Harold Brackman
ARTICLES BY: Harold Brackman
Early Jewish Novelist Abraham Cahan, and His Alter Ego — David Levinsky
The conventional reading of "The Rise of David Levinsky (1917)" -- encouraged even by author Abraham Cahan -- is that it’s an ironic “rags to...
The Story of America’s Non-Jewish, First ‘Jewish Novelist’
Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but today’s unforgiving ideologies define it as a form of appropriation or theft -- especially if it...
Murray Friedman Would Not Recognize Temple University
Last week, Temple University’s Feinstein Center for American Jewish History held a Zoom event on “The Weaponization of Discourse: Israel/Palestine, Antisemitism, and Free Speech on...
Holocaust Memorials Are Monuments Against Civilization’s Enemies
The American Jewish community is a leader in Holocaust commemoration. Why? To teach the lesson -- “Never Again” -- of course. Yet skeptics still scoff: why...
How the Holocaust Survivor Community Fought 1961’s ‘Battle of New Orleans’
The conventional view is that Holocaust survivors came to the US as a relatively young immigrant community, uncertain about how to “fit in” to their...
America and the ‘GI Jews’
Prior to the 1960s, many Americans shared the belief that military conscription benefited young men and uplifted certain groups. World War II cemented this optimistic...
Remembering Alfred E. Smith and the Jews
President Franklin D. Roosevelt is still an icon to American Jews -- despite extensively documented charges that he failed to act to help save Europe’s...
Anzia Yezierska: The Tenement House ‘Cinderella’
Applied to American Jews, the “white privilege” concept oversimplifies and misstates a complicated history. Anzia Yezierska -- once romanticized by Hollywood publicists as America’s "Cinderella of...
Bismarck’s Banker: Gerson von Bleichröder
In 1871, German unification was accomplished by “Iron Chancellor” Otto von Bismarck. Bismarck famously said that “the great questions of the day will be decided...
Remembering the ‘Chinese Schindler’ — Who Saved Many More Lives
Ho Feng-Shan, “The Chinese Schindler,” was born in rural Hunan in 1901. Ho grew up poor. His mother was a devout Christian; his father, a...
Remembering an Early Jewish Feminist and Abolitionist
Before the Civil War, upstate New York was called “the burned over district,” because it was ablaze with religious enthusiasm. School reform, prison reform, various...
A Tale of Two Jewish Prophets
A leader is abreast of his or her times. A prophet is in advance of theirs -- sometimes, by too much. And we now have...
Superman Was There When Jews Needed Him Most
In the Spring of 1938, Cleveland was abuzz with talk of “The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run.” He was never apprehended, although Cleveland’s Public Safety...
Jacques Faïtlovitch and Ethiopian Jews
World traveler Jacques Faïtlovitch was born in Lodz and educated at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris. His teacher, Jewish scholar Joseph Halévy, inspired...
