Practicing politics his own way: Manfred Halpern remembered

Though chased down as a child by his peers in Nazi Germany, the late politics professor emeritus Manfred Halpern wrote in his notes that "he fantasized setting up an S.S. group that practiced justice and compassion," and vehemently opposed the idea of revenge.

Politics, according to Halpern, was not an official contest for power, but rather an attempt at change through positive relationships.

For Halpern, a politics professor at the University from 1958-1994, transformation was the theory around which he centered his work, the essence of his life and the influence of his teachings on his students and friends. Halpern died on Jan. 14.

Halpern was "a pure soul," said his wife Cindy, and a radical until the very end. Though he had the opportunity for professional and monetary recognition, both at the University and national level, as his wife put it, he always preferred being a member of the working class to a member of the elite. "And 30 years at Princeton didn't change that," Cindy said.

Halpern worked in the State Department from 1948 to 1958 in a variety of intelligence positions, and according to his wife, "virtually founded the Middle East desk."

But Halpern had no interest in seeking power at a higher level, said Cindy. "He was always interested in knowledge and people and what the world was about," she said.

And though hired at Princeton for his specialization in Middle Eastern and North African politics, 10 years after joining the Princeton politics department in 1959, Halpern began teaching classes about his original theory that dealt with transformation rather than stability.

His undergraduate courses, called The Sacred and the Political and Political and Personal Transformation, were so unique to Halpern, that the last time they were offered was in 1994 — his final year at the University.

"He had an intellectual mission to develop a personal philosophy," said University politics professor Fred Greenstein, who was chairman of the politics department while Halpern was a senior staff member. "He was my model of a scholar who was truly dedicated," he said, adding that Halpern aimed not for professional rewards, but rather to pursue a fundamental truth.

And while not aiming to earn recognition through his theory, he left an indelible impression on the lives of those whom he taught.

"I knew from the very first day that this was going to be a very important class in my life," said David Abalos who took the first seminar in which Halpern taught his transformation theory.

Like several of Halpern's students, Abalos — who is currently a visiting professor at the University — went on to teach Halpern's theory, and like the majority of Halpern's students, became his close friend.

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Halpern practiced the theories that he preached — engaging in relationships by trying to understand each person. "[Halpern] said," related Abalos, "that if you look at the surface you won't see anything. If you only look at the fragments you won't see anything. You need to look deeper."

Halpern looked past Abalos's surface and helped him to find both his faith and his voice. Abalos is currently finishing the last chapter of the book Halpern had been writing during the last 25 years of his life, Transforming Our Personal, Political, Historical and Sacred Being.

When Abalos agreed to the task, Halpern said he did not want him to be a stenographer but instead to disagree or clarify Halpern's ideas as he saw fit.

Halpern's influence on others was so pervasive that his wife said residents of the neighborhood, whose names she didn't know, sent her poems about her husband.

"He was a genuinely good soul," she said. "And that's hard to find."

A memorial service will be held at the University in the Spring and donations may be sent to the Southern Poverty Law Center, 500 Washington Ave., Montgomery, Ala. 36014.