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Tribute to Our Warrior in the Battle for the Human Rights of Scientists
Dorothy Hirsch, who has worked at Committee of Concerned Scientists since 1977, retired on March 31, 2003. She was unanimously elected Executive Director Emerita at the March 2003 Annual Board Meeting and was toasted by all. Co-chairs Joel Lebowitz, Paul Plotz and Walter Reich presented her with a plaque in recognition of her 26 years of devoted service to CCS.
As executive director, Dorothy played a central role in efforts to bring relief to many colleagues throughout the world whose basic rights have been violated. She corresponded with hundreds of scientists, academics and health professionals, wrote to their offending governments and to the United States government concerning their plight, and solicited CCS members and members of other scientific organizations to petition on their behalf. Ultimately, she achieved success in a good many of her efforts.
Outstanding support from the Committee of Concerned Scientists, with Dorothy leading the way, helped bring about the release of hundreds of colleagues who were caught in the vast prison that was the USSR. She advocated on behalf of dissidents and refuseniks (those refused emigration), bringing their plight to the attention of the outside world through press releases, press conferences, publishing of their work, and the circulation of petitions and the staging human rights sessions at scientific meetings. Notable among them were the renowned physicist and Nobel laureate Andrei Sakharov, the distinguished physical chemist and corresponding member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences Benjamin Levich, the computer scientist and aliyah activist Anatoly Shcharansky, and the world-leading cyberneticist Aleksandr Lerner.
In China, Dorothy focused on the oppression of such lights as the following: Fang Li Zhi, acclaimed astrophysicist and advocate of reform; Wang Dan, student leader of the 1989 pro-democracy movement crushed in Tiananmen Square; Liu Gang, graduate physics student and Tiananmen Square activist; Wang Juntao, nuclear physicist turned co-founder the Beijing Social and Economic Sciences Research Institute; and the sociologist Gao Zhan.
Most recently in Egypt, Dorothy directed CCS's persistent agitation to secure the exoneration of Saad Eddin Ibrahim, accused of publishing false information that tarnished Egypt's reputation and receiving foreign funding to further his work at the Ibn Khaldoun Center for Development Studies on voter education and religious tolerance.
Over the quarter of a century of her tenure, Dorothy spearheaded the positive resolution of countless nettlesome cases of human rights abuse in Argentina, Chile Colombia, Cuba, Ethiopia, Germany, India, Iran, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, South Africa, Taiwan, Tunisia, Turkey, Yugoslavia, and Vietnam among others.
Worthy of special note is a report from one of our Board members, who related an experience she shared with many other colleagues who, when visiting beleaguered refuseniks in the former Soviet Union, gained entry into their homes only by stating, "Dorothy Hirsch sent me."
In addition to her designation as Executive Director Emerita of the Committee of Concerned Scientists Dorothy received the 1987 New York Academy of Sciences Award in Recognition of Services on behalf of the Human Rights of Scientists.
The CCS looks forward to Dorothy's continued participation in our Committee's work in her new capacity. Our members are grateful to her for her close to 26 years of devotion to our Committee and for her tireless efforts in support of endangered colleagues worldwide. We wish her a long, healthy and happy retirement.