Defunis vs. Odegaard: Another Kind of "Jewish Problem"

Abstract

When Marco DeFunis sued the University of Washington over its law school admission policies, the case created a rift between the black and Jewish communities in Seattle. A policy to correct discrimination helped the African American community, while reminding the Jewish community uncomfortably of the way in which quotas had been used in the past to its disadvantage. The author researches the case archives to trace the internal dissensions within the Jewish community, which had for a long time been a close ally of blacks in their long struggle for civil rights.