Ludwig Lewisohn (1882–1955) was a German-born American novelist, literary critic, and essayist. He was a champion of Zionism, the movement to establish a Jewish state of Israel in Palestine. He was the editor-in-chief of New Palestine, an American Zionist publication.
Born to an upper-middle-class Jewish family in Berlin, Germany, Lewisohn migrated to South Carolina in 1890. He was educated at the College of Charleston and Columbia University. He taught in numerous universities and, in 1919, became a drama critic for The Nation and then its associate editor.
In the 1920s, Lewisohn visited Palestine and became persuaded that “the Jewish problem is the decisive problem of Western civilization.” He returned to Judaism (he had become an active Methodist in his youth,) and he became an outspoken critic of American Jewish assimilation.
Lewisohn wrote in support of the Zionist principles. Lewisohn’s novels frequently developed Jewish identity and marriage problems and divorce. They include Don Juan (1923,) The Case of Mr. Crump (1926,) The Island Within (1928,) and In a Summer Season (1955.) Among his other publications was the critical work Expression in America (1932.) His sociological studies of Jews and works advocating Zionism include Israel (1925,) The Answer: The Jew and the World (1939,) and The American Jew (1950.)
In 1948, Lewisohn became the founding faculty of Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, and taught there until his death.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Ludwig Lewisohn
There are philosophies which are unendurable not because men are cowards, but because they are men.
—Ludwig Lewisohn
Topics: Realistic Expectations
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