Jeffries' speech had long-lasting repercussions. From that time on, Kaunfer says, there was a two-year full in communication between the groups.

"Our groups didn't have much contact at all," Kaunfer says. "There was extreme tension."

The Martin Speech

The Martin event had a different dynamic from the start, Black and Jewish students say. Martin, whose book The Jewish Onslaught draws links between Jewish history and anti-Black racism, is not as prominent as Jeffries.

"Jeffries is a big name, everyone in America knows him," says Jim B. Loeffler '96, co-chair of Hillel's interethnic committee. "Tony Martin is not as well-known, in some ways a much more marginal figure in academia."

There was also more preparation and consequently more time for tensions to build in the Jeffries case, students say.

"We only found out about [Martin] the day before he was speaking." Kaunfer says. "There wasn't time for people to sit around and get more and more angry."

The topics discussed during the two speeches were also different. Jeffries made assertions of African racial superiority during his speech, calling every other "so-called race...a genetic off-spring of the African race."

Martin came to talk about the controversial book The Bell Curve, though he veered into topics related to "the Jewish tradition" of racism.

"Martin was here to decry The Bell Curve, which was a good thing in Hillel's eyes," Kaunfer says. "It wasn't seen as a direct attack."

Closer Relations

But these differences between the 1992 event and today were not the deciding factors in preventing a blowup, leaders from Hillel and the BSA agree.

Instead, they say, closer relations between leaders of the two groups, and their members as well, kept heated differences at a low simmer.

The BSA and Hillel have worked together on various initiatives over the past year. Last spring, the two organizations co-sponsored three study breaks.

"It was the first time since I've been here that BSA and Hillel have met in a non-crisis situation," Kaunfer says. "It was some precedent."