Museum of Tolerance

Your editorial (May 21), “The Line Is Thin--Too Thin,” against Senate Bill 337, which would contribute $5 million of public funds to the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s new Museum of Tolerance, is based on erroneous assumptions:

1--The Simon Wiesenthal Center is not an affiliate of a “religious institution,” but rather an affiliate of an academic institution, Yeshiva University of Los Angeles.

2--On May 2, 1985, the legislative counsel of the state of California ruled that SB 337 does not violate church/state doctrines. This ruling confirmed the opinions expressed by recognized constitutional authorities--including Prof. Alan Dershowitz of Harvard University School of Law; Jesse Choper, dean of UC Berkeley School of Law; William Cohen, Carlsmith Professor of Law at Stanford University, and Gerald Gunther, Cromwell Professor of Law at Stanford--that even prior to the center’s filing of separate articles of incorporation the allocation to the Museum of Tolerance would not violate the religion clauses of the U.S. Constitution. A lengthy letter written by Jerome Falk, noted state constitutional attorney, declares similarly that this legislation does not violate California’s Constitution.

3--There are numerous precedents for state grants to academic institutions under Jewish, Catholic and Protestant auspices. Indeed, one would not have to be a legal expert to be able to point out that each year the federal and state governments have long supported grants to such academic institutions.

If, as Rabbi Alfred Wolf of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple states, the line that separates the proposed museum from something that is “denominationally religious” is a “very thin line,” then those hundreds of millions of dollars of federal and state grants should be returned. Your editorial consistently fails to recognize the difference between a church, an academic institution approved by the state of California, and particularly the non-sectarian Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Given California’s diverse ethnic population, we believe that the Museum of Tolerance serves the broader public interest and, as such, the state of California should welcome the opportunity to be a part of this important human-rights undertaking.

MARVIN HIER

Los Angeles

Rabbi Hier is dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.