Tuesday The Rabbi Saw Red

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

"I hope you don't mind my asking you to come this afternoon. Rabbi." said President Macomber. "but on Friday afternoons the building is practically deserted, we can talk in privacy and without interruption. But first, are you enjoying your teaching here?"

"Oh yes. I had twenty-five in my class this afternoon."

"Indeed." murmured Macomber. The rabbi realized the president had no idea what he meant and hastened to explain.

"I'm sure it's the result of your teaching." said Macomber politely, he fiddled with a pencil and appeared embarrassed. Finally, he cleared his throat and said. "You shared an office with Professor Hendryx. You talked with him?"

"Yes, occasionally. Not too often, and usually not at great length."

"Tell me, Rabbi,” he leaned back in his chair, "in your opinion was Professor Hendryx anti-Semitic?"

The rabbi pursed his lips. "I wouldn't say so, he was prejudiced, all right. Most people are against one group or another. It's a natural reaction to the stranger, to the member of a minority, we Jews have suffered it more than most. I suppose, because we have been a minority in so many countries. But I don't call it anti-Semitism if I am not liked, even if I'm not liked because I am a Jew. I don't consider it anti-Semitism unless the prejudice is translated into action, political or legal or social. To work, a multiple society doesn't require that every segment of the population like every other segment, that's Utopian. It works if every segment accords equality to every other segment, whether they like them or not, as for Professor Hendryx, he made disparaging remarks about Jews on occasion, but he also made similar remarks about Irish and Italians and Negroes, he was given to making bitter, sarcastic remarks on almost anyone and anything. I considered him a vexed, unhappy man."

Macomber nodded slowly. "I see."

"You seem disappointed."

The president laughed shortly. "In a way I am. It would make matters easier for me if Professor Hendryx had been anti-Semitic." He was silent, then. "With the end of the term approaching, we are quite disorganized, we do not have a dean, and the English department does not have a chairman. Normally, that last would be no great concern, but we're also short-handed there, and with Professor Fine leaving..."

"Does he have to leave?"

"Well, that's just the point." Macomber picked up a long white envelope lying on his desk. "Before his death. Professor Hendryx made grave charges against Professor Fine to Dean Hanbury, charges which she brought to me and which led to my decision not to renew his contract. I venture to speak of this because Mr. Ames intimated that you were familiar with the circumstances." He looked questioningly at the rabbi. The rabbi nodded.

"Well, I just can't ignore these charges, even though Dean Hanbury could be considered— er— discredited by the events that have since transpired. It's the sort of thing that a college president simply can't ignore. Not if he has a conscience."

"Let me understand. President Macomber, you would like to keep Fine on because you are short-handed—"

"And because I think he's a good teacher."

"But because you have reason to believe that he committed the sin of leaking an exam to a student, your conscience won't allow you to overlook it?"

"Ye— es. I'd say that's about right." said Macomber unhappily.

"But if I had said that Hendryx was anti-Semitic, you would have considered that the charges had stemmed from bias and could dismiss them."

"Considering that I knew of the situation only through Dean Hanbury. I didn't talk to Hendryx."

"But now you feel she's been discredited."

"Yes, but there's this envelope, unfortunately. It contains proof of the charge,” he said. "It's sealed as you see, with Fine's name written across it, but I know what's inside since I told Dean Hanbury just how I wanted it worded. I wrote it out for her to copy, in fact." He pulled open a drawer and drew out a folder. It contained a single sheet of notepaper, he passed it across the desk. "Go on, read it."

"It's not signed." The rabbi read. "No date." He looked up inquiringly.

"That's so we could add a recent date in the event Professor Fine went back on his promise,” he explained. The rabbi read on: "I hearby admit of my own free will that I arranged to show a copy of the final examination of the course English 74 to a student taking that course, thereby permitting said student to get a higher mark at the end of the summer term. I regret this action and promise that I will not be guilty of a similar offense during the remainder of my tenure here."

"The one in the envelope is of course signed by Professor Fine." said Macomber. The rabbi was silent for a moment and then said. "The traditional function of a rabbi is to sit in judgement. Did you know that?"

Macomber smiled. "Bradford Ames said something to that effect when he discussed— er— things with me, are you suggesting that if you were the judge you would view the charges differently?"

"If I were hearing the case. I would not admit this as evidence at all. It is contrary to Talmudic law."

Macomber smiled. "Since Roger Fine is a Jew. I suppose there would be a certain justice in judging him by Talmudic law. Judging a man by his peers, you might say-All right, how would you proceed?"

"I would first hear from his accusers."

"But that's impossible, they're both— "

"Precisely."

"But there's his own admission."

"But I could not admit it as evidence. By our law. 'No man may call himself a wrongdoer.' This is a fundamental principle with us in criminal law."

"Come to think of it, I guess it is in our Common Law, too." Macomber remarked.

"But there's a difference." said the rabbi. "In Common Law a man cannot be forced to testify against himself. In our law, he can't even if he wants to."

"I see, so if you were sitting in judgment on this case?"

"I would dismiss it." said the rabbi promptly. Macomber smiled. "It's a way out, to be sure, and yet—"

"And yet you are dissatisfied."

"Well, yes I am."

"I am too," the rabbi admitted. "I suppose it's because we're involved not so much with law as with conscience. Yours and mine. I believe I first referred to it as a sin rather than as a crime. This sin of leaking an exam— as a college president you regard it as unpardonable?"

"Well, no sin is unpardonable, I suppose." said Macomber."

"Then how would someone go about getting his sin pardoned?"

"I guess that's more in your province than mine. Rabbi. I suppose by confession— and repentance, and by promising not to repeat the offense."

The rabbi brightened. "Well, isn't that what Fine has done?"

"When? Now?"

"Right here in this paper. 'I admit of my own free will'— that's confession. 'I regret this action'— that's repentance. 'And promise that I will not be guilty of a similar offense'— that's the third element."

Macomber considered, then he smiled. "Yes, I think that will do it, and that will take care of our problem with the English Department at the same time." He sat back in his chair and beamed. "Tell me, Rabbi. I don't suppose you'd like to try your hand at being a dean, would you?"