|
|
|
|
|
Justice and The Citizen:
Tolerance in America, Vol. III
Student Handout
|
Alan M. Dershowitz
Alan M. Dershowitz is a professor at Harvard Law School and is the nation's pre-eminent civil libertarian and defense attorney extraordinaire. Professor Dershowitz is a graduate of Yale Law School, where he was first in his class. At age 28, he was appointed the youngest full professor in the history of Harvard Law School. He went on to become "the most creative, most controversial, and most sophisticated criminal lawyer in the country." Mr. Dershowitz is the best-selling author of The Best Defense, Reversal of Fortune, Chutzpah, Contrary to Public Opinion, and Advocate's Devil. His list of clients include Claus Von Bulow, Jim Bakker, Jonathan Pollard, Leona Helmsley, Patricia Hearst, Michael Milken, Mike Tyson, and O.J. Simpson. Mr. Dershowitz is acclaimed as "America's most articulate and uncompromising protector of the rights of criminal defendants."
Nesse Godin
Nesse Godin is a survivor of the Shauliai, Lithuania Ghetto, the Stutthof Concentration Camp and four labor camps. She was born in 1928 to a Jewish family in the Lithuanian city of Shauliai. In 1941, the German Nazis occupied her hometown and began killing the Jews. Some Jewish citizens "persuaded" the Germans, with the aid of a large sum of money, that the remaining Jews were valuable for work. The Nazis set up two ghettos. In 1944, as the Soviet Army advanced, she was deported to Stutthof, a concentration camp on the Baltic coast. On a work detail, she sorted piles of shoes that belonged to dead inmates. While on a death march, Nesse was liberated by the Soviet army on March 10, 1945. She emigrated to the United States in 1950.
|
The objective of this program is to focus on social and religious freedom in the postwar era and the dramatic social and political transformations that have resulted. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a key figure in the historic struggle to extend to all Americans the constitutional guarantees of equality and freedom. The successful example of the black civil rights movement encouraged other groups including women, Native Americans and the handicapped in their campaigns for legislative and judicial recognition of civil equality.
This program will explore the impact Dr. King's life has had on this country since 1968. Tolerance is a word often misunderstood by well- meaning individuals in search of peaceful solutions for a country experiencing racial and religious prejudice. To tolerate other individuals suggests we disapprove of them, but will somehow manage to co- exist with them.
In contrast, to respect the dignity of every human regardless of race or religion is another matter altogether. Can diverse races and religions really survive in respectful community with one another? The Bill of Rights suggests this type of community must exist in order for democracy to survive. As a nation, we have come a long way in learning to respect others who are different from ourselves. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is the best known leader of the civil rights movement. He emerged from the quiet town of Montgomery, Alabama in 1955. Most people are familiar with many of the important events of Dr. King's lifetime, from the Montgomery bus boycott, the march in Birmingham, the "I Have A Dream" speech in Washington, and his tragic death on April 4, 1968.
The Holocaust was another enormous human drama that shaped the 20th century. The Holocaust refers to the 12 years (1933-45) of Nazi persecution of Jews, which was marked by increasing barbarization of methods and by expansion of territories terrorized by German rule and which climaxed in the "final solution," the attempted extermination of European Jewry.
Adolf Hitler's persecution of the Jews in Germany began a month after he became chancellor on January 30, 1933. In a series of laws, confiscations, and pogroms between 1933 and 1938, Hitler succeeded in undermining the political and economic foundations of German Jewry
As a result of the Kristallnacht pogrom, The Night of Broken Glass, of November 9-10, 1938, practically every synagogue in Germany was destroyed. Thereafter, thousands of Jews were imprisoned in concentration camps.
The Nazis became convinced, after a few propaganda successes, that anti-Semitism could also serve as an entering wedge into every country of Europe. The victories of the Germany armies in the early years of World War II brought the overwhelming majority of European Jewry under the Nazis and their satellites. From the Atlantic to the Volga, from Norway to Sicily, Jews were deprived of all human rights. Their property confiscated, most of them were herded into ghettos and concentration camps. The most effective method for mass extermination of the Jews became gassing in specially constructed gas chambers. By this and other means as many as four million Jews were put to death by the Nazis in the extermination camps of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and other concentration camps. The total number of Jews exterminated by the Nazis during the war has been computed at more than 5,750,000. It may have been considerably more, especially when indirect victims of Nazi brutality and persons previously not registered as Jews are included. The war in Europe ended on May 8, 1945. The subsequent years tended to heal a few individual wounds, but the damage suffered by organized Jewry on the continent of Europe could not be fully repaired. Jewry's hopes became concentrated on the establishment and preservation of Israel and on the bringing of Nazi war criminals to trial. (Encyclopaedia Britannica)
Nesse Godin has dedicated her adult life to teaching and sharing memories of the Holocaust. She provides a personal glimpse into this enormous and horrifying human drama.
Students may already be familiar with the principal players in the nation's quest for racial and religious tolerance. Conduct a brainstorming session to review who they are and what their individual contributions were to American society. Name at least three individuals not including the program guests.
1.________________________________________________________
2.________________________________________________________
3.________________________________________________________
A discussion of the principles of tolerance to which this nation aspires should include an understanding of the following places. Use this assignment as a geography quiz by locating the places on a map and describe their significance below:
- Atlanta, Georgia:
- Auschwitz, Poland:
- Little Rock, Arkansas:
- Nuremberg, Germany:
- Palestine:
- Selma, Alabama:
- Washington, D.C.
Think of two questions to ask the guests during the program. Write them below. (Possible questions: Could there be another Holocaust? Having experienced the horrors of the Holocaust, how do you still have faith in mankind? What influence did Henry David Thoreau and Mahatma Gandhi have on non- violent social change? What is the most important lesson we should remember about the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.?)
Studying racial and religious tolerance may not seem relevant to your future today, but they represent stepping stones to a meaningfulcareer. A knowledge of these subjects will help you decide what is most interesting to you. This is very important because most people spend one-half of their waking time on the job. Investigate the following careers related to science and medicine. Find out what the person does on a daily basis, the educational and work experience required and where the work must be performed.
- Artist
- Congressional Aide
- Diplomat
- Economist
- Journalist
- Lawyer
- Museum Curator
- Philosopher
- Political Analyst
- Politician
- Researcher
- Social Worker
- Teacher
- Theologian
|
| |
|
