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6 The Center and the Scholars by Michael A. Meyer and Elisheva Carlebach A lthough the Center for Jewish History hosts numerous popular programs for Jewish and general audiences in New York, its fundamental purpose is to serve the national and international community of Jewish scholars, especially modern Jewish historians. We historians had long felt the need for a single institution that brings together under one roof so many of the archival and literary resources we require for our work. We also welcomed the establishment of the Center because of its possibilities for conducting our research in an environment conducive to the scope of our scholarship. Here, veteran and, especially, younger scholars are able to interact with their counterparts studying American, German, East European or Sephardic Jewish history. The results are a mutual fructification and a synergy that inspire better scholarship and a deepening of American Jewish culture. To explore these possibilities, and to establish a framework for furthering them, the Academic Advisory Council of the Center was established. Today it consists of fifteen members who serve on the faculty and staffs of leading academic and research institutions, among them Stanford University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Michigan, New York University, the Jewish Theological Seminary, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. We are a diverse group — seasoned scholars and younger historians, men and women from various sections of the country who work in one or another of the fields represented by the Center. The Council’s principal function is to provide an academic perspective: to advise, propose, and evaluate. Because we know the needs of Jewish scholars, we are in a position to suggest to the Center how to create the best environment for its Reading Room, make the most effective use of its resources, and create programs that will win the approval and support of the scholarly community. Together with the Association for Jewish Studies, whose national office has recently been established at the Center, we provide an essential link to the large and growing community of Jewish scholars. Toward that end, we have initiated programs that raise the Center’s profile among our colleagues and in the Jewish world. For example, shortly after the Center opened, the Council organized a major academic conference entitled “Centers of Modern MICHAEL LUPPINO The Lillian Goldman Reading Room Jewish Studies,” which drew both university professors and a general audience. It highlighted the vistas for integrated study of various aspects of the modern Jewish experience that the Center laid open before us. The most remarkable success of the Council lies in its fellowship and seminar program. Each year a few outstanding graduate students are selected to receive fellowships that enable them to pursue their doctoral research at the Center. They utilize its rich resources, often in more than one of the Center partners’ collections. Fellows’ responsibilities include the delivery of a research paper at seminars open to all members of the Center community and conducted by a senior scholar. By attending the seminars and by presenting their own research to the critical eyes of others, the fellows develop a capacity for creative criticism and learn to make effective oral presentations. As they encounter each other informally during their stay at the Center, the fellows are able to discuss research techniques and gain a broader understanding of fields adjacent to their own. Thus the Center serves as an important venue for the training of future Jewish historians who will preserve and transmit a living heritage. At the regularly held meetings of the Council, and through our committees, the Council explores new opportunities for enhancing the work of the Center. We are currently engaged in planning the Center’s commemoration of the 350th anniversary of Jewish settlement in America. We are discussing a scholar-in-residence program, which would enable junior and senior historians to spend a semester or a year at the Center in order to consult with staff and advise the graduate fellows while pursuing their own research. We are exploring the use of video conferences, and an effective use of prizes to encourage research and publication. We are also seeking to learn from other, longer established institutions, such as Washington’s Holocaust Museum, about how we can become a bridge connecting archival treasures, scholars, and the public. The Center, with its rich and diverse collections of resources, is an unparalleled venture in the history of Jewish scholarship. The Academic Council is devoted to transforming these resources from historical documents and museum artifacts into writings and presentations that will combine scholarship on the highest level with relevance to the creative development of American Jewish culture. Michael A. Meyer (Hebrew Union College) and Elisheva Carlebach (Queens College) are co-chairs of the Center’s Academic Advisory Council
Lawyers Without Rights Jews and the Rule of Law Under the Third Reich by Carol Kahn Strauss On April 7, 1933, shortly after assuming power, Adolf Hitler ordered all non-Aryan attorneys to be relieved of their civil service positions, including university professorships and administrative positions throughout the legal system. The effect was devastating: at the time of the proclamation, there were almost 20,000 lawyers in Germany, and about half of them were Jewish. The numbers, and the accomplishments, are staggering. In Berlin alone, there were 3,400 lawyers, of whom approximately 2,000 were Jewish. Jews who had been trained as jurists worked as teachers, judges, notaries, administrators, and trial advocates. They were experts in commercial law, contracts law, labor law, penal law, family law and civil procedure. They developed theories of sociology and the law, pioneered modern concepts of women’s rights, and expanded the definitions of free speech. All of these were subsequently denounced as “Jewish perversions” by the Nazis. How had Jews become so numerous in the German legal profession? One possible reason is ideological: throughout Jewish history, the rule of law was of central importance. Traditional Judaism is a religion of law, whose important precepts, codes and guidelines are found in the Bible, the Talmud, and rabbinic decisions. In the traditional Jewish view, law is holy and a necessary part of religious life. A second reason was practical. Secular law — the legal systems of the nations in which Jews lived — also mattered to Jews, especially during the 19th century when, with the onset of emancipation, the state regulated almost all of their activities. Jews were enmeshed in legal systems whether they were religious or not. Convention of Lawyers in Duesseldorf, 1949, (Bild Berichte; Berben-Binder, Dusseldorf). Photo courtesy of Leo Baeck Institute. Finally, there is an economic reason, stemming from emancipation itself. By the 1850s, Jews throughout most of Central Europe were able to participate in the judicial professions, even as they were still barred from most academic pursuits. It was virtually impossible for a Jew at that time to become a professor of literature — but he could be a doctor of laws. The result of all these causes was a legal profession that was disproportionately inhabited and maintained by Jews — a fact not lost on the Nazis. The effects of the 1933 ruling were seismic. German judges, like their British and American counterparts, receive the same education whether headed for private practice or government work. After graduation, however, German judges work their way up through the judicial system, much like any other civil servant, rather than being chosen after experience in the private sector. Consequently, one year after the law was passed, there were 10,000 immediate vacancies in the judicial system, and twice that number of openings throughout the legal profession, all waiting to be filled by Lawyers non-Jews. Perhaps surprisingly, most of the Without disbarred Jewish lawyers did not immediate- Rights ly leave Germany. They thought the shock Exhibition was temporary, and feared the difficulty of relearning the law in another country — December 5, 2004 – particularly America, whose legal system is February 28, 2005 derived from English common law, in contrast to Germany’s foundations in Roman law. Language also presented a problem; Greek and Latin were more familiar to many German jurists than English. As a result, most Jewish lawyers stayed and worked in whatever capacity they could. As one Dr. Ludwig Bendix wrote to his clients, “I had to give up my activities as lawyer and notary, however, having practiced and studied German law my whole life, I feel so closely linked with German law that even if it were only for this innermost idealistic reason, I have to continue my activities within the new framework that remains under current legislation.” Dr. Bendix became a “legal advisor” or rechtsberater, often the last resort of many Jewish lawyers. Such activities led to a special statute to curtail even this attempt to survive: the “Law continued on page 12 37
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Page 19 and 20: THE BENDHEIM FOUNDATION TRACEY AND

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