Jewry's Role in
Human Affairs
ON THE LEADING EDGE OF DISCOVERY
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
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directors, said American Jews have
been more supportive of civil rights
than other non-minority Americans.
On The Wane?
The affirmative-action issue will proba-
bly die down and won't spark a renew-
al of tensions, most experts agree.
"I don't see this as a dominant issue
at the moment," said Friedman, who
heads the American Jewish Committee
office in Philadelphia.
Julius Lester, a professor of Judaic
and Near Eastern studies at the
University of Massachusetts, said he
thinks tensions between the two
groups in general have diminished.
•
"In my travels around the country,
I find blacks are more curious about
Judaism, that more blacks are convert-
ing to Judaism and this is in contrast
to very different attitudes I encoun-
tered a decade ago," said Lester, an
African American who converted to
Judaism years ago.
A clear indication of the change,
Lester said, was the response of the
NAACP to the leader of the Dallas chap-
ter who made antisemitic remarks about
Lieberman being the vice presidential
nominee. The NAACP immediately
denounced the comments Lee Alcorn
made. Alcorn was forced to resign.
"My own sense is that tensions
between blacks and Jews is at its low-
est in quite some time," Lester said.
But according to a Anti-Defamation
League poll taken in 1998 of
ROLE MODEL
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for a Reform temple in Chelmsford,
Mass., said Lieberman's selection
shows Jewish kids that they "can
grow up to be anything as a Jew.
"I hope it strengthens people's
pride about their heritage, rather than
seeing it as a detriment," she added.
"I'm excited about our kids hav-
ing a role model," said Merle
Steinberg, a religious school director
in Cherry Hill, N.J. With
Lieberman on board, "it makes it
really cool to be Jewish."
"We've always taught the kids
that the sky's the limit," said Beverly
Goldberg, program director and
b'nai mitzvah coordinator at a
Reform congregation in suburban
Philadelphia. She calls Lieberman
"such a wonderful role model."
One longtime CAJE activist who
Americans' attitudes about Jews, blacks
are three times more likely to hold
antisemitic beliefs than are whites.
Rabbi Marc Schneier, president of
the Foundation for Ethnic
Understanding, challenges that finding
of growing antisemitism among
blacks. His organization works to fos-
ter relations between Jews and blacks.
A 1998 poll by the organization
surveyed 500 Jews and 500 blacks and
found growing cooperation between
the groups.
According to Abraham Foxman, the
ADL's national director, the polls are
not comparable because of the way
they were conducted.
Foxman said he wished the founda-
tion's survey conclusions were right,
and that his group was so troubled by
the findings of the ADL survey that it
doubled the samples twice — and still
got the same results.
"It's a very distressing, disturbing
statistic," he said
Indeed, tensions could keep ebbing
and flowing as antisemitic remarks
come from parts of the black commu-
nity, observers say.
The latest incident was an editorial in
the Amsterdam News, a major black
newspaper in New York City, that sug-
gested Gore bought the Jewish vote by
selecting Lieberman as his running mate.
Rabbi Schneier of the foundation
views the remarks as exceptions to the
rule. "We must distance ourselves
from the rhetoric and diatribe of a few
who look to exacerbate tensions
between our two communities," Rabbi
Schneier said. ❑
did not want his name used because
he is a professional fund-raiser for
politicians, called Lieberman's selec-
tion a "landmark for Jewish educa-
tion," and asked "Can you imagine
how many Jews will learn about
Sukkot when the vice president
walks into his sukka?"
But other educators were doubt-
ful that Lieberman's election would
make much of a difference in reach-
ing assimilated American Jews.
Steven Steinbock, a teacher and
bar mitzvah tutor in Yarmouth,
Maine, said the Lieberman selection
represents a "significant change in
American society," but predicted his
impact on Jewish identity would be
"minimal."
Said Steinbock: "Congressmen
have a bigger presence than the vice
president — there's not going to be
a huge response."
❑
Within the constellation of physics, medicine, physiology, chemistry and other
sciences are many Jewish luminaries who have lit up our world with memorable
discoveries. There is no end to the achievements of Nobel Laureates with Jewish
roots who you will come to meet in forthcoming columns.
ISIDOR RABI
(1898-1988) b. Rymanow, Austro-Hungary Physicist
While a full professor at Columbia University he
conducted research on quantum mechanics, magnetism
and nuclear physics. His principle finding was a
method employing molecular beams to measure the
behavior of atomic nuclei. Such studies advanced our
knowledge of the nature of atomic structure and
earned him a Nobel Prize for Physics in 1944. Rabi
had earlier served as an associate director of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology's radiation laboratory and since 1953 as chairman of the U.S. Atomic
Energy Commission's general advisory committee. Throughout his distinguished
career, he eloquently supported a largely public role in safely overseeing the
peacetime uses of atomic energy.
GERTRUDE ELION
(1918-) b. New York City Biochemist At the early age
of 31, the intrepid researcher launched a long career in
discovering effective treatments for fighting cancer.
Within a decade she perfected a drug called thioguanine
with the remarkable success--combined with other
compounds--of completely curing 80% of all childhood
leukemia patients. During an affiliation with
_
L
pharmaceutical giant Burroughs Wellcome she helped
develop drugs to prevent kidney rejection and treat anemia, hepatitis, gout, herpes
and shingles. To her lasting credit, Elion's research methodology was applied by
others in formulating AZT, the first licensed U.S. drug to combat the AIDS virus.
Her Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine was won in 1989.
MURRAY GELL-MANN
(1929-) b. New York City Physicist The "quark," as
he named it, was the long sought after holy grail of
subatomic science, the most fundamental particle in the
known universe. He postulated its existence and
clarified the puzzling phenomena of subatomic
organization and interactions--within a scheme he
called "The Eightfold Way," a widely accepted
ordering system which advanced our understanding of
physical reality. His brilliant display of theoretical analysis led to a Nobel Prize
for Physics in 1969. The Ph.D. graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology joined the faculty of California Institute of Technology and also won
the coveted American Physical Society's Heineman Prize in 1956.
- Saul Stadtmauer
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