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Shaare Tefila Congregation v.Cobb: A new departure in American Jewish defense?

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Abbreviations

AJC:

American Jewish Committee

AJCong:

American Jewish Congress

ADL:

Anti-Defamation League

Notes

  1. Shaare Tefila Congregation et al. v.John William Cobb et al., Petition for Writ of Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, pp. 2–8; JTADaily News Bulletin, Mar. 8, 1984; Steven M. Freeman, “Shaare Tefila, A Response to Anti-Semitism,”ADL Bulletin (Dec. 1986):3.

  2. American Jewish Year Book 60 (1959):44–47.

  3. JTADaily News Bulletin, Mar. 8, 1984.

  4. See, for example,Jones v.Alfred H. Mayer Co., 392 U.S. 409 (1968).

  5. McDonald v. Santa Fe Trail Transportation Co., 427 U.S. 273 (1976). This case was stressed in the plaintiffs' brief.Petition for Writ of Certiorari, 11–13.

  6. Eileen R. Kaufman, “A Race By Any Other Name⋯,” memorandum, NAD-LP 86,Shaare Tefila Cong. v.Cobb, AJC.

  7. Appendix toPetition for Writ of Certiorari, esp. p. 30a; Freeman, p. 3.

  8. Shaare Tefila Congregation v.Cobb, 606 F. Supp. 1504 (D. Md. 1985) and 785 F. 2d. 523 (4th Cir. 1986). Both decisions were reprinted in Appendix toPetition for Writ of Certiorari.

  9. Minutes of Executive Committee, Apr. 14, 1986, AJCong; M. Stern to Executive Committee, Apr. 4, 1986,Shaare Tefila v.Cobb/Internal Correspondence, AJCong; ADL Civil Rights Division, Policy Background Report, May 1986; A. Klausner to Members of the National Legal Committee [of the AJC], May 23, 1986;Shaare Tefila v.Cobb/External Corrspondence, AJCong.

  10. ADL Civil Rights Division, Policy Background Report, May 1986;Shaare Tefila v.Cobb/External Correspondence, AJCong.

  11. I. Shapell to A. Chernin, Sept. 7, 1982; M. Stern to N. Dershowitz, Dec. 23, 1982; J. Sinensky to J. Finger, Dec. 20, 1982;Jewish Advocate, Jan. 20, 1983; Anti-Semitism — Jewish Advocacy Center, AJCong.

  12. ADL Civil Rights Division, Policy Background Report, May 1986;Shaare Tefila v.Cobb/External Correspondence, AJCong;Petition for Writ of Certiorari, pp. 18–19; M. Stern to Executive Committee, Apr. 4, 1986,Shaare Tefila v.Cobb/Internal Correspondence, AJCong. Stern pointed out that the racial statutes, if applied to the Jews, could provide a weapon against the Arab boycott of Jewish businesses. See alsoJewish Advocate, Jan. 20, 1983.

  13. Petition for Writ of Certiorari, p. 17.

  14. Minutes of the Executive Committee, Apr. 14, 1986, AJCong.

  15. Shaare Tefila Congregation v.Cobb, 785 F. 2d 525 (4th Cir. 1986), at 528–34.

  16. Al-Khazraji v.Saint Francis College, 784 F. 2d 505 (3rd. Cir. 1986), at 514, 516.

  17. Memo by R. Krauss. June 30, 1986,Shaare Tefila v.Cobb/Internal Correspondence, AJCong; J. Chanes to NJCRAC Member Agencies, Oct. 7, 1986;Shaare Tefila v.Cobb/External Correspondence, AJCong.

  18. M. Stern to Executive Committee, Apr. 4, 1986,Shaare Tefila v.Cobb/Internal Correspondence, AJCong; Minutes of Executive Committee, Apr. 14, 1986, AJCong.

  19. J. Sinensky and S. Freeman to National Legal Affairs Committee, Dec. 8, 1986, ADL.

  20. A. Klausner to Members of the National Legal Committee [of the AJC], May 23, 1986,Shaare Tefila v.Cobb/External Correspondence, AJCong; S. Rabinove to Members of the National Legal Committee, Nov. 14, 1986, NAD-LP 86,Shaare Tefila Cong. v.Cobb, AJC. Robert Rifkind of the Cravath firm explained during the Committee's deliberations how inappropriate it was for the courts to adopt a technical or narrow view of race for judging either the status of the plaintiff or the ideology of the defendant. R. Rifkind to author, Jan. 12, 1988.

