Leo pepper

Leo Pfeffer (born December 25, 1910 in Austria-Hungary , † June 4, 1993 in Goshen , New York ) was an American Jewish scholar , humanist and lawyer who campaigned for freedom of religion in the United States and in 1988 with was awarded the American Humanist Association's Humanist of the Year award.

Life

Born in Austria-Hungary, Pfeffer emigrated to the United States with his parents and siblings in 1912 . After attending school, he first studied at the City College of New York and after its graduation from 1930 to 1933 at the Law School of New York University (NYU).

After his admission as a lawyer , he worked as a lawyer and between 1945 and 1964 legal advisor to the American Jewish Congress . In this function he stood up for the rights of freedom, was particularly known for his commitment to secular humanism and presented his views in the book Church, State and Freedom (1953). In addition to his work for the American Jewish Congress, he was also Lecturer at the New School for Social Research in New York City from 1954 to 1958 and in 1956 wrote The Liberties of an American: The Supreme Court Speaks , the first book on the decisions of the US Supreme Court on civil liberties. After finishing his work at the New School, he was a lecturer at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts between 1958 and 1960 .

In 1961 he achieved widespread attention when, as a plaintiff, he took the fundamental decision of Torcaso v. Watkins won. In this process in the Supreme Court of the United States it was about a provision in the Constitution of Maryland for unconstitutional explained that maintaining or otherwise holding public office by the passing of a particular religious oath the, in the case "was in existence of God ”(belief in the existence of God).

After Pfeffer was a lecturer at Yeshiva University in New York City between 1962 and 1963 , he accepted a professorship for political science at Long Island University in 1964 and taught there until his retirement in 1980. He also wrote several other books on the Religious freedom, the separation of religion and state and the related decisions of the US Supreme Court such as This Honorable Court: A History of the United States Supreme Court (1965), Religious Freedom (1977) and Religion, State, and the Burger Court (1984) .

In 1988 he was awarded the Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association for his commitment to civil and liberty rights and his humanistic outlook .

Pfeffer had been married to Freda Plotkin since 1937. The two had two children, Alan and Susan Beth Pepper .

Publications

• Church, State and Freedom , revised edition. Beacon Press, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Web links and sources

• Leo Pfeffer in nndb (English)
• New York Times : Leo Pfeffer, 83, Lawyer on Staff Of the American Jewish Congress (obituary, June 7, 1993)