Defending Dornan’s ‘Little Jew’ Remark

You don’t have to be a professional psychologist to know that a “slip of the tongue” often reveals one’s true feelings, which one would rather conceal. The TV film clip of Dornan ranting his passionate hatred of Soviet-Communist Posner clearly indicates that--under time pressure and his own high emotion--Dornan’s anti-Semitic feelings overcame him, and--his inner censor asleep--he “slipped” and screamed the words “. . . disloyal, betraying little Jew.”

I believe that Lehrer’s defense of Dornan, even citing the “presence of a Jewish member of Congress from the Democratic Party at Dornan’s side at his press conference” as evidence that Dornan’s intent was “not bigoted” . . . I believe that this defense was absolutely pathetic .

If Lehrer truly speaks for the Anti-Defamation League of the B’nai B’rith, it appears to me that he has embraced Dornan simply because he is so radically against the Soviet Union, whose past anti-Semitic practices have prevented so many Jews from emigrating, and encouraged other anti-Semitic acts.

I think that Dornan is clearly using the ADL, exploiting the anti-Soviet feeling in this country for his own transparently obvious political purposes; elections are next November. Sadly, it seems to me, ADL has welcomed his support and is implicitly returning it.

I infer that Dornan’s true anti-Semitic feelings emerged with his slip of the tongue--and nobody can whitewash them or succeed in minimizing them away by calling his language “inelegant”--as Lehrer did.

JOHN J. MORGENSTERN

Pacific Palisades