By COLlive reporter
Professor Alan Dershowitz, one of the nation’s most prominent civil liberties lawyers, was back in his native Brooklyn this month and was loving every minute of it.
The former Harvard Law School Professor came to Crown Heights to receive the Ari Halberstam Memorial Award at the 14th annual gala dinner of the Jewish Children’s Museum.
He told the crowd that when driving into Brooklyn, he always takes notice of the memorial signs to Halberstam, the young Chabad bochur murdered 25 years ago in a terror attack on the Brooklyn Bridge.
Dershowitz went on to speak about the growing rate of anti-Semitic incidents in Brooklyn and around the world, combatting anti Israel activities on campuses, and his personal relationships with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton.
He also told how during lunch in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump, he was casually asked what else was on his mind and he replied: Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin. The conversation led to the president commuting the former kosher meat executive.
But most interestingly perhaps was Dershowitz sharing childhood memories of meeting the Rebbe during his visits to 770 Eastern Parkway as a student in the Brooklyn Talmudical Academy on Bedford and President Streets.
The full speech is exclusively presented here on COLlive.com.