TODAY
Cooler, maybe showers;
High: 45, Low: 33.
TOMORROW
Mostly chilly, cloudy;
High: 40, Low: 30.
I . t Un, t
MET doesn't pay.
See OPINION
Page 4.
One hundred and one years of editorial freedom
Vol. CII, No. 49 Ann Arbor, Michigan - Monday, December 9, 1991 C ,py",flfi
Holocaust ad raises national concern about anti-Semitism
" "._ " .., . . ..,.,L , .. .B " . ...L .... .... .. .... n. m n n nn n n r r ~ n n n fi n n t t n e r
by Gwen Shaffer
Daily Higher Education Reporter
The Holocaust revisionist adver-
tisement recently distributed to a
number of college newspapers
alarmed many people and brought to
the surface growing concerns that
anti-Semitic sentiment is gaining
widespread acceptance.
The increase in anti-Semitism is
attributed to a number of factors,
including the Arab-Israeli conflict,
domestic economic decline, and the
reunification of Germany, many
people actively involved in the issue
said.
To date, five college newspapers
have printed the advertisement
written by the Committee for Open
Debate on the Holocaust (CODOH),
which claims that the Holocaust
never happened. The Daily Texan at
the University of Texas at Austin is
planning to run it next month.
About 10 other student newspapers
received the advertisement but de-
clined to run it.
After printing the advertise-
ment, called "The Holocaust Con-
troversy: The Case for Open De-
bate, members of the Jewish com-
munity reacted by organizing pro-
tests on the campuses.
The political climate is ripe for
"racist ideologies" from groups
such as CODOH and people such as
Republican presidential candidate
David Duke to appeal to more and
more Americans, said Jeffrey Ross,
director of the department of cam-
pus affairs and higher education at
the Anti-Defamation League of
B'nai B'rith (ADL) in New York.
ADL statistics show that big-
otry on college campuses nation-
wide has increased dramatically in
the past decade. In 1984, six inci-
dents of anti-Semitism were re-
ported, while more than 100 were
reported last year, Ross said.
Hank Greenspan, a professor who
teaches a course at the University on
Holocaust survivors, said attitudes
toward Jews have not changed that
much since World War II.
Greenspan said 40 percent of
Americans participating in a survey
said they believe Jews have too
much power.
"There is a well-established im-
age of the Jewish person behind the
scenes, pulling the strings. Jews
have been made to represent the as-
pects of humanity that we fear,"
Greenspan said.
Many students are wondering
why CODOH is targeting college
newspapers, instead of bigger city
newspapers, if it wants to reach the
largest audience possible.
"If you wanted to put an ad in
The New York Times, it is very
costly," Ross said. "But if you put
an ad in The Michigan Daily, The
New York Times writes a story
anout it and you get a tree ad.
But Bradley Smith, director of
CODOH and the author of the ad-
vertisement, said he is targeting
student papers to reach an audience
capable of maintaining "an open
mind on the subject" of debate.
"If you lived for 50 or 60 years,
you have been inundated with the or-
thodox view on the Holocaust,"
Smith said. "When students are at a
university, it is a time when they are
questioning things."
Mark Weitzman, associate direc-
See REVISIONISM, Page 2
RC lecturer resigns
citing lack
of rights
by Erin Einhorn
Daily Staff Reporter
Residential College (RC) Lec-
turer Jenifer Levin will leave Ann
Arbor because she says the way the
University community views ho-
mosexuals has prevented her from
living up to her full potential.
"We're all so much less than
what we could be," Levin said. Just
as we employ only a tiny portion of
the human brain, she said, our lives
occupy only a small corner of the
space they really deserve to fill.
"I'm a woman. I'm a writer. I'm
an American," she said. "I'm all
these many, many, many other
things - and so are we all. And the
sooner we can all be, safely, every-
thing that we really are, the better
community we are going to have,
and the better this country - and
this world - is going to be."
Levin and her spouse of five
years, Julie DeLaurier, will return
to New York City shortly.
"We both decided the best
protest that we, individually, at this
point could make on behalf of the
gay community at the University of
Michigan, was for me to resign and
specify exactly why," Levin said.
A Nov. 22 letter of resignation
Levin
sent to 13 faculty members and ad-
dressed to RC Director Herb Eagle
expresses Levin's complaints, frus-
trations and reasons for not return-
ing next semester.
"My reasons for doing so," read
A dog's eye viewA
Yuma, a seeing-eye dog, takes a break in the Services for Students with Disabilities office Friday.
. CROL/Dally
Feminist author Friedan
will speak at Rackham
the letter, "are connected directly
to this institution's so-called non-
discrimination policies (or lack
thereof); for they have impinged
most intimately and destructively
on my life and on the life of my
spouse."
The two women came to the
University two and half years ago
with intentions of settling in a new
area and building a home. DeLaurier,
a professional actress, wanted to
finish her undergraduate degree,
Levin said.
After waiting the necessary year
required to declare Michigan resi-
dency, DeLaurier applied to the
University. But because her mar-
riage to Levin was not considered
valid, her residency was denied. She
could not use the relationship as
proof of her intention to remain in
the state on a long term basis.
The women could not afford to
pay out-of-state tuition.
