Horovitz, With No Harvard Degree, Still Writes Plays

Twenty days ago, Israel Horovitz's play "Indian Wants the Bronx" played at the Loeb Ex.

But the performances did not represent Horovitz's first contact with Harvard.

Three years before, Horovitz had resigned from his post as assistant professor at the City College of New York (CCNY) following the disclosure that he had claimed a non-existent Harvard degree when he applied for the CCNY position.

Horovitz, reached last Monday at his home in Manhattan, said he has no desire to discuss the issue of his curriculum vitae falsification.

"It is quite painful," he said, adding that he particularly dislikes the idea of talking to the Crimson because it was a Crimson editor who originally disclosed the false degree claim in February 1973.

Horovitz taught playwriting at Brandeis University for two years following his resignation, from CCNY.

He currently holds a part-time job teaching playwriting at New York University, Horovitz said, and continues to write plays.

Although CCNY officials refused to comment last week on Horovitz's resignation, Israel Levine, CCNY director of public relations, said, "Horovitz is a writer and should be judged on his writing, not on extraneous issues."

"Indian Wants the Bronx", one of Horovitz's most famous plays, is about two street-wise teenagers who violently tease an Indian at a New York City bus stop.

"It is ironic that a playwright with such a grasp of the tragedy of urban youth has to justify his work through a Harvard degree," Paul Suchecki '77, who directed the play at the Loeb, said the other day.