Original Article: http://dartreview.com/archives/1998/02/18/letters_to_the_editor.php
Wednesday, February 18, 1998
Hart Responds to Freedman's Attack
Editor's Note: Copies of the following letter have also been sent to the Los Angeles Times, Upper Valley News, and The Daily Dartmouth.
To The Editor:
The Los Angeles Times (February 11) carried an interview with President James O. Freedman of Dartmouth on the history of anti-Semitism at Dartmouth and similar institutions a half century ago.
He had earlier called attention to this during the inauguration of the fine new Roth Jewish Center at Dartmouth.
In the course of his remarks to The Los Angeles Times, however, Mr. Freedman made the following statement which cannot be allowed to pass uncorrected:
'I chose that occasion {the Roth inauguration} to talk about that history. Some of this was related to the fact that, in my time at Dartmouth, we've had enough evidence of anti-Semitism from The {Dartmouth} Review {a conservative off-campus newspaper}. {William F.} Buckley wrote a book called In Search of Anti-Semitism, where Dartmouth was one of the four case histories he looks at.'
Let us consider that last sentence. The examination of the Dartmouth 'case history' (pages 45-59) is careful and thorough. Mr. Freedman had been very loudly characterizing The Dartmouth Review as anti-Semitic (as well as 'racist' and 'sexist' — the usual hobgoblins).
Mr. Buckley's analysis issued in the contention that Mr. Freedman's allegations of anti-Semitism had no basis in fact. In Search of Anti-Semitism is in large part about the use of false charges of anti-Semitism to gain demagogic advantage. And he concludes that among those mendaciously using the anti-Semitism charge, Mr. Freedman was the most 'egregious' of the figures examined in the book.
That Mr. Freedman cites Buckley in the Los Angeles Times as if in support of his allegations is absolutely breathtaking.
Mr. Buckley's defense of The Review against the Freedman slurs was emphatically endorsed by, among many others, such notable Jewish men of thought as Norman Podhoretz, Sidney Hook, Dennis Praeger, and Sidney Zion.
I will add that I have paid attention to The Dartmouth Review over the 17 years of its publication. I have not once encountered anti-Semitism among the students working on the paper. And not once have I seen anti-Semitism in the paper itself. Indeed the paper had had three Jewish editors-in-chief and many Jewish staffers.
Mr. Freedman says in the Los Angeles Times that he was 'seething' over the fact that Dartmouth was seen as anti-Semitic {due to the Review}. Excuse me. If someone in the general public had the impression that there was anti-Semitism at Dartmouth they undoubtedly gained that impression from Freedman himself, who was loudly — and falsely — hurling charges about it. People may be forgiven for believing the statements of an Ivy League President. They should get over that, at least in the case of Mr. Freedman.
I do not know what to recommend regarding his delusion that The Dartmouth Review was or perhaps is anti-Semitic. Perhaps he should consult a physician with a view towards medication.
Jeffery Hart
Professor Emeritus of English
Lyme, New Hampshire
Gut Reaction
To the Editor:
The sight of Buckley makes me puke, so to prevent my stomach from becoming upset again, please do not send me any more copies of The Review.
Sincerely,
Col. Merrill McLane, US MC Ret.
Class of 1942
Reconsidering Anti-Semitismz
To the Editor:
I read with interest Dr. Jacob Neusner's pithy rsoponse to comments by President Freedman about the presence of anti-semitism at Dartmouth beyond the 1950s.
I am responding to Neusner and not Freedman, although the latter is not currently on my favourite person's list.
To paraphrase wht I think Neusner imparts, he correctly identifies the late John Kemeny, his fellow Hungarian, as the first Jewish president of the College.
And what a great president he was. And so, for that matter, was John Sloan
Dickey, who, although related by apostolic succession to Hopkins, appeared unsmirched by the ugly cloak of hating Jews.
My father used to remind me as I encountered different forms of anti-Semitism during the sixties that an anti-Semite was just someone who hated Jews more than he ought or had to. It was out there.
I know because I graduated from the Peddie School in 1962 and was treated as someone who was required to followed the tenets of Christianity. Luckily, I was waitlisted for aceptance to Princeton in favor of the son of a minister, who had had lower grades.
I remember feeling an incredible need to connect with my heritage. My mother had escaped to New York from Austro-Hungary just before the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Even though her brother was and American citizen, she faced significant hurdles before she reached the safe haven of America.
All my New York-born father could remember of his heritage were the countless Sabbath dinners his father threw for out-of-town gentile visitors.
I remember approaching Rabbi Neusner, when I felt this need for religious reconnection, and asking him if he could meet me with me in his capacity as a religious advisor. His answer shocked me. He refused because, he was 'not really a practicing rabbi.'
I noticed, while perusing the Aegis, that the High Holy Day services were led by Professor Neusner.
I'm not so sure, Profesor Neusner, that 'the real changes took place in the 1950s.' With the exception of the Jewish Life Council, there was still a definite lack of sensitivity towards those of us who were Jewish, even into the 1960s. Unfortunately, you too demonstrated some of the same unwillingness to addres the need for Jewish spirituality even into the 1960s.
Peter J. Dorsen, M.D. '66
Impending Joy
To the Editor:
I devoured the contents of your Volume, 17, Issue 8, of January 27, 1998 with great relish, and hope to receive future issues. Since I have stopped paying class dues, I have not been receiving the Dartmouth Alumni publications, and therefore have not been kept abreast of more recent developments.
The news of President Freedman's impending retirement is received with joy and with the hope that a new president will bring about changes that will move the college in the direction of his esteemed predecessors.
I read with utter dismay and disgust of the necessity of cancelling the glee club performance at the Christmas tree. I see this as still another erosion of the many fine and enjoyable traditions of the college that I loved so well.
Perhaps, before I shuffle of this mortal coil, some of the old traditions and customs will return to a college that had so much to offer.
Who knows, I may even be persuaded to begin making contributions to the Alumni Fund again. All the best and congratulations on a great issue!
Robert F. Ashleigh '47