The purpose of compiling and publishing Portrait of a Rabbi-Historian: How Did We Get Here? is to collect select articles I have written primarily in the field of American Jewish history over the course of nearly forty years into one accessible place. Like most historians, I have published in a variety of journals, magazines, and online publications and it is difficult, if not impossible, to get a thirty-thousand-foot view of my work. I endeavored to undertake this project as much for myself and posterity as for the benefit of other historians to assess my work.

Indeed, there are many historians in my field, major and minor, including Bertram W. Korn, Malcolm H Stern, and Maxwell Whiteman, among others, who deserve to have similar publications but were unable to have their work aggregated in a similar manner. Luckily, in our digital age online collections of published and primary materials are becoming much more easily available to the benefit of researchers and curious readers alike. I am particularly fortunate that I had the opportunity to undertake this work early in my retirement and plan to continue to add new materials in the future.

My work as a historian was augmented by a parallel career as a pulpit rabbi, hence the title Rabbi-Historian. As the saying goes, riding two horses at one time is no easy trick. It has its rewards and challenges. As a pulpit rabbi with an enduring interest in history, I was challenged to broaden the canvas of my intellectual and research work. Admittedly, my two-track career went against the grain of increased specialization in the academic study of history and likewise against the trend of decreasing intellectual content in the American Jewish pulpit over the last few decades. Fortunately, I received a warm reception from the congregations I served both in terms of historicized pulpit messages and expanded adult education programming.

I endeavored to transform these efforts into articles in a wide variety of sources, expanding both the scope and quantity of my work. At the same time, I always felt welcome in the world of professional historians who worked full-time in their trade, but regretfully I was often unable to attend the wide range of conferences in the field of American Jewish history nor participate in the innumerable workshops and subsidized writing programs that are now available. Despite these limitations, I did my best “to hang in there” and contribute to the field of American Jewish history