Dershowitz To Speak at Graduation

Dershowitz To Speak at Graduation

By Lia Unrau

Rice News Staff

Young people often have to strike a “terrible balance” in terms of holding onto what is best about their backgrounds — whether it be their ethnic, racial, religious or cultural backgrounds — while trying to melt into the great American pot, said Harvar

d law professor Alan Dershowitz.

“Every one of us comes from a mixed background — that’s the greatness of America. I’m talking about the great hyphen [as in African-American or Irish-American] that makes us all Americans but encourages us to preserve our origins and be proud of our

parents and our grandparents and to be proud of our differences, while at the same time celebrating what makes us one great country,” Dershowitz said.

“Striking the appropriate balance is one of the most difficult tasks I think that young people face today.”

Dershowitz, the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard University, will address Rice University’s 84th graduating class during Commencement ceremonies at 8:30 a.m. Saturday in the Academic Quadrangle. He will speak about how to preserve one’s r

oots while becoming a part of mainstream America.

Since joining the Harvard faculty at age 25 Dershowitz has devoted himself to defending individual rights and civil liberties, has risen to prominence as a legal educator, and has written numerous books, about both legal issues and the Jewish-American

experience. His latest book, “The Vanishing American Jew: In Search of Jewish Identity for the Next Century,” was published in March.

“Few people realize that Alan Dershowitz was the youngest person ever to be awarded tenure at Harvard,” said Malcolm Gillis, president of Rice University. “Since then he has had a multifaceted and quite public career. In his address, he will share wit

h us his thoughts on ways to honor and preserve one’s heritage — religious and cultural — while also becoming a contributing member of the mainstream of American society.

“Also, few people realize that he is the only Harvard professor ever to own a delicatessen in Harvard Square.”

In his Commencement address, Dershowitz said he plans to discuss “how to succeed in America while being a good African-American, Hispanic-American, Jewish-American, Catholic-American, Irish-American, you name it.”

“Striking the balance is the difficult task ahead, and I have some suggestions about how to strike that balance,” he said.

Educational institutions have a role to play by encouraging diversity in the best sense of the term, Dershowitz said. Inevitably his talk will touch on the conflict in Texas about the use of race and ethnicity in admission decisions.

“What we have to be is not only more tolerant, but more educated about the different cultures and backgrounds,” he said. “We are a diverse country and we should celebrate our diversity.”

America gains an enormous competitive advantage by encouraging this kind of multiculturalism, he said.

“We have to produce Americans who are able to negotiate with emerging superpowers all over the world. It’s good for the American economy, it’s good for American foreign policy. We should build on our strength. The competitive advantage that America ha

s is our diversity.”

Dershowitz has published more than 100 articles in prestigious magazines and journals and is author of numerous books.

Dershowitz graduated from Yeshiva University High School and Brooklyn College. At Yale Law School, he was first in his class and editor in chief of the Yale Law Journal. Just three years after joining the Harvard Law faculty he became a full professor

at age 28, the youngest in the school’s history.

In 1979 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for his work in human rights. In 1981 the Chinese government invited Dershowitz to lecture there and consult on their criminal code. In 1987 he was named the John F. Kennedy-Fulbright Lecturer and visited

New Zealand University, lecturing about the Bill of Rights.

In 1988 he served as visiting professor of law at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and lectured in Israel on civil liberties during times of crisis. In 1990 he was invited to Moscow to lecture on human rights.

His nationally syndicated radio show “Dershowitz!” is aired on Sunday night in major markets across America.