The late John Humphrey, the law professor who crafted the original draft of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, has been receiving a lot of attention recently in Ottawa. Humphrey's work on the historic document -- labelled by many legal scholars as the "magna carta of mankind," was the subject of a summer exhibition at the National Arts Centre.

Several years ago, a monument celebrating the declaration was built in Ottawa. The 10-metre-high structure is chiselled with the first words of the document: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights."

The monument had a high-profile visitor recently. South African president Nelson Mandela, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, unveiled a commemorative plaque, which pays tribute to Humphrey's key role in creating the declaration.

Humphrey, the one-time head of the human rights division at the United Nations Secretariat, only received proper credit for his work on the declaration 10 years ago, thanks to detective work by John Hobbins, associate director of McGill's libraries. French diplomat René Cassin was long thought to be the declaration's author. Law librarian Michael Renshawe discovered some of Humphrey's personal papers which hinted at the law professor's leading role in writing the first draft of the declaration. Renshawe's colleague Louise Robertson passed on the news to John Hobbins, who did some additional digging, concluding that Humphrey's draft of the declaration predated and heavily influenced Cassin's. Hobbins established the truth in a landmark article published in Fontanus in 1989.

McGill's Symphony Orchestra and its conductor, music professor Timothy Vernon, are in the running for one of Quebec's most coveted music awards. The group's recent recording of Mahler's Fifth Symphony is a finalist for a Félix -- the province's answer to the Grammys -- in the category of classical album of the year.

The prizes, organized by the Académie québécoise de l'industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la vidéo, will be televised on November 1, but winners in some categories, including classical music, will probably be announced on October 27.

This marks the first time that a McGill student ensemble has been nominated for a Félix. The orchestra's critically acclaimed rendering of Mahler has already been the subject of a television documentary, McGill, Mahler and Montreal, which aired on CFCF and Bravo! and has recently been released on video by the National Film Board of Canada.

The Department of Jewish Studies is doing its part to make the academy seem a little less standoffish to those outside the Roddick Gates. To mark its 30th anniversary, the department has organized a lecture series called "The Academy Reports to the Community." The lectures will present top Jewish studies scholars from across North America, discussing their areas of expertise. The talks are aimed for a lay audience interested in Jewish matters.

September 10th saw the start of this series, with a lecture given by Harvard University's Ruth Wisse, an acclaimed author and former McGill professor. About 100 people turned out, a promising start to the series according to Professor Gershon Hundert, chair of Jewish studies and the chief organizer for the lectures.

The next speaker will be Vassar College's Deborah Dash Moore, co-editor of The Encyclopedia of Jewish Women of America. She will discuss the state of North American Jewish Studies on October 22 at Congregation Tifereth Beth David Jerusalem, 6519 Baily Road, Côte St Luc.

In November, ChaeRan Freeze of Brandeis University will talk about Jewish women in Russia. Robert Goldenberg from State University of New York, Stony Brook, will speak in March on ancient Judaism and in April, the University of Toronto's Derek Penslar will lecture on Israel studies. In a final conference in May, the most recent developments in Judaism will be discussed.

Hundert hopes that "The Academy Reports to the Community" will be a "kind of template" for other university departments interested in nurturing greater communication between scholars and the general public.

The series is co-sponsored by the Jewish Community Foundation of Montreal and supported by Alex Soyka. The lectures are free, but donations are accepted towards their cost. For more information call 398-3905.

Hanna Rabinovich