Moses Rischin (1925-2020) was an American historian, author, lecturer, editor, and emeritus professor of history at San Francisco State University.My Jewish Learning: The Lower East Side Lehrhaus Judaica – The Adult School For Jewish Studies He coined the phrase new Mormon history in a 1969 article of the same name.http://www.sunstoneonline.com/magazine/issues/123/123-28-32.pdf
Rischin is considered an authority on American ethnic and immigration history and a pioneer in the field of American Jewish history.Western Jewish History Center || The Magnes 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.Jason Schulman
Biography Rischin was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York City. His undergraduate studies were at Brooklyn College.Bulletin-Faculty R & S Harvard University awarded him a Ph.D. in 1957.
Ruschin became a professor at San Francisco State University in 1964."Moses Rischin". Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors. Gale. Farmington Hills, Mich.: 2001. Retrieved via Gale In Context: Biography database, 2020-08-22. 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.Browse JournalsAJHS: Academic Council Member 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.Salon Newsreal | "Historians in Defense of the Constitution"
He was the longtime director of the Western Jewish History Center, at the Judah L. Magnes Museum, from its founding in 1967; from 2005 until approximately 2010, an annual lecture was given there in his name. "To Dr. Moses Rischin and Dr. Ruth Rischin on the establishment of The Moses Rischin Annual Lecture at the Western Jewish History Center."
A collection of historical essays was published in Rischin's honor in 1996.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)
A character in the 1967 novel Meyer Meyer by Helen Hudson may have been partly modeled after him.
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
See also "I'll take Manhattan: reflections on Jewish studies" by Deborah Dash Moore
References