The lewish cause is still "the underdog cause of all world causes," Alan M. Dershowitz, professor of Law, said yesterday in the Lowell House Senior Common Room.

Dershowitz, speaking to a group of about 15, said that he is currently consulting in the defense of Mikhail Leviyev, a Soviet few sentenced to death for bribery and embezzlement.

"The Jewish cause is unpopular because it is embarrassing for Jews to stand up and be counted as Jews to that is what they really care about," Dershowitz said.

"Jews will stand up and take a stand on abortion and rally to the support of Dr. Kenneth Edelin but they will not assert themselves on the position of Israel in the world and the rights or Soviet Jewry," he said.

Because of the publicity brought to the case by Leviyev's lawyers, the Soviet government has decided to reopen the case against Leviyev. Dershowitz said.

Dershowitz said he may also defend Miler Kahane, head of the Jewish Defense League (JDL), against a U.S. government attempt to revoke his parole for a crime he was convicted of in Israel.

Dershowitz two years ago headed the defense of two JDL members charged with the murder, by bombing, of a secretary in the New York office of ballet and art entreprneur Sol Hurok.