Moses Rischin Explained

Moses Rischin (1925-2020^[1]) was an American historian, author, lecturer, editor, and emeritus professor of history at San Francisco State University.^{[2] [3]} He coined the phrase new Mormon history in a 1969 article of the same name.^[4]

Rischin is considered an authority on American ethnic and immigration history^{[5] [6]} and a pioneer in the field of American Jewish history.^[7] Historian Selma Berrol, however, has challenged the minimal treatment Rischin has given to the tensions between earlier German Jews and later Russian Jews in America.^[8]

Biography

Rischin was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York City.^[1] His undergraduate studies were at Brooklyn College.^[9] Harvard University awarded him a Ph.D. in 1957.^[10]

Ruschin became a professor at San Francisco State University in 1964.^[11] In addition to his professorship, he sat on the board for the Journal of American Ethnic History and on the council of the American Jewish History Society.^{[12] [13]} During the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Rischin was a signatory of "Historians in Defense of the Constitution" wherein 400 historians criticized efforts to impeach President Bill Clinton.^{[14] [15]}

He was the longtime director of the Western Jewish History Center, at the Judah L. Magnes Museum, from its founding in 1967;^{[16] [17]} from 2005 until approximately 2010, an annual lecture was given there in his name.^[18]

A collection of historical essays was published in Rischin's honor in 1996.^[19]

A character in the 1967 novel Meyer Meyer by Helen Hudson may have been partly modeled after him.^[20]

Books

• The Promised City: New York's Jews, 1870-1914 (Harvard University Press)
• Jews of the American West, with John Livingston (Wayne State University Press)
• The American Gospel of Success, Individualism and Beyond, Edited with an Introduction by Moses Rischin (A Quadrangle Paperback)

Articles and essays

• "The New Mormon History", The American West 6, March 1969, 49.
• "The Jewish Experience in America: A View from the West"
• Foreword to California Jews (2003) Brandeis University Press

Awards

• 1963: National Jewish Book Award in The Promised City: New York's Jews, 1870-1914^[21]

See also

• "I'll take Manhattan: reflections on Jewish studies" by Deborah Dash Moore

Notes and References

1. Web site: Passing of Professor Moses Rischin . H-Judaic . 2020-08-21 . 2020-08-22.
2. http://www.myjewishlearning.com/history_community/About_Jewish_History_Community/MemoryTO/LowerEastSide.htm My Jewish Learning: The Lower East Side
3. http://www.lehrhaus.org/about/staff.html Lehrhaus Judaica – The Adult School For Jewish Studies
4. http://www.sunstoneonline.com/magazine/issues/123/123-28-32.pdf{{dead link|date=February 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
5. Web site: Utopia as a camouflage : The case of Abe Cahan and his legacy . 2008-02-21 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110607234605/http://www.essex.ac.uk/ecpr/events/jointsessions/paperarchive/uppsala/ws20/manor.pdf . 2011-06-07 . dead .
6. News: Abigail Rischin, David A. Moss . The New York Times . 1993-06-07 . 2010-05-13.
7. http://magnes.org/collections/wjhc.html Western Jewish History Center || The Magnes
8. http://www.historymatters.appstate.edu/documents/leofrank.pdf Jason Schulman
9. http://www.sfsu.edu/~bulletin/noindex/9496/faculty/fac-rs.htm Bulletin-Faculty R & S
10. Web site: Archived copy . 2008-02-21 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20070709213846/http://bss.sfsu.edu/history/Advising%20Materials/Program%20Booklets/Booklet-graduate.pdf . 2007-07-09 .
11. "Moses Rischin". Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors. Gale. Farmington Hills, Mich.: 2001. Retrieved via Gale In Context: Biography database, 2020-08-22.
12. http://iibp.chadwyck.com/infopage/publ/jae.htm Browse Journals
13. http://www.ajhs.org/academic/faculty_member.cfm?id=75 AJHS: Academic Council Member
14. http://www.salon.com/news/1998/10/30newslist.html Salon Newsreal | "Historians in Defense of the Constitution"
15. News: Historians' Statement on Impeachment . The Washington Post . 1998-10-30 . 2010-05-13.
16. Web site: Jewish History Center Marks Three Decades of Capturing the Past . https://web.archive.org/web/20060510160405/http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/5309/edition_id/98/format/html/displaystory.html . 2006-05-10 . Katz . Leslie . 1997-01-17 . J. The Jewish News Weekly of Northern California.
17. Web site: Western Jewish History Center . 15 March 2010 . The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley . 2020-08-22.
18. Web site: Mazel Tov! . https://web.archive.org/web/20070710004656/http://emanuelsf.org/downloads/chronicle/chron_dec05.pdf . 2007-07-10 . 2005-12-01 . The Temple Chronicle . San Francisco, Calif. . 13. "To Dr. Moses Rischin and Dr. Ruth Rischin on the establishment of The Moses Rischin Annual Lecture at the Western Jewish History Center."
19. An Inventory of Promises: Essays on American Jewish History: In Honor of Moses Rischin by Jeffrey S. Gurock and Marc Lee Raphael (Carlson Publishing, 1996)
20. Web site: 'You Must Remember This'; or, Libraries as a Locus of Cultural Memories . https://web.archive.org/web/20160303232141/http://www.english.upenn.edu/~traister/mem.html . 2016-03-03 . Traister . Daniel . Daniel Traister's Home Page, University of Pennsylvania.
21. Web site: Past Winners. Jewish Book Council. en. 2020-01-23.