BETSALEL (CHARLES B.) SHERMAN

BETSALEL (CHARLES B.) SHERMAN (January 14, 1896-January 1, 1971)

            He was a sociologist and journalist, born in Kiev.  At age two he moved with his parents to Pinsk.  He attended religious elementary schools and a Russian school.  In 1911 he emigrated to Chicago, where he worked and studied.  For many years he was a typesetter.  In 1932 he settled in New York.  He was professor of sociology at City College of New York and at the Jewish teachers’ seminary.  He played an active and leading role among the left Labor Zionists, later among the right.  He died in New York.

            He wrote political and theoretical articles for Labor Zionism.  In later year he concentrated on sociological research concerning Jews in the United States.  He contributed to: Proletarisher gedank (Proletarian idea) which he co-edited, Idisher kemfer (Jewish fighter) which he edited for a time and other labor Zionist publications, Tsukunft (Future), and Anglophone Jewish journals.  In book form: Yidn un andere etnishe grupes in di fareynigte shtatn (Jews and other ethnic groups in the United States) (New York: Undzer veg, 1948), 424 pp.—also published in English and Hebrew; The Jew within American Society: A Study in Ethnic Individuality (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1961), 260 pp.  Pamphlets include: Der veg fun idishn arbeter-klas (The way for the Jewish working class) (Chicago, 1934), 16 pp.; Vos viln di linke poyle-tsien? Frages un entfers (What do the left Labor Zionists want? Questions and answers) (Canada, 1936?), 32 pp.; A yidish land oder a naye geto? (A Jewish country or a new ghetto?) (New York), 15 pp.; Nokh a land? (Another country?) (New York), 15 pp.; and a series of party pamphlets in English, all published by the left Labor Zionists.

Sources: Proletarisher gedank (New York) (March 1, 1946); Shmuel Niger, in Tog (New York) (January 23, 1954); Shmuel Margoshes, in Tog (June 12, 1954); Froym Oyerbakh, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (New York) (January 16, 1956); M. Beylis, in Hadoar (New York) (Av 26 [= August 23], 1957); [Mortkhe Shtrigler,] in Idisher kemfer (New York) (January 8, 1971); Moyshe Erem, in Folksblat (Tel Aviv) (January 1971); Arye Tartakover, in Tsukunft (New York) (April 1971); Pinkhes-Leyzer Goldman, In gang mit der tsayt (With the passage of time) (Tel Aviv: Peretz Publ., 1973).

Yekhezkl Lifshits