‘ Jewish Speaker Preaches Peace

by Leroy Nash

The Gates Lectures this yearwere
given by Emil Fackcnheim, Pro-
iessor of Philosophy at the Uni»
versity of Toronto, who spoke on
the theme oi‘ “The Task and Promise
oi Contemporary Judaism
in his tirstlecture,"TheChallenge
of Modern Secularism," Facken-
helm began by noting that secular-
ism in the last two or three hun»
dred years has been characterized
by the philosophy .oi positivism,
upon which much of our methods of
scientific inquiry are based, Po-
sltiVlsm, requires that all explana-
tions of physical and psychological
phenomena be explained by (or at
least not contradict) iacts that have
already been obtained.

For the sake of argument, how-
ever, let us assume thata miracle
has occurred; that is, aphenomenon
has been experienced by several
people that cohtl-adlctphysicallaws,
and this phenomenon is due to God.
A religious person would have no
trouble explaining the event _. it is
explained by believing that God ex-
ists, (what Fackenheim calls the
God-hypothesis). But a positivist
would be denied theGod—hypothesis.
To him the phenomenon must be
explained in accordwithknownfacts.
That is, the Red Sea may have
looked like it was dividing, many
people may have thought they saw
it divide, but it could not»»there-
fore it did not,

To Fackeuheim, then,the challenge

that secularism poses to religion
may be summed up as follows:
when the presence of God is felt,
does that mean that God is present

or does it mean that the ieeling
of God is present?

In his second lecture, “The Coin»
manding Voice oi Auschwitz,“
Fackenheim told the story of the
sacrifice of Isaac. Why, he asks,
does God require Abraham to sac-
rihce his only son? While Kierke»
gaard's notion was that both God
and Abraham needed the proof that
Abraham was a man of faith, Fack»
enheim maintains that people who
believed in false gods needed proof
that Abraham's God was the only
true God. Thatis,|hatAbrahamwas
needed to be a witness to idolators
throughout the world that God would
reject human sacrifices.

From this time, on, Jews felt
themselves to be witnesses to the
nations of the world»»at the Red
Sea and at Mount Sinai. They held
fast to their faith even in the midst
of persecution because they feltthey
had to be sacrificed in order forthe
world to discover God. But “after
Auschwitz,” says Fackenheim,
“does a Jew remain a Witness unto
the nations, and it so, what is his
testimony?”

To the Jew this means that he must
seriously consider not bringing his
children up in the Jewish faith.
How can he it it will only expose
them to annihilation, as it has th-

roughout history? Fackenheim an»
swers that "The Jew utter Ausch-

witz is a witness to endurance,
He bears Witness that without endu-
rance we shall all perish, Hebears
witness thatwe can endure because
we must endure»»and that we must
endure because we are commanded
to endure.”

Bio Preserve: A New little

by Michelle Casey

Construction is now underway in
the Conard EnvironmentalResearch
Area (CERA) on a dam which will
make possible a fourteen acre lake
and fifteen acres of marshland tor
the study of marine life and migrar
tory birds.

CERA is a three hundred and sixty
five acre outdoor laboratory for stu-
dent and faculty research, located
about eleven and a half miles south-
west of the college campus. It was
acquired by the college in 1966, and
has been subsequently developed by
the planting oi about ten thousand
trees and the cultivation of a na-
tive prairie area, _

Last spring, a generous gift of ten
thousand dollars provided ior the
establishment of a lake in the area.
Professor Graham is chairman
of the committee which is working
on this project; the committee also
includes Professors Christiansen,
DeLong, and Durkee, and M. Lam» .
bie.

Thecontractor for the project is

Colfax Sand and Gravel company.
lt has been estimated that the dam
will require twenty six thousand
yards at iill. The maximum depth at
the lake Willbe approximately twenty
ieet. The dam will be twenty seven
feet high, fourteen feet thick at the
top, and five hundred feet long.
Hopefully, the work will be com-
pleted by the first of the year.

There are no immediate plans tor
stocking the lake because the lake
itself will be under study for two
or three years.

Professor Graham feels that the
main purpose oi building the lake is
to add diversity to the study area
so that students and faculty might
study an aquatic region in addition
to the woods and prail‘ . 1t willalso
serve as an additionalgame conserv
vation iacility. The lake will supply
water for fire control in the grass—
lands as it is expected that it will
be necessary to burn the prairie
occasionally.

