User:Zatsugaku/Marver Bernstein

Dr. Marver Hillel Bernstein was an American educator, Jewish lay leader, and the 4th President of Brandeis University. He served as a professor of political science at Princeton University and was its first Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. After retiring from Brandeis, Bernstein was a professor of politics and philosophy at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He was also former president of the National Federation for Jewish Culture and the American Professors for Peace in the Middle East.

Early life and education
Bernstein was born in Mankato, Minnesota and completed his BA and MA at the University of Wisconsin, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He earned a doctorate at Princeton.

Early career
Bernstein served as a budget examiner for the federal government at the US Bureau of the Budget from 1942 until 1946. Bernstein was a professor at Princeton for 26 years and was the first dean of Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs from 1964–1969, as well as being influential in the selection of the design of its iconic building.[Citation needed] In 1972 Bernstein became Brandeis fourth president where he served in that position for eleven years. After leaving Brandeis, he became a professor of politics and philosophy at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service where he taught until just before his death. Bernstein was very active in Jewish organizations and served on the boards of the B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation, the National Federation for Jewish Culture, American Professors for Peace in the Middle East, and numerous civic groups.

As a young professor at Princeton in the immediate post-war era, Bernstein served as one of the informal faculty advisors to Princeton’s Liberal Student Union, an unaffiliated group that sought to end racial and religious discrimination at Princeton, particularly in admissions. The group acted to end Princeton’s de facto exclusion of African Americans by mailing recruiting solicitations to over two thousand historically black high schools. (New Jersey law banned discrimination, but Princeton was known to be inhospitable.) The Liberal Union also advocated for the establishment of a campus student union and dining facility that would serve all students, as the existing eating club system was seen as elitist and selected members in a manner similar to fraternities. Thus, Bernstein, along with other faculty advisors, played an important if little-recognized role in reshaping Princeton into a more racially, religiously, and socially inclusive institution.

Tenure at Brandeis
Brandeis University had been founded in 1948 as a Jewish sponsored secular university largely in response discriminatory quotas Jews had faced entering existing private universities, particularly medical schools; as such it was committed to being "open to students and faculty of all races and religions." In that context, Bernstein expressed concern for ensuring Brandies pursued an open dialog and process with students on improving the quality of the college. In his inaugural address on Oct 5, 1972 Bernstein stated: "“The university not only undertakes a unique function in society; it also has a fascinating organizational character that differentiates it from other institutions. ...It depends more strongly on shared values and mutual understandings than any other human organization.'" His goal for Brandeis in 1972 was to strengthen “the quality of education,” which “requires a process of full communication and meaningful participation in making difficult choices.” "Urging students, faculty and trustees to participate in Brandeis as an organization, Bernstein admitted that making decisions to build and grow a university requires disagreement and compromise. “Sharing in the responsibility for governing, however, is sobering. It requires hard, continuing effort,”"

Academics
Bernstein joined the faculty of Princeton University in 1946 and taught for approximately 25 years.


 * 1946 Research Associate in Politics
 * 1948 Assistant Professor
 * 1954 Associate Professor
 * 1958–72 Professor
 * 1961–64 Chmn. Dept. of Politics
 * 1964–69 Associate director; Dean, Woodrow Wilson School
 * 1972–83 President, Brandeis University
 * 1983–90 Professor, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service

Jewish culture
From 1969 to 1975, Dr. Bernstein was chairman of the national commission of B'nai B'rith Hillel Foundations, the policy body for the Hillel centers on 284 college campuses. He was a former president of the National Federation for Jewish Culture, at the time, the leading advocate for Jewish cultural life and creativity in the United States, and the American Professors for Peace in the Middle East (APPME). He belonged to many civic groups, including the Massachusetts Ethics Commission and the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, and was an honorary trustee of the American Jewish Historical Society and the Foundation for Jewish Studies. He earned many honorary degrees.

Government
Bernstein was sought as an advisor to local, state, and federal agencies and in 1967 brokered a deadlock over the reapportionment of New Jersey’s legislative districts. Bernstein’s negotiations represented an important chapter in the history of efforts to achieve bipartisan state redistricting. In 1966, New Jersey, amongst five other states, had proposed constitutional amendments to formalize bipartisan reapportionment provisions, with three, including New Jersey, achieving ratification. In New Jersey, apportionment was transferred to a commission, whose by-laws included a tie-breaker provision, a position to be appointed by the Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court.
 * Vindication of the convention's decision to provide for a tie breaker was not long coming. The Commission deadlocked, Professor Marver H. Bernstein, Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs of Princeton University, was appointed by the New Jersey Chief Justice, and a plan was soon announced. …Professor Bernstein's plan, adopted by an eight to three vote, effected a compromise between the interests of the parties in two of the large counties.

Contribution to structure of Israeli government
The Bernsteins maintained a residence in Israel where they often lived outside of the academic year. Colleagues have commented that he was known to have been frequently sought for advice on the structuring of Israel’s growing administrative organizations. [Citation needed]

Controversies
In July of 1959, at an American national exhibition in Moscow, Soviet authorities removed three books on Israel and Jewish subjects, including Bernstein’s 1957 text The Politics of Israel: The First Decade of Statehood.

Death
Dr. Bernstein and his wife, Sheva, died in the Helioplis Sheraton hotel fire, in Cairo, Egypt on March 1, 1990. The two had arrived in Cairo after his recent retirement from Georgetown University, planning to join a Smithsonian Institution-sponsored tour of the Red Sea the next day. They stayed on an upper floor of the luxury hotel. A fire starting in an attached tented restaurant and fanned by high winds, consumed much of the 630 room hotel which had no fire alarms or sprinklers. It was later reported that they were overcome by smoke in an interior hallway.

Family
Bernstein was married in 1944 to the former Sheva Rosenthal, a native of St. Paul, Minnesota, and graduate of the University of Minnesota. Ms. Rosenthal was an economist who was active in the Hadassah, the League of Women Voters and other social services organizations.