  21. Minutes of Executive Committee, Apr. 14, Nov. 17, 1986.

  22. S. Rabinove to Members of the National Legal Committee, Nov. 14, 1986, NAD-LP 86,Shaare Tefila Cong. v.Cobb, AJC.

  23. ADL Civil Rights Division, Policy Background Report, May 1986,Shaare Tefila v.Cobb/External Correspondence, AJCong; J. Sinensky and S. Freeman to National Legal Affairs Committee, Dec. 8, 1986, ADL.

  24. Shaare Tefila Congregation et al. v.John William Cobb et al.; Saint Francis College et al. v.Majid Ghaidan Al-Khazraji, On Writs of Certiorari to the United State Courts of Appeals for the Fourth and Third Circuits,Motion for Leave to File and Brief of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights under Law, the American Jewish Committee, the American Civil Liberties Union, the International Network of Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, the American Gathering and Federation of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, the Jewish War Veterans, the Institute of Jewish Law, and the Capital Legal Counsel of B'nai B'rith as Amici Curiae Supporting Petitioners Shaare Tefila Congregation et al. and Respondent Majid Ghaidan Al-Khazraji (Nos. 85–2156 & 85–2169), November 1986.

  25. Minutes of Executive Committee, Apr. 14, 1986, AJCong.

  26. Los Angeles Daily Journal, Feb. 26, 1987 (files of AJCong).

  27. J. Sinensky to National Legal Affairs Committee [of the ADL], Mar. 9, 1987, NAD-LP 87, Shaare Tefila, AJC;Los Angeles Daily Journal, Feb. 26, 1987.

  28. 107 S. Ct. 2019, 2022 (1987).

  29. Saint Francis College. et al. v.Majid Ghaidan Al-Khazraji. On Writ of Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit,Brief for Respondent.

  30. Richard Foltin, “New Life in 1987 for the Civil Rights Act of 1866,” JTADaily News Bulletin, June 1, 1987.

  31. Reports by the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization showing the use of racial classifications are included in the Al-Khazraji brief (see n. 30), appendices A–C.Brief for Petitioner, In the Matter of Hersh Skuratowski, United States District Court, Southern District of New York, 1909. The brief was filed by Max J. Kohler and Abram I. Elkus for the American Jewish Committee. Since the case was not heard by the court, the points raised by the AJC were not resolved. See also Esther L. Panitz,Simon Wolf (Rutherford, 1987), ch. 8.

  32. See, for example, Morton Rosenstock,Louis Marshall, Defender of Jewish Rights (Detroit, 1965), 214–33.

  33. Stuart E. Knee,The Concept of Zionist Dissent in the American Mind, 1917–41 (New York, 1979), esp. ch. 3.

  34. Naomi W. Cohen, “The Reaction of Reform Judaism in America to Political Zionism (1897–1922),” inThe Jewish Experience in America, ed. Abraham J. Karp, 5 vols. (Waltham and New York, 1969), 5:172–73.

  35. See, for example, Josephine Lazarus,The Spirit of Judaism (New York, 1895). The fact that Jewish religious spokesmen felt impelled to muster arguments against that suggestion indicates that it was debated seriously. Naomi W. Cohen, “The Challenges of Darwinism and Biblical Criticism to American Judaism,”Modern Judaism 4 (May 1984):129, 145–46.

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  36. N. Redlich to M. Stern, Feb. 24, 1987,Shaare Tefila v.Cobb/Al-Khazraji, AJCong.

  37. Files on “hate crimes”, NAD-LP 85, 86, 87, AJC.

  38. Shaare Tefila v.Cobb/ Articles and Clips, AJCong.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hunter College of the City University of New York, USA

    Naomi W. Cohen

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  1. Naomi W. Cohen
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I am grateful to Marc D. Stern of the American Jewish Congress and Rabbi Martin S. Halpern of Shaare Tefila Congregation for bringing certain materials to my attention.

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Cohen, N.W. Shaare Tefila Congregation v.Cobb: A new departure in American Jewish defense?. Jewish History 3, 95–108 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01667350

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