Word: gavin
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...dream is an old one, a dream that smacks of the optimism of the Enlightenment. Faith in the power of truth and knowledge holds a special place in American public life as much as in modern Jewish history. There is something anachronistic and quaint about Gavin's vision: What other archaeologist has such ambitions...
Cross, of course, warmly acknowledges Gavin's part in all this. But he stresses repeatedly that hard, quiet work will always bear fruit, and although the administration has other concerns now, Harvard cannot turn its back on the department forever...
...left with two independent interpretations of how a Harvard institution comes into being: Gavin and his volunteers scrounge for pennies. Cross and his graduate students publish articles. Are they working at cross-purposes? Is the new museum heading off in two directions at once...
...exhibit is perhaps the first symptom of this institutional schizophrenia. Neither Harvard nor the Near Eastern Dept. brought "Danzig: 1939" to the Semitic Museum--the National Endowment for the Humanities. Combined Jewish Philanthropies, the Dorot Foundation, and a host of other private and corporate donors did. They answered Carney Gavin's letters because it seemed to them that the Danzig exhibit was of significant historical and cultural interest to the general public...
Jacob Schiff invested his money in a public education campaign: He believed in his heart that knowledge was the best weapon against prejudice. Carney Gavin has been scrapping for the last 10 years with the same ideal in mind. His legion of volunteers take the idea of public education very seriously; they want to tell everyone about the beauty and mystery and profound importance of Semitic culture. And they believe in the fundamental unity of Semitic peoples. Ultimately, says Gavin, the "survival of the planet" depends on the work being done at the Harvard Semitic Museum...