Milton R. Konvitz Liberian Project Files
Collection Number: /3033
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library
Title:
Milton R. Konvitz Liberian Project Files,
Collection Number:
/3033
Creator:
Konvitz, Milton R.
Quantity:
4 linear ft.
Forms of Material:
Records (documents).
Repository:
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library
Abstract:
Professor Konvitz's files regarding the drawing up of the official body of statutory laws for the Republic of Liberia.
Language:
Collection material in English
March 12, 1908 - September 5, 2003
Milton Konvitz, a Cornell University faculty member and authority on constitutional and labor law, and civil and human rights,
died Sept. 5 at the age of 95. Konvitz was a founding faculty member in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations
from 1946 until his retirement in 1973. He was also a professor in Cornell's Law School.
Konvitz is perhaps best known for his American Ideals course, which he taught to more than 8,000 students over the course
of his career, never giving the same lecture twice. "I saw the U.S. Constitution as it has been interpreted as a
magnificent depository of our ideals, both individual and social," he said. His course exposed students to the great intellectual
thinkers and philosophers throughout history whose writings had shaped those ideals. They included Sophocles,
whose play Antigone is Cornell's New Student Reading Project this year. One student he influenced was U.S. Supreme Court
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Cornell Class of 1954, who considers him a mentor.
At Cornell Konvitz also was a founder of the university's Department of Near Eastern Studies and Program of Jewish Studies.
"I felt it was essential for a college interested in the humanities not to leave out Hebrew language and literature," he
said. "And the knowledge of Jewish history, which began 4,000 years ago and has contributed to civilization no less than
Greek, Roman or English history, is important to today's students -Jewish and non-Jewish." He often hosted students at his
Ithaca home and helped start the first Kosher dining option at Cornell, Young Israel House.
In addition, for nearly 30 years he directed the Liberian Codification Project, which drew up the official body of statutory
laws that is still in force in the Republic of Liberia today, despite the current political upheaval there. Konvitz also
edited the opinions of Liberia's Supreme Court and received the Grand Band of the Order of the Star of Africa, the highest
award given to foreigners, as well as an honorary degree from the University of Liberia, one of seven honorary degrees he
received in his lifetime.
Active as a scholar and writer until his death, he wrote books and articles on American constitutional law that won him wide
recognition and were cited in U.S. Supreme Court opinions. Among his nine books is Fundamental Liberties of a Free
People: Religion, Speech, Press, Assembly, which was republished earlier this year with an expanded introduction by him
that is strongly critical of the Rehnquist Supreme Court. Other books include A Century of Civil Rights (1983) and Judaism
and Human Rights (2nd ed. 2001). He also edited a dozen volumes, including two on American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson,
whose thinking shaped his views. One Emersonian idea he absorbed was that readers give life to books, which Konvitz
recast as follows: "It is in their hearing that students bring life to the words, the thoughts, the teacher."
Konvitz was born in Safed, Palestine (now Israel ), in 1908, the son of a rabbi. He immigrated to the United States in 1915
and became a naturalized citizen in 1926. He received a bachelor's degree in 1929 and a law degree in 1930, both from New
York University, and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Cornell in 1933. Before joining Cornell's faculty, he was one of three
assistant general counsels to Thurgood Marshall at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund for three years.
He is survived by his wife, Mary, of Oakhurst, N.J.; a brother, Phillip, of Elberon, N.J.; a son and daughter-in-law, Josef
and Isa, of Paris, France; and two grandsons, Eli and Ezra. Josef Konvitz, who grew up in Ithaca, is now an official at
the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Names:
Konvitz, Milton R. (Milton Ridvas), 1908-2003
Form and Genre Terms:
Records (documents)
Access Restrictions:
Access to the collections in the Kheel Center is restricted. Please contact a reference archivist for access to these materials.
Restrictions on Use:
This collection must be used in keeping with the Kheel Center Information Sheet and Procedures for Document Use.
Cite As:
Milton R. Konvitz Liberian Project Files #/3033. Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University
Library.