"It is my understanding that, in
other cases where a faculty mem-
See LEVIN, Page 2
S oviet
republics
form new
al lian ce
MINSK, U.S.S.R. (AP) - The
Soviet Union's three Slavic re-
publics - Russia, Byelorussia and
Ukraine - formed a new alliance
yesterday in an agreement that ap-
pears to strip Mikhail Gorbachev's
central government of its remaining
power.
Creating a new "commonwealth
of independent states" with its capi-
tal in Minsk instead of Moscow, the
agreement states that the Soviet
Union "as a subject of international
and geopolitical reality no longer
exists," reported the Tass news
agency.
Full texts of the documents
were not immediatelyavailable, but
excerpts carried by Tass said no
power would be left for Gor-
bachev's government, which Russian
President Boris Yeltsin already had
stripped of nearly all its functions
d and resources.
d See SOVIET, Page 2
by Purvi Shah
0 Daily Staff Reporter
The recent controversy surround-
ing the confirmation hearings for
Supreme Court Justice Clarence
Thomas provided Betty Friedan, au-
thor of The Feminine Mystique,
leader of the '60s feminist move-
ment, and tonight's speaker at Rack-
ham Auditorium, an avenue to ex-
press her thoughts about women and
the workplace.
"That was interesting that she
just got national coverage. She was
the woman to be chosen to say any-
thing on the feminist viewpoint of
sexual harassment," said LSA
sophomore Ann Kaufman, a member
of the University Activities Cen-
ter's Viewpoint Lectures.
Viewpoint Lectures, the sponsor
of Friedan's lecture on "Gender Is-
* sues: Today and Tomorrow," regu-
larly brings speakers to campus to
discuss contemporary issues.
The group recently brought
speakers including Black civil rights
leader Rev. Al Sharpton and sports
announcer Chris Berman.
Friedan will speak for approxi-
mately an hour and then audience
members will have the opportunity,
to ask her questions.
Members of Viewpoint Lectures
argued that despite a generation gap,
Friedan remains an authority on to-
day's women's movement and gen-
der issues.
"She's been working still for the
Equal Rights Amendment. She's
still a very prominent figure in
women's issues," said Sejal Mistry,
an LSA sophomore.
"She does speak at college cam-
puses. She was not only a leader of
the feminist movement in the '60s,
she's also a scholar," Mistry added.
"She'll definitely be able to express
some provocative ideas."
Kaufman said that Friedan can
provide "strong, substantial" com-
ments on the current women's
movement, but believes the people
who have the most to learn from her
lecture will not be the first to
attend.
"I don't know if people will go
voluntarily if they don't know how
influential she is," she said. "They
have a chance to ask a question of the
most influential woman that can
hold her own."
Viewpoint Lectures member
Travis Langenkamp agreed, saying,
"Even if you don't know who Betty
Friedan is, you'll come away with
the knowledge of what the feminist
movement was and has become."
See FRIEDAN, Page 2
Write -a-th o n UGUU 1V'R/Dai
A student reads over a petition before signing it during the Amnesty
International Write-a-thon in the basement of the Union Saturday.
Lecturer of love leaving, says he needs to reflect
by Karen Sabgir
Daily Staff Reporter
Pilot Program Lecturer Luis Sfeir-Younis
will conduct his final classes at the Univer-
sity this week as he prepares to move to
Venezuela next term.
Sfeir-Younis, who received his doctorate at
the University and was formerly in the Soci-
ology department, has taught courses on the
sociology of love and intergroup conflict dur-
ing his nine years of teaching.
The resignation surprised and disappointed
many colleagues.
"He's going to leave a big hole in the Uni-
versity because of the many things he did
here," said Tom Gershick, who has taught
with Sfeir-Younis for more than five years.
"He is a role model for many students, partic-
ularly students of color."
Sfeir-Younis said one reason he is leaving is
to help his brother's business in Venezuela.
The corporation provides technical and con-
sulting support for the Venezuelan govern-
ment and Sfeir-Younis will take on a manag-
ing position there.
However, Sfeir-Younis also said he needs a
break from instruction in order to write about
his experiences as a teacher.
"I need to take time to reflect, I need to
take time to breathe. I'm not burnt out or an-
gry, I just need a year or two to write about it,
reflect, and improve the course."
Sfeir-Younis said that a one-year sabbatica
would be ideal, but his request was turne(
down. "I have a million things that I want t
write about but I just don't have time."
His course on intergroup conflict is gearec
at increasing understanding between differen
ethnic and racial backgrounds. "Just like the
students are touched by it, I am touched by i
See SOCIOLOGY, Page 2
O
it
Mideast talks to resume tomorrow amid squabbles
WASHINGTON (AP) - Israeli
negotiators arriving here yesterday
said they accept an Arab proposal to
start peace talks tomorrow, but new
one room, the Arabs were demanding
two separate rooms.
It was the latest in a string of
seemingly petty wrangles clouding
to start immediately but the Arabs
refused, citing today as a day of
mourning for hundreds killed in the
four-year Palestinian uprising
whoever wants to negotiate seriously
will find serious people on the other
side of the table."
The latest hitch concerned an
"Consensus is the name of the
game," he said. Palestinians view
that approach as Israel's way of
denying their existence as a separate
IK- u I1