Dershowitz’s Challenge To Hanson Courageous

To the editors:

Harvard University occupies the preeminent place among institutions of learning in America, and it is a colossal pity that its faculties are so often guilty of so much intellectual and moral laziness. Bully, then, for Frankfurter Professor of Law Alan M. Dershowitz, a man with whom I often find it difficult to agree—on anything (Opinion, “A Challenge to House Master Hanson,” Sept. 23). His courage in challenging Winthrop House Master Paul Hanson—for having signed an anti-Israeli divestment petition—deserves all the praise I can muster. That educated people could conclude Israel is worse in humanitarian terms than, say, Syria or Zimbabwe or China is testimony to the bias Israel faces and a reminder of the grim world into which irresponsible men like Hanson would deliver us.

James Y. Stern ’01

Brunswick, Maine

Sept. 24, 2002

The writer was magazine editor of The Crimson in 2000.