Harold Brackman
ARTICLES BY: Harold Brackman
Jonas Salk and Antisemitism
When President Dwight Eisenhower invited Jonas Salk -- who discovered the polio vaccine -- to the White House, the president reportedly choked back tears of...
Jews Cannot Ignore the Hatred and Threat of QAnon
The most glaring current example of American politics’ invasion by dangerous conspiracy theories is QAnon, the “Q Clearance Patriot.” Did you follow the sagas of troubled...
Henry Ford II: Not a Chip Off the Old Block
The notorious antisemitism of Henry Ford is as well-known as the philosemitism of his grandson, Henry Ford II, is little-known. Everything negative said about Henry Ford...
Jewish Racial Relations and the Heyday of New York Sports
For New Yorkers, the pinnacle of “the golden age” of sports came after World War II. The Yankees won five straight World Series, and the...
The 1868 Presidential Election and the Jews
Today, over two-thirds of Jewish voters are Democrats who favor Joe Biden. But there is a split between Jewish Republicans who are “Forever Trumpers” --...
Remembering a Jewish Hero and Advocate for Black Americans
As biographer Naomi Cohen showed, Jacob H. Schiff was the prime example during the era of mass immigration of a new “Americanized” style of Jewish...
Why All Jews Should Care About New York’s Subway System
As Paul Simon of Simon and Garfunkel once sang, “The words of the prophets are written on subway walls.” Soon after opening in 1904, New York...
Civil War Antisemitism
The Civil War, the most polarizing time in US history until today, was very much a part of the American Jewish experience. In 1860, in...
Reform Jews and Early American Zionism
The story of Zionism and Reform Judaism in America began in the 1820s, when Charleston Jews left the traditional Congregation Beth Elohim to found their...
Eisenhower and the Jews: A Legacy of Moral Responsibility
Ninety-one-year-old architect Frank Gehry, whose Jewish mother was born in Poland, recently witnessed the completion of his memorial in Washington, DC for President Dwight D....
Remembering a Jazz Age Jewish Publisher
Horace Liveright (pronounced “live right”) was born in 1886 to German Jewish parents who anglicized the previous family name. Leaving school at 14, Liveright graduated...
How American Jews Championed Righteous Social Change
The years before America’s entry into World War I were an age of progressive reform. In 1912, socialist presidential candidate Eugene Debs garnered 6% of...
Leo Frank’s Lynching, Tom Watson’s Statue, and White Supremacy in America
The current controversy about replacing the statues of Confederate generals and other racist and problematic figures is hardly new. In 2013, Georgia removed the 12-foot...
The Connection Between Pan-Africanism and Zionism
Israel’s enemies today often ignore that Zionism and Pan-Africanism have intersecting histories. But they share one great commonality -- both are international movements committed to...
