Hundreds will – or should – write about the astounding accomplishments of Julie Berman during his life. He presided and managed every organization that was important in the development of American Orthodox Jewry.
Few are still around to describe first-hand the roles he played six decades ago in the awakening of self-respect and the blossoming of Orthodox Jewry in the United States. I saw it then – in the 1960’s – and am proud to have been associated with Julie’s initiatives when our education and professional qualification enabled us to influence the American public.
Julie invoked his lawyer’s license to write and sign friend-of-the-court (amicus curiae) briefs in the Supreme Court. Jointly with Marvin Schick, a non-lawyer who was an extremely knowledgeable authority on American law, he formed the National Jewish Commission on Law and Public Affairs (“COLPA”). COLPA articulated the Orthodox Jewish point of view on national religious liberty issues. The American Jewish community’s legal stance had, until that time, been expressed almost exclusively by Leo Pfeffer, legal counsel of the American Jewish Congress, who supported and energetically promoted a broad reading of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Pfeffer believed that Jews could survive in America only if government and public events had no religious content. His concern was that, unless checked by a prohibition against establishment of religion, Christianity would convert Jewish children and impressionable adults.
Schick, Berman, and a handful of Orthodox lawyers, supported by Agudath Israel of America’s dynamic leader, Rabbi Moshe Sherer, thought otherwise. They began in the 1960s advocating the legal position that Free Exercise of religion, also guaranteed by the First Amendment, should be the paramount goal. They articulated this novel proposition through COLPA statements and briefs. Because I was in federal government service, I could not publicly associate myself initially with this legal stance, although I personally endorsed it and shared my opinion with Schick, Julie, and their cadre.
My recollection of joint advocacy with Julie in the late 1960s is confirmed by the diary I began keeping when I started private practice in 1969. It records telephone conferences on COLPA matters with Julie Berman on September 5 and 17, 1969, and a letter to him on October 9. More telephone conferences with Berman are recorded for October 16, 29, and 30, and November 5 and 14. On October 20, 1969, COLPA filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court supporting New York State’s tax exemption for property owned by religious corporations – a position contrary to that urged by Pfeffer and the ACLU. Julie and I were the attorneys of record for COLPA. The diary has entries reflecting my work on that brief on August 12, September 2 and 16 (4 hours). Also signed on to the filed COLPA brief was Marvin Schick. With only Justice Douglas dissenting, the Court ruled the New York law constitutional on May 4, 1970. Walz v. Tax Commission, 397 U.S. 664 (1970).
Julie also cleared a path in the 1960s for Sabbath-observing law-school graduates by landing a job with a prominent New York law firm that, in order to woo him, accommodated to the observances of Orthodoxy. At a time when supposed Jew-friendly firms like that of former judge Simon Rifkind persisted in demanding that all its lawyers be available seven days a week, Kaye Scholer Fierman Hays & Handler welcomed Julie Berman as an associate. His success ultimately forced competing law firms to modify their requirements substantially and to welcome Torah-observant Jewish lawyers to the highest echelons of law-firm management.
Julie’s later willingness to undertake the most important public positions in American Jewish life and to succeed in all should not dwarf his achievements as a fledgling lawyer.
May his memory be blessed.