Claremont COURIER/Friday, January 16, 2015

Harry V. Jaffa

11

OBITUARIES

Influential political philosopher, Lincoln scholar

Harry V. Jaffa, professor emeritus at Claremont
McKenna College and the Claremont Graduate University, died on Saturday, January 10, 2015 at Pomona Valley Hospital. He was 96.
Mr. Jaffa was born in New York City on October 7,
1918 to Arthur and Frances Landau Jaffa and grew up
in Long Island. After earning a bachelors degree in
English from Yale University, he took a job in Washington, DC. There, in the dining hall of a boarding
house, he met Marjorie Butler, who was among the
first wave of employees called to Washington, DC to
help staff the newly built Pentagon. They were married
on April 25, 1942. Mrs. Jaffa would be an unflagging
support for her husband over the years, helping him prepare his manuscripts and tending to finances while he
was immersed in the world of ideas.
In 1944, the couple moved to New York, where Mr.
Jaffa earned a PhD at The New School for Social Research and Mrs. Jaffa worked as a secretary in the Empire State Building. They often met for lunch at Mr.
Jaffas fathers restaurant and jazz club in Greenwich Village, The Open Door. At The New School, Mr. Jaffa
was one of the first PhD students of German political
philosopher and classicist Leo Strauss.
His discussion of Aristotles Nicomachean Ethics
just blew me away. It was like the Gospel for a Baptist
preacher. All my life had been a preparation for that moment, Mr. Jaffa told the National Review in 2009. He had
found a mentor and his calling.
In the mid-20th century, there was a tendency in political science to try to turn everything into statistics, said
John J. Pitney Jr., the Crocker Professor of Politics at
Claremont McKenna College. Harry was part of a
movement to make this study of political principals the
focus of political science.
After receiving his PhD, Mr. Jaffas career as a political science professor led him first to the University of
Chicago and then, from 1951 to 1964, to Ohio State
University. Beginning in 1964, he spent 25 years on the
faculties of Claremont McKenna College and Claremont
Graduate School. During his years in Claremont, he
founded the Winston Churchill Association and served on
the board of directors and as a distinguished fellow of The
Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and
Political Philosophy, where he remained active until his
death.
He liked to talk about how his life changed when he
met Leo Strauss, that Strauss was a pied piper. But no one
was as much of a pied piper as my father, Mr. Jaffas son
Philip said. He not only recruited students from the various universities he taught at. He got two of his childhood
playmates, Joseph Cropsey and Frank Canavan, to become professors of political philosophy.
Brian Kennedy is the president of The Claremont Institute, of which Mr. Jaffa is said to be the intellectual

founder. He said the Claremont Colleges were always

great schools, but their political prominence grew once
Mr. Jaffa arrived. Jaffa was such a prominent scholar on
Abraham Lincoln, graduate students from all over America wanted to study with him.
Mr. Jaffa became interested in Lincoln as a PhD student when he found a copy of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates in a used bookshop in Manhattan. In 1959, he published Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation
of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates.
Andrew Ferguson, senior editor of The Weekly Standard, wrote that Crisis of the House Divided is a book
that will never diea genuine landmark in American
thought. It is the greatest Lincoln book ever.
At the time of its publication, Lincoln had been relegated to the status of charismatic icon. Everybody
talked about his life but didnt talk about his ideas, Mr.
Kennedy said.
No one in 75 years had treated Abraham Lincolns political thought seriously, Philip Jaffa agreed. Lincoln
was a man who spent his time defending the Laws of Nature and of Natures God as the basis of self-government.
My father singlehandedly resurrected Abraham Lincoln
as a political thinker in the American political tradition.
That presentation of Lincolns thought led to an everexpanding interest in the American Founding and the
principles of the Founding Fathers. It was like a snowball rolling downhill, said Philip. My father is not responsible for all the snow that attached to it, but he is the
one that launched it on its journey.
Other books included Thomism and Aristotelianism,
Original Intent and the Framers of the Constitution
and works of his collected essays such as The Conditions
of Freedom, How to Think About the American Revolution and Equality and Liberty. His last major work
was the long-awaited sequel to his earlier Lincoln book,
A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the
Coming of the Civil War, published in 2004.
One of Mr. Jaffas biggest claims to fame was coming up with two lines uttered by Barry Goldwater when
he accepted his nomination for president at the Repub-

lican National Convention of 1964: I would remind

you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.
And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.
Some might think Mr. Jaffas allegiance was to conservative principles, but his only real allegiance was to the
philosophic quest, according to Philip. My father once
asked me, Do you know what the greatest line in philosophy is? Its not when Socrates said, Know thyself.
Its when Aristotle said, Plato is a friend but a dearer
friend is the truth.
No ones assertions were above scrutiny.
My father was part of the conservative movement,
but he spent a good deal of his professional life criticizing conservativeshe was the proverbial skunk at
the garden party, Philip said. He was a meticulous
scholar. If people didnt do their homework, he was going to point out their mistakes, no matter who they
were, no matter where they were.
Philip recalled accompanying his father to a lecture at
a conservative organization, where he had taken a fee and
had prepared a paper that he was going to discuss. When
he got behind the podium, he pointed out a large sign
hung on the wall: That government is best which governs leastThomas Jefferson. Dr. Jaffa pointed out the
sign, read the words, and then added: There are only two
things wrong with that. The first is that it isnt true, and
the second is that Thomas Jefferson never said it.
In the forward to one of Mr. Jaffas books, William F.
Buckley, Jr. quipped, If you think Harry Jaffa is hard to
argue with, try agreeing with him. He studies the fine print
in any agreement as if it were a trap, or a treaty with the
Soviet Union.
He would keep on debating no matter what, Mr.
Kennedy agreed. He wasnt trying to be argumentative.
He was really the kind of guy who wanted to get at the
truth. Thats a rare thing these days.
Mr. Jaffa wasnt all about work. He loved to laugh and
was an exercise and sports enthusiast. He put in thousands
of miles cycling, sometimes on his own and at other
times riding a tandem bike with his wife, the late Marjorie
Jaffa. His happiest hours, however, were taught imparting the art of questioning.
He was one of the most loving decent human beings
youd ever want to meet, just at level of wanting to teach
students. He wanted to spend whatever time he could with
them, just to make them better, Mr. Kennedy said.
Mr. Jaffa is survived by his children, Donald Alan
Jaffa, Philip Bertran Jaffa and Karen Jaffa McGoldrick,
and his three grandchildren, Peter Anthony Jaffa, Nicholas
Andrew Jaffa and Frances Karoline Maria Ella Kerstin
Jaffa.
His funeral will be held today, Friday, January 16, at
1:30 p.m. at Todd Memorial Chapel, 325 N. Indian Hill
Blvd. in Claremont.

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