Summary: Aryeh Neier Forum with Undergraduate Exchange Grantees

Open Society Institute President Aryeh Neier gave 40 Undergraduate Exchange Program grantees a rare chance to pose questions during an intimate forum at the annual spring conference, held at OSI New York in March 2009.

During a candid and engaging hourlong conversation, Neier spoke about his  personal history, highlighting the impact of historic political moments on his actions and motivations. 

Neier was a student in the early 1950s, when political controversy arose surrounding the end of racial segregation in schools. The Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott inspired him to write his first op-ed article.

Challenges to free speech were also influenced his awareness of human rights.  Speaker bans enacted in the 1950s during the persecution of suspected communists led by U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy prevented anyone associated with or accused of having affiliations with a “communist” organization from giving public addresses at America universities. As a student at Cornell University at the time, Neier challenged restrictions on free speech by inviting a prominent activist to the university to speak about communism in the United States.

Neier told grantees about his career encompassing the founding of Human Rights Watch, acting as national executive director at the American Civil Liberties Union, publishing numerous articles, and serving as an adjunct professor at New York University.  As crises threaten human rights and free speech across the globe, Neier emphasized that exposing and effectively responding to these violations is a critical challenge that the world must face.