April 19, 2002

Volume 30, Number 26

Yale Graduate to speak on Jewish soldiers in Hitler's army

Bryan Rigg, a 1996 graduate of Yale College, will discuss his recently published book, "Hitler's Jewish Soldiers: The Untold Story of Nazi Racial Laws and Men of Jewish Descent in the German Military," at the Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale, 80 Wall St., on April 23 at 7:30 p.m.

The event is sponsored by the Slifka Center's Mark and Bernice Sobotaka Yom HaShoah Endowment.

Rigg will talk about the startlingly large number of German military men -- a number much higher than previously thought, and erhaps as many as 150,000 -- who were classified by the Nazis as Jews or "partial-Jews" (Mischlinge) in the mid-1930s. In his book, Rigg documents for the first time that a great many of these men did not consider themselves Jewish and had embraced the military life as patriots eager to serve a revived German nation. His study is based on wide-ranging research in archival and secondary sources as well as extensive interviews with German war veterans.

Rigg's work was carried out for two years under Yale's Department of English and Judaic Studies Program. In 1994 he received the William ('29) and Miriam Horowitz Judaica Project Fund of the Joseph Slifka Center to support his project. Currently a professor of history at American Military University, he has served as a volunteer in the Israeli Army and as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps.

ISPS talk to explore proposed U.N. conference on disabilities

Akiko Ito, chief of the Programme on Disability at the United Nations (U.N.), will discuss the proposed U.N. convention on disabilities on Wednesday, April 24, 3:30-5 p.m. at the Law School, 127 Wall St.

The talk, which is free and open to the public, is part of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies' Bioethics Project and its working research group on "Disability and Bioethics." For more information and specifics on the room location, contact Carol Pollard by phone at (203) 432-6188 or by e-mail at carol.pollard@yale.edu.

The U.N.'s Programme on Disability is part of its Division for Social Policy and Development in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. As chief, Ito assists senior officers in all aspects of the work of the division relating to disability. She also assists the Special Rapporteur of the Commission for Social Development on disability issues; conducts global reviews on disability policies; facilitates intergovernmental policy processes; assists governments in the implementation of international policy instruments on disability; and works closely with non-governmental communities and academic institutions to implement projects on priority disability issues.

Ito's previous positions with the U.N. include social affairs officer with the Programme on Disability from 1994 to 1997 and associate legal officer of the U.N. International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) from 1990 to 1994. At the UNDCP, Ito was responsible for conducting legal research for the program, and collecting and analyzing information on drug control laws.

Morse College master's tea to feature Steve Forbes

Steve Forbes, president and chief executive officer of Forbes Inc. and editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine, will speak at a master's tea on Thursday, April 25, at 4 p.m. in the Morse College master's house, 99 Tower Pkwy.

The tea is free and open to the public.

Forbes assumed his leadership position at Forbes Inc. in 1990. The company's flagship publication, Forbes magazine, is the nation's leading business magazine with a circulation of 900,000. Forbes writes editorials, titled "Fact and Comment," for each issue of the magazine. He is the only writer to have won the Crystal Owl Award four times. The award by the USX Corporation honored the financial journalist whose economic forecasts for the coming year proved most accurate.

In both 1996 and 2000, Forbes campaigned for the Republican presidential nomination. Key to his platform were a flat tax, medical savings accounts, a new Social Security system, parental choice of schools for their children, term limits and a strong national defense. Forbes still continues to promote this agenda.

From 1996 to 1999 Forbes was honorary chair of Americans for Hope, Growth and Opportunity. From 1993 to 1996 he served as chair of the board of directors of Empower America. He was named chair of the bipartisan Board for International Broadcasting by President Reagan in 1985, overseeing the operation of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. He was reappointed to the post by President George H.W. Bush and served until 1993. He is the author of the 1999 book "A New Birth of Freedom."

Novelist Danzy Senna to be guest at master's tea

Danzy Senna, author of the best-selling novel "Caucasia," will be the guest at a master's tea at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 25, in the Calhoun College master's house, 434 College St.

The tea is free and open to the public.

"Caucasia," a coming-of-age novel that explores the ideas of race and identity in America, was published in 1999 to critical praise. Ms. Magazine described the book as a "finely nuanced story that explores the matter of race through the eyes and the heart of another white black girl." Told from the viewpoint of Birdie, a young girl whose mother is white and father is black, "Caucasia" examines her attempts to straddle the racial divide.

Senna received her M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of California, Irvine. She has worked as a journalist for several major magazines, including Newsweek and Spin, and her critical writings on race and gender have been anthologized. She is currently at work on her second novel.

Environmental justice in Indian country to be explored in talk

Gerald Torres, the H.O. Head Centennial Professor in Real Property Law at the University of Texas, will present the next Distinguished Lecture in the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES) series "The Restoration Agenda: Environmental Justice" on Friday, April 26.

The talk, which is titled "Environmental Justice in Indian Country," will take place 11:30 a.m.-12:50 p.m. in Bowers Auditorium of Sage Hall, 205 Prospect St. Those who attend are welcome to bring a brown-bag lunch; light refreshments will also be served.

A leading figure in critical race theory, Torres is also an expert in agricultural and environmental law. He joined the University of Texas faculty in 1993 from the University of Minnesota Law School. He has served as deputy assistant attorney general for environment and natural resources in the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., and as counsel to Attorney General Janet Reno. He received his J.D. from Yale in 1977.

Torres coauthored with Lani Guinier the 2002 book "The Miner's Canary: Enlisting Race, Resisting Power, Transforming Democracy." He was elected to the boards of the Environmental Law Institute and The National Petroleum Council, and currently serves as president of the boards of the Advancement Project, a national civil rights organization, and the Austin Children's Museum.

Members of the public are welcome to attend. For information, contact Gordon Geballe at (203) 432-5122 or gordon.geballe@yale.edu, or Colleen Murphy-Dunning at (203) 432-6570 or colleen.murphy-dunning@yale.edu.

Healthy Steps program is focus of Bush Center lecture

Kathryn Taaffe McLearn, senior fellow and visiting scholar at the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University, will speak in the Bush Center in Child Development and Social Policy lecture series on Friday, April 26.

Her talk -- titled "Promoting Child Development in Pediatric Care: What Have We Learned from the Healthy Steps for Young Children Program?" -- will be held at noon in Rm. 211 of Mason Laboratory, 9 Hillhouse Ave. The event is free and open to the public. For further information, call (203) 432-9935.

McLearn served as an assistant vice president at The Commonwealth Fund from 1995 to 2002, overseeing and codesigning the national pediatric initiative Healthy Steps for Young Children. Healthy Steps emphasizes a close relationship between health care professionals and parents in addressing the physical, emotional, and intellectual growth and development of children birth to age 3. This approach is being implemented and tested in numerous pediatric practices across the country, and 15 sites have been approved for a national evaluation.

From 1992 until 1995 McLearn served as the director of studies for the Carnegie Corporation Task Force, Meeting the Needs of Our Youngest Children, and was the primary author of the landmark "Starting Points" report. She directed the Children and Families at Risk program at the Smith Richardson Foundation 1988-1992. She has served on the faculties of Sarah Lawrence College and Yale, where she was assistant director of the Bush Center. She received her doctorate in developmental psychology from Yale in 1988.

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Campus Notes