Burting Deficient in S

by Bill Glaser

Mr. Christopher McKee, director
of the Grinnell College library, res
cently released a survey of infor-
mation to the library committee and
the College administration regard-
ing the resources oi the library.
The survey compares the resources
oi Gl‘innell’s library with twenty
other liberal arts colleges whose
programs, goals, and student body
size are similar to Grinnell’s.

The data which McKee has Como
piled, using the 11.8. Office of Ed
ucation, National Center for Educa»
tional Statistics. Librarystah‘stics
of Colleges and Universities Insti—
tutional Data, Fall 1971, Shows that
the Grinnell College library iS ser—
iously behind the other institutions
in the size of the library's collec»
tion and in development of the libs
rary’s resources.

McKee says that “the capsule mes-
sage of the report, Whichthe library
committee is currently considering,
is that if Grinnell College is to'
live up to its high reputation it
must considerably strengthen lib-
rary resources.“

An analysis.and summary ol the
data and statistics reveal that:

A) Students have access to much
greater library resources at col-
leges such as Amherst, Bowdoin,
Drew, Swarthmore, Trinity, and

Williams than they do at Grinnell
College. .
a) Grinnell is
schools in its collection of micro—
text material. Of the tWenty C01-

fzti‘ behind other

in his final lecture, “The Witness
to Reborn Jerusalem,” Facken»
heim’s message could besummedup
in the iollowing sentence: any theo»
logy that divorces itself from the
politics of its existence is a false
theology The Jewish testimony to
the world now is that there must
not be another Auschwitz, To pre»
vent another Auschwitz the Jew
must: (i) work tor the survival
of Israel, and (2) extirpate anti-
Semitism,

Fackehhelm painted out that black
militancy has taught all minorities
a lesson—-the majority canneverre-
cognize its own biases because it
operateson them, Thereiore, in
order to end anti»Semltism (spee
ciiically in the Christian world)
Jews must Show Christians their
innate biases in doing so, not only
will Judaism become stronger,but
Christianity, which is 1n the midst

an): :Snttlt‘ltt null ﬁllhtk

of a crisis of its own, ( at least 5"; -
partially because Auschwitz grew yep

out oi a time during which Chris-
tianity was strong in a place in
which Christianity was strong),
will also heneht,

October 10, 1972

photo rounesy orftce at college Relation:

Dr. Emil L. Fackenheim

Hearings: Need Responsive Government

by Curt Gorrell

Government must be more respon-
sive to the people. This theme was
implicit in all testimony and dis~
cussion carried on at the ISPIRG
public hearing on "Big Government
and the Individual" held at Drake
University on Tuesday, October 10.
There was debate over the computer
programing of criminal records
(TRACIS), role deiiuitious oi pub»
1ic officials, and discussion oflowa's
tax structure, welfare system, and
poliCErcommunity relations. But
throughout it was constantly stres—
sed that government must have more
concern for the rights, and be more
responsive to the moods, of the in»
dividual citizens which it serves.

f‘Government is under the gun to

know what it’s doing...," said Terry
Swanson, Director of the TRACIS
project. He believes that TRACIS
will aid in dealing with this prob-
lem in the criminal justice system.
“in TRACIS theinformatlon we store
is that of public transactions;” the
project involves the transferal of
criminal case records from filing
cabinets tocomputer tapes.

Arthur Neu, Republican candidate
for Lieutenant Governor, acknOWr
ledged TRACIS’ advantages of can»
tralized records and accessibility,
but cautioned the need for controls
over the system. Normandessepro-
vided the viewpoint of a state leg—
lslator in addressing Swanson: ”We

alomost cul 011VOu1’filnds,YOU came
before the legislature two ye‘ars ago
with assurances oi elaborate safe»
guards . now. two months ago,
(Mikc) Sellers said there were
none. Following a heated debate
on the issue, swanson relinquished
the podium to Jesse with a com-
ment that they should discuss the
project iurther.

Jesse’s presentation iocused on
lowa's taxation system, state Auti-
itor Lloyd Smith had noted that “gov»
ernment has no magic tormula for
paying its bills except through tax»
payers,” but Jesse and several at»
her witnesses pointed out inequities
in the uncut tux structure.

