Wednesday, January 8, 1969
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
3
Mrs. Kahane continues Biafra relief campaign
By LINDA LOYD
Kansan Staff Writer
While thousands of children starve daily in Biafra, one KU student devotes 10 hours a day to keeping them alive.
Judith Kahane, graduate student in philosophy and wife of Howard Kahane, associate professor of philosophy, helped inaugurate the "Keep Biafra Alive" movement in Lawrence this fall.
"I've been interested in Nigeria ever since I lived there from 1958 to 1961," Mrs. Kahane explained. "Our oldest child was born in Nigeria." The Kahanes have two children-7-year-old Tony and 9-year-old Tom.
In September Mrs. Kahane contacted the American Committee to Keep Biafra Alive, a New York group of former Peace Corps volunteers organized to raise money and arouse interest in Biafra. Returning to KU with buttons, posters and new ideas, Mrs. Kahane joined two students in initiating a KU group.
They organized the 24-hour Biafra Lifeline in October in conjunction with the national observance, and later urged Gov.
Robert B. Doeking to declare November 24 as beginning the Kansas Month of Hope.
This last month Mrs Kahane has spoken to Kansas church, civic and university groups. She has been interviewed on radio and television. At one time, she spent 16 hours each day answering letters and designing posters and cards.
She expressed relief that her husband and children are cooperative and join in her efforts. Originally she had planned to cut back her Biafra efforts after the 24-hour vigil in October.
"Because the death rate is climbing from 12,000 to 25,000 daily and with hopes that the new administration will alter our government policy toward Biafra, I felt I must stay involved."
"The United States policy so far has been sympathetic with Britain in keeping Nigeria a showcase for democracy," Mrs. Kahane said. "Instead, we should examine African values to discover how similar they are to ours."
She has numerous interests. Both Kahanes work on the Lawrence Legal Defense Fund which is aimed at making the best bail money and courts available to all persons.
by the Wesley Foundation this fall and will be involved in the Institutional Racism course to be offered in February.
Calling for more planes and food is only a temporary stop-gap, she said. The United States should push for a cease fire and negotiations.
Selected as a Ford Foundation scholar at 15 years old, the former economics and German major entered Goucher Women's College in Maryland and graduated at 19. One undergraduate year she attended the University of Southern California at Berkeley and later entered New York's Columbia University graduate school in
Both were instructors in the White Racism course sponsored
philosophy
"There came a time when I knew I didn't want to stay in economics or teach German. I became interested in philosophical questions and wanted to teach," Mrs. Kahane said.
She commuted to KU as a graduate student from Topeka one year and in 1965 moved to Lawrence as a research assistant. The following year she taught Introduction to Philosophy and the next year Ethics.
Starving Biafran
Mrs. Judith Kahane
CARL WILLIAMS Indianapolis "500" Race Driver
To Speak at KU Tonight Time 7:30
Place: Rm. 201 North Mech. Eng. Bldg.
Sponsored by KU Student Chapter of American Society of Mechanical Engineers