|
|
October 18, 2002/Cheshvan 12 5763, Vol. 55, No. 8
Europe grooms AJC leader
BARRY COHEN
Editor
A yearlong stay in Germany, along with growing up in a family with Holocaust survivor parents, molded the professional dedication of one of the leading figures in the nation's Jewish community.
When David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee, was in junior high school, his father - a German-speaking Jew - agreed in 1960 to work in Munich, Germany, for one year as an engineer for CBS.
"This (opportunity) wasn't just about living in Europe for a year. ... This was also about being an 11-year-old child and seeing the interplay between Europe, the past, the present and my family," says Harris.
He recalls an incident when his parents were renting a second floor, one-bedroom hotel room above a beer hall.
"One night, late at night, my father jumped out of bed and ran out of the room," says Harris.
The people downstairs, drunk, were singing Nazi-era songs at 2 a.m. "My father ran downstairs to confront them," says Harris. "That was my father. He was a fighter."
Harris says his year away from his Manhattan home widened his world perspective.
"I discovered a link to Europe," he explains, "and I developed an interest in diplomacy, politics and history."
When Harris returned home, he finished high school on Manhattan's West Side, followed by college at the University of Pennsylvania beginning in 1966.
He returned to Europe for graduate school, at the London School of Economics for three years and Oxford University for one year.
"It seemed like a bit of an adventure to study international relations in Britain," he notes.
After completing his studies, Harris remained in Europe to work with Jewish refugees from the former Soviet Union at two transit points, Rome and Vienna.
In 1979, he joined the staff of the American Jewish Committee, based in New York.
"I was not quite in the mailroom, but almost," he comments.
He slowly worked his way up the AJC leadership ladder to executive director in 1990.
"This is my 'bar mitzvah' year," says Harris.
Harris visited the Valley Oct. 11 to meet with the local AJC chapter about an AJC petition calling for "intimidation free" campuses, distributed nationwide since August and signed by more than 300 college and university presidents.
Published in the Oct. 7 issue of The New York Times, the petition states, "In the past few months, students who are Jewish or supporters of Israel's right to exist - Zionists - have received death threats and threats of violence. ... Posters and Web sites displaying libelous information or images have been widely circulated, creating an atmosphere of intimidation. ... These practices and others, directed against any person, group or cause, will not be tolerated on campuses."
Arizona State University President Michael Crow has declined to sign the petition, citing in a written statement that ASU already has an anti-harassment policy in place.
"I don't question the motives of those who did not sign. It's too simplistic to assume malice on their part," says Harris. "But several of them may have underestimated what has been happening on some campuses. Just because (anti-Semitic acts have) not happened on their campus, doesn't in any way minimize the importance of this initiative nationally."
According to leaders at the Hillel Jewish Student Center at ASU, Jewish students have encountered anti-Israel statements but not physical confrontations.
Whatever form it takes, anti-Semitism needs to be condemned, Harris says, likening it to a cancer.
"If you don't stop (anti-Semitism) early, it metastasizes."
He explains that as head of AJC, he calls on lessons he learned as a student at the University of Pennsylvania to oppose today's anti-Semitism, prejudice and racism on college campuses.
"That was the activist generation ... that challenged authority. That was an idealistic generation," he says, referring to anti-Vietnam, pro-civil rights demonstrators.
"I learned about the possibility of change," he says, through organization, mobilization and persistence.
More than 310 college and university presidents have signed the petition to end intimidation on campus. Harris says he is working to increase that number.
|
