S41 CHRONICLESnfor most of this century, the nation’sntoniest educational institutions usednquotas for the explicit purpose of excludingnintellectually able Jewish applicants.nStill, liberal Jewish leaders arenzealous advocates of affirmative action.nOne of the chief gripes the AmericannJewish Congress and the NationalnCouncil of Jewish Women had againstnJudge Robert Bork was his refusal tonembrace reverse discrimination as holynwrit.nThe political hypocrisy of the establishednJewish leadership may reach andubious zenith on the issue of intermarriage.nFor a long time intermarriagenhas been a bete noire with rabbis andnJewish organizations. Nevertheless,nJewish liberal activists have lionizednJewish Kitty and Creek Orthodox MichaelnDukakis for their chicly “ecumenical”nmarriage. One gushing NewnYork rabbi campaigning with Mrs.nDukakis before the New York primarynlikened her to the biblical Esther, thenJewish wife of a Persian king. Just a fewnmonths earlier, however, these samenfolks — including a major New Yorknliberal Jewish weekly and officials ofnthe Union of American Hebrew Congregationsnand the American JewishnCongress — were reviling SupremenCourt nominee Douglas Ginsburg for,namong other things, his marriage to anwoman who was not born Jewish. Atnaround the same time. Reform andnConservative rabbis were officiatingnwith a priest at the wedding of NewnYork governor Mario Cuomo’s daughternto a Jewish groom who agreed tonraise their future children as Catholics.nThe explanation for this seeming incongruitynis that the Dukakises andnCuomo are certified liberals, whilenCinsburg is perceived as a conservative.nTo many Jewish leaders, intermarriagenis a vice or a virtue dependingnupon the politics of the parties involved.nAll of this obeisance to the fashionablenopinions and personalities of thenpolitical and intellectual left embarrassesnand actively harms American Jews.nThe real American Jewish communitynhas put off for too long an agonizingnreappraisal of the scandalous politicalnactivities of those who are only ostensiblynacting on its behalf. At the verynleast, synagogues should not be in thenbusiness of using religious services tonendorse candidates — any candidates.nThe Jewish rabbinical and lay leadershipnregularly accuses the Christiannright of confounding religion and politics.nIt is doing at least the same thingnitself, only on behalf of liberal politiciansnand issues. The lesson is obvious.nThe established Jewish leadershipnshould abandon its political pretensionsnand return to, or begin, serving thenreligious and other needs of the Jewishncommunity. Otherwise, AmericannJewry should look for new spiritual andnsecular leaders.nElliot C. Rothenberg, a Minneapolisntrial lawyer, is president of the NorthnStar Legal Foundation and a pastnnational law director of thenAnti-Defamation League.nPOP CULTUREnLive from SannDiego, It’s VladimirnPosnernby K.L. BillingsleynOn any Wednesday night, there’s plentynto do in San Diego, or “America’snFinest City,” as it is billed. But tonightnthe locals pack the University of Californianlecture hall to hear Vladimir Posner,nthe Soviet Union’s most famous journalist.n(Since it has often been pointednout that “Soviet journalist” is oxymoronic,nwe won’t get into that here,nexcept to say that “television journalist”nis probably an oxymoron, too. As farnas I know, Posner is not a “Soviet writer.”)nPosner is a big draw at the campusnwhere Herbert Marcuse once heldnforth on repressive tolerance. In fact, sonmany show up that the overflow isnstuffed into an adjacent hall where theynwill have to watch on closed circuitntelevision.nIt’s a mixed group: students, curiousnbaby boomers, and plenty of older folks.nPamphleteers from the John Birch Societynand the Union of Jewish Studentsnwork the crowd. Their wares litter thenfloor. There is much pushing and shoving.n”What’s the fuss?” someone says.n”He’s just some Bolshevik in a suit.” Anyounger man laughs, but one elderlynlady looks offended. “I think he’s cute,”nnnanswers a tangly blonde straight out of anSprite commercial, evidently there tonlook, not listen.nThe star himself is over in a corner,nchatting up some television people. Atnfirst glance he looks a bit like a carnsalesman, definitely smaller than life.nBut once on the podium he takes on anprofessional bearing. I half expect himnto remove his glasses and say somethingnlike: “Nine out of ten doctors …”nAfter a long, thunderous ovation,nPosner says he is “overwhelmed” that sonmany have showed up. (At this, many innthe crowd look proud of themselves justnfor being there.) He adds that he is notnan official Soviet government spokesman,nthough if someone should want tonknow the official line, he will of coursengive it.nWhat he is here to do is to correctncertain “myths” about the USSR heldnby Americans. These myths are notnaccidental, he adds, but deliberatelyncultivated. He refers to some 1920 NewnYork Times cartoons showing short, fatnBolsheviks with bushy eyebrows andnknives held in their teeth. “Do I looknlike a Russian?” he says, in his perfectnEnglish (Posner was raised in Brooklyn).nThe crowd loves it.nHe scores more laughs at JoenBiden’s expense by stating that he willnbe careful to fully attribute all quotes.nOne is a piece of anti-Soviet hysterianfrom the Congressional Record in thenearly 1920’s, complete with a phonynline from Lenin about “taking over”nthe United States. Now, Posner couldnhave supplied a genuine quip fromnLenin such as, “the scientific definitionnof a dictatorship is a power that is notnlimited by any laws, not bound by anynrules, and based directiy on force,” butnhe didn’t. He could have pointed out,nas Intourist guides do, that the Sovietnstar represents the five continents, but,nafter all, he is here to calm us.nHe cites a Gallup poll purportedlynshowing that most Americans are unawarenthat the Soviets and Americansnfought on the same side in World WarnII. What terrible ignorance; he’s right.nBut as I listen, I wonder how many ofnthese people have ever heard of then1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact that carved upnPoland. And how many remembernthat, until 1941, Stalin and Hitler werenallies, and that Stalin cheered Hitler’snattacks on England and the West? Ornthat during that time, the Soviets hand-n