Moses Rischin

Moses Rischin (born 1925) is an American Jewish historian, author, lecturer, editor, and emeritus professor of history at San Francisco State University.^[1][2] He coined the phrase new Mormon history in a 1969 article of the same name.^[3] Rischin is from New York City. His undergraduate studies were at Brooklyn College.^[4] Harvard University awarded him a PhD in 1957.^[5] In addition to his professorship, he sits on the board for the Journal of American Ethnic History and on the council of the American Jewish History Society.^[6][7] There is an annual lecture given in his honor at the Western Jewish History Center, where he is director.^[8][9] There is a collection of historical essays published in Rischin's honor,^[10] and a supporting character, Meyer Meyer in the 87th Precinct series, may have been partly modeled after him.^[11]

Rischin is considered an authority on American ethnic and immigration history^[12][13] and a pioneer in the field of American Jewish history.^[14] 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.^[15]

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.^[16][17]

Books

• The Promised City: New York's Jews, 1870-1914 (Harvard University Press) ISBN 978-0674715011
• Jews of the American West, with John Livingston (Wayne State University Press) ISBN 0-8143-2171-2

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

See also

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

References

External links

• Works by or about Moses Rischin in libraries (WorldCat catalog)