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Champion Of Liberty
The ACLU marks 40 years in Michigan with Jewish members and a new o zce.
BARBARA LEWIS
Special to the Jewish News
it
The ACLU has always attracted support from the Jewish community. The
Michigan group's founders in 1961 included Carl Levin, now the state's senior
U.S. senator, and Avern Cohn, now a U.S. District Court judge. Moss and sev-
eral of her staff of eight are Jewish, as are about a quarter of the group's board
members.
"In my family, we had an extremely strong sense of responsibility to the com-
munity. It was our cultural ethic," said Moss, 43, who grew up in Southfield
and now lives in Ann Arbor. "So many of us are here because our parents and
grandparents were immigrants who came from horri-
ble situations where they were discriminated against,
even tortured, because of who they were."
Added Wendy Wagenheim, "The Jewish people
have always cared a great deal about social justice. We
understand what it means." Wagenheim is the ACLU
of Michigan's communications director and a vice
president of the Jewish Community Council of
Metropolitan Detroit.
Says ACLU member David Wolok, an attorney who
lives in Huntington Woods, "For several reasons, I
think Jews are particularly sensitive to individual and
minority rights. We are a minority here, and we're
grateful that we were welcomed to this country"
adical immigrants plot violence against the United States.
Government agents crack down, arresting thousands. The
Washington Post opines, "There is no time to waste on
hair-splitting over infringement of liberty."
Reaction to the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center?
No, these were the "Palmer raids," coordi-
nated by U.S. Attorney General Mitchell
Palmer in 1920 as a response to perceived
threats from communists and other groups.
These and similar government actions
against individuals, whose only crime was
their political convictions, led to the found-
ing of the American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) in 1920.
In its first year, the ACLU fought Palmer's
campaign of intimidation and harassment,
supported the rights of trade unionists to
meet and organize, and secured the release
of hundreds of people arrested for anti-war
views and activities.
Wendy Wagenheim, standin g, and Kary Moss check
The Bill of Rights has been part of the
Nazis And Skokie
the
ACLU Web site.
United States Constitution since 1791, but
In 1978, the ACLU alienated many of its Jewish
before the ACLU began, it was rarely used
backers
by
supporting
the
rights of a Nazi group to rally in Skokie, a mostly
to defend minority rights. Now celebrating its 40th anniversary, the
Jewish
suburb
of
Chicago.
state affiliate has "been behind every major case involving the Bill of
The city of Skokie had passed several ordinances restricting demonstrations in
Rights or state human rights laws," said Michigan Executive Director
order
to stop the N'azis. The Nazis eventually won in the state supreme court
Kary Moss.
but voluntarily moved their rally to Chicago.
Some cases involve litigation, and some of those set legal precedents.
Ironically, when the Jewish War-Veterans applied for a permit to parade
In Bergman v. Kelley, a federal judge found the FBI responsible for the
through
Skokie shortly afterwards, they were turned down because of the anti-
Ku Klux Klan's attacks on Freedom Riders in 1961. In Doe v.
Nazi
ordinances,
said Wagenheim, The case, she said, proved the ACLU's
0 University of Michigan, the ACLU overturned university rules punish-
0
point:
restricting
one
group's rights restricts the rights of all.
ing speech that "stigmatizes" various groups. In Lane v. City of
Richard
Lobenthal
was one ACLU member who disagreed with the organiza-
Warren, a woman won the right to host a Sunday morning worship
tion's
position.
"I'm
not
a philosophical purist," said Lobenthal, retired director
service in her home. In Quinn v. Dept. of Social Services, the ACLU's
of
the
Anti-Defamation
League in Michigan and an ACLU of Michigan board
lawsuit changed a state practice barring the adoption of bi-racial and
member. He served as the group's interim director before Moss was hired in
black children by white families.
1998. "I have my own biases. I have my own passions against the Nazis.
A case involving discrimination against women by a Wayne State
"But I understood that the ACLU had to prevail, because if my prejudices
University pension plan went to the U.S. Supreme Court and resulted
could
take over, then other people's prejudices could take over against me. If my
in women all over the country having access to larger pensions, said
position
as a Jew had prevailed, the country would have been threatened. The
Moss.
greater
good
prevailed, and ultimately Jewish interests were served."
In some cases, particularly those involving religion in public schools,
Moss said most Jews who dropped their ACLU memberships to protest its
the ACLU can broker change without going to court. Moss says it's a
support of the Nazis have returned to the fold.
matter of opening people's eyes to the fact that they're violating the
Since assuming leadership of the ACLU in 1998, Moss has strengthened the
Bill of Rights.
4 V
organization's
financial standing and its legislative and public education pro-
The ACLU of Michigan also was instrumental in drafting the State
11/23
grams. Though they'll fight for any aspect of civil rights, ACLU of Michigan
Constitution in 1963, Moss said.
2001
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