Gil’s at home: so are Trojans
Sports, page 20
Real inside dirt on Grammy gala
Life / Arts, page 7
trojan
Volume CXI, Number 32
University of Southern California
Wednesday, February 28, 1990
In Brief
Powerful presidency proposal approved by Soviet legislature
MOSCOW — A determined and angry Mikhail S. Gorbachev rammed his proposal for a more powerful presidency through the Soviet legislature yesterday, while progressive lawmakers warned it could become a dictatorship.
Gorbachev, his voice rising as his temper frayed, accused his critics of engaging in “cheap demagoguery.” During the often-stormy debate, the Soviet leader recognized lawmakers and revoked their right to speak apparently at whim.
He hailed the Supreme Soviet s final and overwhelming approval of his proposal as a “a great political event.” But lawmaker Leonid Sukhov, a Ukrainian taxi driver, warned, "The way the voting went today is the same way presidential power will be.”
Nation: Exxon Corp. faces five-count federal indictment
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department announced a five-count indictment against Exxon Corp. and its shipping subsidiary Tuesday night for the Exxon Valdez oil spill that fouled Alaska’s coast last year.
Assistant Attorney General Dick Stewart said the federal indictment, brought by a grand jury in Anchorage, accused Exxon Corp. and its shipping subsidiary of two felonies and three misdemeanors.
One charge alleges that Exxon “willfully and knowingly violated a regulation prohibiting any. person from being engaged on a crew if such person is known to be physically or mentally incapable of’ performing his or her duties.
State: ‘Voter Revolt’ wants high court to oversee suits
SAN FRANCISCO — Accusing car insurance companies of “trickery” and of hiring “a plague of lawyers" to foil cost-cutting Proposition 103, the group Voter Revolt asked the state Supreme Court Tuesday to assume jurisdiction of suits that challenge the measure In the lower courts.
The Los Angeles-based group that successfully fought for the November 1988 referendum asked the Supreme Court to corral 14 Proposition 103 lawsuits — in trial and appellate courts — and to decide them all together.
From the Associated Press
Index
Komix..
4
8
Security Roundup Life/Arts
Sports	.20
Germans buy USC mansion
Home to be used for library, relations research center
By Christa Hohmann
Staff Writer
The university has finalized plans to sell Villa Aurora, a Pacific Palisades man-
sion it inherited in 1987, for $1.9 million to a West German foundation for use as a European-American relations research center and library for works by German exiles.
The mansion, owned by author Lion Feuchtwanger, was a meeting place for such German intellectuals as Thomas Mann, Bertolt Brecht, Aldous Huxley and others who fled Nazi Germany.
Feuchtwanger's wife, Marta, left the
mansion and the library to the university after her death in 1987 with the stipulation that the university could retain the house and library intact, or sell the mansion and use the proceeds to build a Lion Feuchtwanger Memorial Library on campus, said George Abdo, executive assistant to the president.
The university decided to sell and provide scholary access to the rare docu-(See Mansion, page 14)
Now hear this!
Rocco Garcia / Dally Trojan
Tommy Trojan announces an environmental awareness meeting In Pardee Tower by sporting a T-shirt that resds ‘Save the Rainforest.’ The meeting will bs held In the second floor lounge at 7 p.m. today.
Scholar says Judaic history substantiated
By Chad Reed
Staff Writer
Lawrence Schiffman, a leading scholar on the history of Jewish law and Talmudic literature, gave a lecture Tuesday focusing on the use of the Dead Sea Scrolls to clarify details of the history of Judaism during the second century B.C.
Schiffman delivered his speech, titled "New Light on the History of Judaism from the Dead Sea Scrolls," to an audience of about 80 in the Annenberg Auditorium.
Schiffman said modem views of the history of Judaism are being reinforced by further studies of the scrolls.
"What we're finding out is that the Rabbinic views about the Pharisees and Sadducees and the history of these two groups . . . these views are being confirmed over and over in the Dead Sea Scrolls," Schiffman said.
A key to understanding the scrolls, however, is understanding the nature of the library in which the scrolls were found, he said.
"It was assumed that any text in the cave (library) was authored by the sect," he said. "This seems to be totally false.
"We have to understand that the fact that a book is in that collection does not mean that it is simply a book authored by the sect," he said. Of the 650 Dead Sea texts, only 100 were authored by the Dead Sea sect, according to Schiffman.
All of the texts, not just the seven which have so far been studied, must be considered in their proper context to understand the history of the sects, he said. Such study will show how the different forms of Judaism served as the basis of development for later Judaism and Christianity.
Schiffman is a professor of Hebrew and Judaic studies at New York University. He has several •	(See Scrolls, page 3)
‘keeps tap alive’
nergetic students
Klor
Two tap ( ethe<
dance enthusiasts are an swering the call from students on campus who want to learn to dance.
Ronald Jackson and Roy David have founded the USC Action Tap Dancers Gub to provide opportunities to students who want to pursue an interest in tap.
“ * * established in in p
iL-
tne
—
perform shows and offer opportunities to learn more about tap, said Jackson, president of the club and a sophomore majoring in business.
"The purpose is to bring about the development of tap as an art form and help establish tap programs on the
a tap teacher who advises here, said they would programs on
to campus
There is not a dance department at the university, but the drama department offers two tap classes — beginning level in fall semester and intermediate level in spring, David said.
"We are finding a lot of students interested in tap but not enough programs," Jackson said.	i
"In order to batld a successful arts program, we need successful pro-
i •