Mary M. Kaufman

Mary Metlay Kaufman (November 9, 1912, in Atlanta, Georgia – 1995 in New York City) was an American attorney and activist.

Early life Mary Metlay was the daughter of Nathan and Etta (Kirschner) Metlay, who had emigrated from Russia. In 1917, the Metlay family moved to Brooklyn, New York City. Kaufman described her family's influence on her social consciousness and activism:"From early childhood, I was very much attuned to the problems of the poor. Poverty was my economic level up until the time I finished law school. My mother led a rent strike during the early days...on the East Side, and I also participated in things like that and the monumental hunger marches and organization of the unemployed in the 1930s.... The other thing that influenced me greatly since childhood was the fact that in my family women did not play a secondary role.... So that although I grew up in a society where women were generally oppressed, I didn't have to battle my personal environment." Early career and the Works Progress Administration Kaufman attended James Madison High School and earned her bachelor's degree in Political Science from Brooklyn College in 1932. For the next four years she studied for her law degree, attending night classes at St. John's University Law School while working for the Remedial Reading Program of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). After being admitted to the New York bar in 1937, she continued her organizing work with WPA legal projects and was involved in the Lawyers' Security League, an organization of lawyers working with the WPA. During this time she also worked for labor lawyer, Frank Scheiner, "representing parties at conferences before the New York State and National Labor Relations Board." She was one of the original members of the progressive National Lawyers' Guild, During this period she also represented individuals before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and the Subversive Activities Control Board (SACB). From 1977 to 1983, she testified in a series of civil disobedience cases in defense of protestors of the Trident nuclear submarine based in Bangor, Washington, and she participated in several international tribunals from 1967 to 1984, investigating U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia; the use of atomic weapons against Japan; and the nuclear arms race.

In 1972, Kaufman was hired as a visiting professor to direct the Undergraduate Legal Studies Program at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. She taught courses in McCarthyism; labor law; Nuremberg and international law; racism and the law; and political trials of the 20th Century. After leaving Antioch, Kaufman was hired as a Visiting Professor of Law at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, from 1975 to 1976 and she delivered the Commencement Address there in 1976.

Kaufman retired from legal casework by 1980, but continued to speak and write on issues such as peace and nuclear disarmament, civil rights, and political freedom. She died in New York City in 1995.

"Mary Kaufman donated her papers to the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College in 1995. Additional papers were given by her son, Michael Kaufman, after her death. The bulk of the papers date from 1946 to 1986 and focus on Kaufman's professional life."

Writings Kaufman, M.M., 1968. The Individual's Duty under the Law of Nurnberg: The Effect of Knowledge on Justiciability. Guild Prac., 27, p.15. Kaufman, M.M., 1966. Judgment at Nurnberg-An Appraisal of Its Significance on Its Twentieth Anniversary. Guild Prac., 25, p.66. Kaufman, M.M., 1983. Statements, Declarations, and Agreements Leading to the War Crimes Trials at Nurnberg, Germany, and Relevant Documents. Guild Prac., 40, p.84.