ACLU of Michigan's ex-
ecutive director, expanding it
from a one-man staff to a power-
house of six professionals who
take on high-profile cases, lobby
in the state legislature, and edu-
cate the public about the Bill of
Rights and civil liberties.

Now Simon will continue to
carry the ACLU's torch, but with-
out the drudgery of Michigan
winters. He has accepted an of-
fer to direct the 10,000-member
Florida affiliate of the ACLU, and
will start Oct. 1. Based in Miami,
the Florida affiliate is the ACLU's
fifth largest.
A native of New York City, Si-
mon says he is looking forward
to the challenges and opportuni-
ty for growth that will come with
the move. And on the personal
side, he is looking forward to
spending time with his parents
who live near Miami.
Simon is not certain of all the
issues in store for him as ACLU

director in Florida, but given minority religious community,
Florida's large immigrant popu- and the rights of all religious mi-
lation, he anticipates addressing norities are protected as long as
their civil liberties issues. Also, the [U.S. Constitution's] Bill of
because Florida has an active Rights is protected."
death row, whereas the death
penalty is illegal in Michigan, Si-
mon anticipates cases and liti-
gation defending the rights of
prisoners who have been sen-
tenced to death.
Other than that, Simon be-
lieves that many key issues the
ACLU takes on are similar all
over the country: defending free
speech, protecting abortion
rights, fighting for the right to
physician-assisted suicide and
battling to maintain the separa-
tion of church and state.
These are issues Simon pas-
sionately supports, and he feels
the Jewish community should as
well.
"I don't want to sound like I'm
lecturing, but the Jewish com- ACLU Director Howard Simon: Florida-bound.
munity has been and should be
concerned about some issues that
During his tenure at the Michi-
are at the core of what the ACLU gan ACLU, Simon says that —
is all about," he said. "The Jew- although not personally affiliat-
ish community has always been ed with a congregation — he has
cognizant of the fact that it is a given talks at almost every syn-

agogue in southeast Michigan,
explaining what the ACLU is
about and why it frequently takes
controversial cases.
The 1979 Skokie case — in
which the Illinois ACLU de-
fended the right of American
Nazis to march in a heavily Jew-
ish suburb of Chicago — is one
ACLU controversy that still re-
verberates in the Jewish com-
munity.
Although he was not directly
involved with the case, Simon is
asked about it almost every time
he lectures at a synagogue. And
as a Jew who lost half his fami-
ly in the Holocaust (Simon's fam-
ily recently went back to Poland
and discovered that his great-
grandfather's house had been
used as Gestapo headquarters),
it was probably the most per-
sonally difficult ACLU case.
"The principles weren't diffi-
cult," he said. "What was difficult
were the emotions about it ...
Skokie has a significant Jewish
community with a lot of Holocaust
survivors, and people were un-
derstandably horrified ... So it was
kind of schizophrenic for me.

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