“We have a service tax that up-
plies equally to rich and poor. but
the poor pay more in terms of
the percentage oi their income,”
said Jesse. as. Regis,‘ the Des

Moines City Assessor, said that
“property tax exemptions are a
scandal in this country. Definitely.
Positively,“

Criticism was also leveled at the
welfare system. Janet Turner from
Des Moines Greater Opportunities
stressed the need for a change in
the attitudes of Welfare employees.
“So many people down there... treat
you like dirt. So many changes need
to be made; so many changes can
he made."

Testimony from Richard Bates
train the Office oi Community Dev-
elopment in Des Moines rendered a
personal perspective on the indivi-
dual’s relationship lothe“system".
Bates focused on police-community
relations, describing his experi- .
shoes as a black man living in Des
Molnes. He cited the “inability of

(continued on page 7)

McGregor: Boycott

by John Wylie

SGA President Russ McGregor's
proposal ior a class boycott on Bless
lion Day highlighted an otherwise
routine Joint Boards meeting on
Wednesday

McGregor suggested to the Boards
that some action be taken in re
sponse to Monday’s Faculty vote
not to curtail classes on November
7. llls proposal was that the Joint

ize And Development

lege libraries which werecompared ' l

to Grinnell’s library, sixteen have
greater microtext Collections.
Swarthmore's collection of 136,160

units of microtext in Comparison to ,

Grinnell’s 6,130 units showsthe ser»
iousness of the situation,

c) in the area oi growth oi lib»
rary resources Grinnell is making
almost the slowest progress of all
the colleges in the survey,

D) Three-iourths of the colleges
in the survey spend more on their
libraries than Grinnell does, Gri -
nell spends only 4.1g7 oi its entire
budget on the library while| schools
like Williams, Swarthmore, and
Drew spend 72%, 9.417,, and 10%
at their respective budgets on their
libraries

E) Grinnell also has a very small
professional and even smaller cler»
ical staff in comparison to the other
colleges.

F) Grinnell is very strong, how-
ever, in the areas of periodicals
and government documents. Grin»
nell has the largest collection of

government documents and one ofthe
largest collections of periodicals

of all the colleges being considered.

photo m lit-u a in n

Burling Library

McKee stresses that “there is
broad and general agreement within
the college community that an ag-
gressive and vigorous program for
library expansion is needed. The
emphasis oi the survey is not to
blame anyone in the past but to
look ahead toward improving our
library in the future. We have a
good strong collection. It's just not
big enough.”

Specifically. Mr, McKee has made
the following recommendations:

A) The college should increase the

budget of the library to at least
7% or the general budget or the col~
lege.

13) There should he an increase in
the number ol librarians and cler-
ical workers to n lull»time1ibrar-
ians and it) clerical workers

C) The library should pursue a
strong program to add more books
to its current collection oi 195,113
volumes, 275,000 volumes by 1980
and 340,000 volumes by 1985 are the
goals

Boards declare a class boycott be»
cause of the election, both asa sym-
bolic gesture and to allow interest-
ed students and faculty members to ’
work at the polls. The House Pres»
idents decided to postpone any action
on the motion until next week in
order to get the reactions of mem»
bers of their halls. Hall meetings
were planned to explain the situa-
tion to the students and get their
response.

in an interview with the 5113, Mc-
Gregor explained why he presented
the proposal. He said that a great
deal of student input had gone into
the Joint Board’s recommenda»
tion that classes be cancelled, in-
cluding petitions bearing almost 700
signatures. '
“Election Day classes should be
cancelled because of the signifi~
cance of Election Day. 'But the Fac-
ulty has ignored student input on
this.” McGregor added that he did ‘
not read Monday’s Faculty actionas
opposition to cancelling classes,but
rather as an unwillingness to even
consider the issue. He decried what
he called “The faculty’s unwilling-
lies: to listen on this issue”, and
added that a class boycott seemed
the only possible alternative at this
point. .
ln other action, the Boards re-
approved the Debate Limitationplah.
The motion appeared to have passed
last week by an 8774 vote, but an
error in recording the vote left it
an H tie. Last night’s vote re—
aiiirmed the earlier approval.
Board members also decided that
incllVldual students who sign up for
SSA sponsored FDR meetings should
be billed for the full amount of the
meal, and that students not on the
Board plans should pay for their
own meals if they attend one of the ,
PDR’S. r ‘
Also approved was a request irom
the Sudent Coordinator’s office for
an increase in the office supplies
budget [rent $150 to $325 and to
make the entire amount available
now so that quantity discounts on
paper may be obtained, '

 