Container
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Description
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Date
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Box 1 | Folder 1 | 1955 | |
Box 1 | Folder 2 | 1953 | |
Box 1 | Folder 3 | 1953 | |
Box 1 | Folder 3 | 1954 | |
Box 1 | Folder 4 | 1953 | |
Box 1 | Folder 5 | 1953 | |
Box 1 | Folder 6 | ||
Box 1 | Folder 7 | 1953 | |
Box 1 | Folder 8 | 1955 | |
Box 1 | Folder 9 | 1955 | |
Box 1 | Folder 10 | 1955 | |
Box 1 | Folder 11 | 1955 | |
Box 1 | Folder 12 | 1955 | |
Box 1 | Folder 13 | 1955 | |
Box 1 | Folder 14 | 1954 | |
Box 1 | Folder 15 | 1960 | |
Box 1 | Folder 16 | 1967 | |
Box 1 | Folder 17 | 1962-1963 | |
Box 1 | Folder 18 | ||
Box 1 | Folder 19 | 1962 | |
2 of 2
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Box 2 | Folder 1 | 1955 | |
Box 2 | Folder 2 | 1955 | |
Box 2 | Folder 3 | 1955 | |
Box 2 | Folder 4 | 1954 | |
Box 2 | Folder 5 | 1954 | |
2 of 2
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|||
Box 2 | Folder 6 | 1954 | |
Box 2 | Folder 7 | 1955 | |
Box 2 | Folder 8 | ||
Box 2 | Folder 9 | 1955 | |
Box 2 | Folder 10 | 1955 | |
2 of 2
|
|||
Box 2 | Folder 11 | 1955 | |
Box 2 | Folder 12 | 1955 | |
Box 2 | Folder 13 | 1954 | |
Box 2 | Folder 14 | 1954 | |
Box 2 | Folder 15 | 1955 | |
Box 2 | Folder 16 | 1954 | |
Box 2 | Folder 17 | 1954 | |
2 of 2
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Box 2 | Folder 18 | 1954 | |
Box 2 | Folder 19 | 1953 | |
Box 2 | Folder 20 | 1953 | |
Box 2 | Folder 21 | 1954 | |
Box 2 | Folder 22 | 1954 | |
Box 2 | Folder 23 | 1955 | |
Box 2 | Folder 24 | 1955 | |
Box 2 | Folder 25 | 1954 | |
Box 2 | Folder 26 | 1955 | |
Box 2 | Folder 27 | 1954 | |
Box 2 | Folder 28 | 1954 | |
Box 2 | Folder 29 | 1955 | |
Box 2 | Folder 30 | 1954 | |
Box 2 | Folder 31 | 1955 | |
Box 2 | Folder 32 | 1955 | |
Box 2 | Folder 33 | 1955 | |
Box 3 | Folder 1 | ||
1 of 2
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Box 3 | Folder 2 | ||
2 of 2
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Box 3 | Folder 3 | ||
Box 3 | Folder 4 | 1955 | |
Box 3 | Folder 5 | 1955 | |
Box 3 | Folder 6 | 1955 | |
Box 3 | Folder 7 | ||
Box 3 | Folder 8 | ||
Box 3 | Folder 9 | 1955 | |
Box 3 | Folder 10 | 1953 | |
Box 3 | Folder 11 | 1955 | |
Box 3 | Folder 12 | ||
volume 1
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Box 3 | Folder 13 | ||
Box 3 | Folder 14 | 1954 | |
Box 3 | Folder 15 | 1954 | |
Box 3 | Folder 16 | 1955 | |
Box 3 | Folder 17 | 1954 | |
Box 3 | Folder 18 | ||
Box 3 | Folder 19 | 1955 | |
Box 3 | Folder 20 | 1954 | |
Box 3 | Folder 21 | 1954 | |
Box 3 | Folder 22 | 1955 | |
Box 3 | Folder 23 | ||
Box 3 | Folder 24 | 1954 | |
Box 3 | Folder 25 | 1954 | |
Box 3 | Folder 26 | 1955 | |
Box 3 | Folder 27 | 1954 | |
Box 3 | Folder 28 | 1954 | |
Box 3 | Folder 29 | 1954 | |
Box 3 | Folder 30 | 1955 | |
Box 3 | Folder 31 | 1955 | |
Box 3 | Folder 32 | 1954 | |
Box 3 | Folder 33 | 1954 | |
Box 3 | Folder 34 | 1954 | |
Box 3 | Folder 35 | 1955 | |
Box 3 | Folder 36 | 1955 | |
Box 3 | Folder 37 | 1955 | |
Box 3 | Folder 38 | 1954 | |
Box 3 | Folder 39 | 1954 | |
Box 3 | Folder 40 | 1955 | |
Box 3 | Folder 41 | 1955 | |
Box 3 | Folder 42 | 1955 | |
Box 3 | Folder 43 | 1955 | |
Box 3 | Folder 44 | 1955 | |
Box 3 | Folder 45 | 1955 | |
Box 3 | Folder 46 | ||
Box 3 | Folder 47 | 1955 | |
Box 3 | Folder 48 | 1955 | |
Box 3 | Folder 48 | 1955 | |
Box 3 | Folder 49 | ||
as amended through 1951
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Box 4 | Folder 1 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 2 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 3 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 4 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 5 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 6 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 7 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 8 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 9 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 10 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 11 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 12 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 13 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 14 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 15 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 16 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 17 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 18 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 19 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 20 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 21 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 22 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 23 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 24 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 25 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 26 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 27 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 28 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 29 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 30 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 31 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 32 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 33 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 34 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 35 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 36 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 37 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 38 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 39 | ||
Box 4 | Folder 40 |