Intellectuals as Leaders
Alex
Boyd:
Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Director of the Newark
Public Library, and I want to welcome all of you. We are pleased to be
able to cooperate in presenting this important public program. We share
the goal of bringing the humanities before the public so that they might
broaden our understanding of current issues and events in our society.
We salute the National Endowment for the Humanities and the New
Jersey Committee for the Humanities, and others, for their support of
our endeavors here today. Please note that the library has made every
effort to build on this conference; we have put together a series of events
that focus on the history and culture of Central Europe. If you have not
already reviewed our exhibits "Central Europe: Enduring Land of
Change and Contrast," please do so during the reception. All the prints,
posters and notable books are from our extensive coll ections here at the
library. Also you will note on the program that we have scheduled a
number of performances during the month of April on the theme of
Central Europe. These efforts present the cu lture of Central Europe to
our genera l public in Newark. We are generously supported by the Pru–
dential Insurance Company of America.
I would like now to turn the program over to Edith Kurzweil,
orgal1lzer of this conference and your moderator for this afternoon's
program.
Edith Kurzweil:
Thank you very much for this nice introduction. Let
me assure you already that we are all very happy to be here. The partici–
pants have asked me about the history of this marvelous building and
have expressed their admiration for it. We will start with Richard Pipes.
Richard Pipes: I
will talk about Andrei Sakharov, who was a scientist;
if I'm not mistaken , my remarks will be the only ones delivered at this
conference devoted to a single individual rather than on a broader sub–
ject. This is indicative of the unique importance of Andrei Sakharov as a
symbol of intellectual resistance to political terrorism.
The first and lasting impression that Andrei Sakharov made on me
was one of modesty. He seemed entirely unaware of his fame and the in–
terest others had in him. This in itself is not especiall y remarkable, because
all the truly great men and women that I have met - great in the
spiritual and moral sense of the word - have been distinguished by mod–
esty. Modesty is almost the
sine ql/a
110/1
of greatness, because it reflects
