When the Black Students Association invited controversial City University of New York (CUNY) Leonard Jeffries to speak at Harvard two years ago, tensions between Blacks and Jews on campus exploded.

Harvard-Radcliffe Hillel organized a protest of more than 450 students to picket outside the speech. Television coverage was intense, and even 30 uncalled-for representatives of the national Jewish Defense League showed up.

This year, when the BSA hosted a speech by Wellesley professor Anthony Martin, whose writings have been compared with Jeffries' statements on the relations between Jews and anti-Black racism, Hillel did not protest. Members passed out a letter at the event, and did little more.

There was no picketing. There was no media frenzy. A few days later, there was even a calm and conciliatory dialogue between BSA and Hillel, which leaders described as "frank and open."

What changed between 1992 and today?

Leaders of both groups give several answers. The leadership is different. Hillel chair Elie G. Kaunfer '95 and BSA President Kristen M. Clarks '97 maintained a dialogue throughout. The two groups built relations with shared events before Martin came.

But perhaps the most ironic answer given by members of both Hillel and BSA is that it was Jeffries himself who improved relations between the two groups. The shadow of the 1992 incident and its aftermath has hung over Blacks and Jews for two years, and no one wanted to see it repeated with a different controversial speaker.

"For myself personally and many of the seniors, [the Jeffries speech] was a defining moment of my freshman year," says Michael H. Pine '95, who helped organize the recent BSA Hillel dialogue. "I wasn't particularly active in Hillel then. The fallout front that event encouraged me to get involved in this issue [of Black-Jewish relations]."

The Jeffries Speech

Jeffries was the focus of national controversy the summer before his speech, when his theories on a racism conspiracy involving Jewish member of the media were made public.

The speech, in Sanders Theatre was a massive event: it drew 1200 students, who paid admission. Harvard stationed police officers and security guards around the building.

The protest organized by Hillel involved nine different students groups, including several other ethnic organizations.

In the wake of Jeffries' speech relations between Hillel and the BSA hit a low point.

Shal A. Held '94, then chair of Hillel, said at the time that he saw wound, but not a break." The protest was not against the BSA itself, he noted, but Hillel was "disappointed" with the choice of speaker.

A week after the Jeffries speech, the Freshman Black Table (FBT) hosted a discussion about Black-Jewish relations that turned into a heated debate. In an indication of the tensions spawned by the speech, students traded opinions but found little common ground.

"Tensions were very high," outgoing Hillel chair Elie G. Kaunfer '95 says. "There were 60 to 70 people there, and no one was really listening to each other."