Jewish Law School Student Associations Join First National Jewish Law School Students Network

An official of the first National Jewish Law School Students Network said today that Jewish law school student associations at 20 colleges and universities have joined the new umbrella organization to coordinate association activities and facilities communication between the member affiliates.

The Network was organized at the first national conference of Jewish law school students, held at Harvard Law School earlier this month and attended by about 100 students, according to Richard Berenson, a Harvard student who is co-chairperson of the Network’s first executive board. Eve Lerman of the University of Michigan Law School is the other co-chairperson. Berenson said all 20 associations are represented on the executive board.

Berenson, in a statement issued in connection with a report on the first conference and amplified in a telephone interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, said he felt “there is a great deal that Jewish law school associations can do to protect Jewish interests on campus and to build a sense of community among Jewish law students.”

According to a report in the Harvard Law Record, the day-long national conference “focused on the special problems that Jewish practicioners sometimes face — religious dilemmas, ethical conflicts, anti-Semitic clients and judges — and on specific ways that attorneys have found to combine a Jewish commitment with the practice of law,” Prof.Alan Dershowitz, one of the speakers, told the delegates that, “barely 20 years ago, blatant anti-Semitism was quite common in the legal establishment.”

JEWISH INTERESTS ON CAMPUS

Asked to describe Jewish interests on campus which the associations, through their new Network, could act to protect, Berenson told the JTA that there were a number of past and current projects sponsored by the Harvard association on behalf of such interests which the Network was planning to promote among its 20 member student associations.

Among the programs the Harvard association organized is videotaping of lectures given at law school classes during the High Holy Days which can be studied by Jewish students who choose not to attend class on those days, Berenson said.

He said the Harvard University administration arranges for the videotaping, a procedure which began “several years ago” after “some pressure” was exerted on the university administration by the Harvard association. Berenson said the association is now seeking to persuade the administration to change the dates for such classes so that Jewish students can attend actual classes and not be dependent on videotapes.

Berenson said another situation in which the association acted involved a conference a year ago sponsored by the American Indian Association, which invited participation by a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization Mission at the United Nations.

Berenson said the Harvard association organized a silent protest outside the meeting hall. He said some 200 students, including non-Jewish Harvard students and faculty members and students from nearby colleges, came to join the protest.

He said Network planned a monthly newsletter, with the first issue to be out around April 15, He said members of affiliated associations had reported to the chairpersons they were working on reports and articles for the Network newsletter, as yet lacking a name and an editor, and that he expected 150 copies of the first issue would be printed and distributed.

That estimate raised the issue of the number of Jewish students in the 20 associations. Berenson said he estimated the number of active members in each association of around 30, making the active national membership of. Network around 600 students. He said the network planned annual national conferences, with the second one probably to be held next March at a site yet to be chosen.

SCHOOLS WITH JEWISH LAW STUDENT ASSOCIATIONS

He listed the schools at which Jewish law student associations had been formed, in addition to Harvard and Michigan, as American University in Washington, Antioch School of Law, Boston College, Boston University, Bridgeport University School of Law, Cardozo Law School, Columbia University Law School; Georgetown University Law School, George Washington University, Northwestern University, Maryland University, Northeastern University, Hofstra University Temple University, Yale University, Villanova University, Cornell University, and Suffolk University in Boston.