The Tangled History of Shuls and Real Estate

In 1967, King led the largest antiwar demonstration to date in New York City. More than 1,100 people marched with King from Central Park to U.N. headquarters to protest the Vietnam War.

He is remembered today in New York with a street named in his honor. Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard is an alternative name for Manhattan’s 125th Street. There is also a Martin Luther King, Jr. High School on Amsterdam Avenue and a Martin Luther King Triangle, a park space in Manhattan’s Mott Haven neighborhood (Austin Place and East 149th Street).

Since the 1960s, most U.S. history has been written as if the civil rights movement were primarily or entirely a Southern history. Civil Rights in New York City edited by Clarence Taylor joins a growing body of scholarship that demonstrates the importance of the Northern history of the movement. The contributors make clear that civil rights in New York City were contested in many ways, beginning long before the 1960s, and across many groups with a surprisingly wide range of political perspectives. Civil Rights in New York City provides a sample of the rich historical record of the fight for racial justice in the city that was home to the nation’s largest population of African-Americans in mid-twentieth century America.

Also of interest…

Red Tail Captured, Red Tail Free
Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman and POW

For more information on Red Tails visit or www.Redtailsfilm.com.

by Sam Roberts

Gerard R. Wolfe, joined by the photographers Jo Renee Fine and Norman Borden, has completely overhauled “The Synagogues of New York’s Lower East Side” (Empire State Editions, $29.95), originally published in 1978. This volume, which is illustrated with black and white photographs and has a foreword by The Times’s Joseph Berger, uses historic houses of worship as a prism to explore immigrant life and culture.

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It has often been said that nowhere in the United States can one find a greater collection of magnificent and historic synagogues than on New York’s Lower East Side. As the ultimate destination for millions of immigrant eastern European Jews during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it became the new homeland and hoped-for goldene medinah (promised land) for immigrants fleeing persecution, poverty, and oppression, while struggling to live a new and productive life. Yet to many visitors and students today these synagogues are shrouded in mystery, as documentary information on them tends to be dispersed and difficult to find.

With The Synagogues of New York’s Lower East Side, Gerard R. Wolfe fills that void, giving readers unparalleled access to the story of how the Jewish community took root on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Originally published in 1978, The Synagogues of New York’s Lower East Side became the authoritative study of the subject. Now completely revised and updated with new text, photographs, and maps, along with a glossary, Wolfe’s book is an accessible source for those who want to understand the varied and rich history of New York’s Lower East Side and its Jewish population.

Fordham University Press, 2012. 232 pp. $29.95

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“. . .Hurricane Sandy reminded New Yorkers that the waterways surrounding them can be a dire threat as well as a great asset. This is a good time to explore their history. John Waldman, a biology professor at Queens College, offers a brief and elegantly written tour in “Heartbeats in the Muck: The History, Sea Life and Environment of New York Harbor” (Fordham University Press, $18).

This updated edition was published before the storm struck, but as Mr. Waldman breezily chronicles the harbor’s ecological decline and rebirth over several centuries, he never underestimates the waters that in one way or another have always defined New York.

Also notable is a new volume edited by Mr. Waldman: “Still the Same Hawk: Reflections on Nature and New York” (Fordham University Press, $18), a collection of essays by writers including Phillip Lopate and Robert Sullivan.”

Read Sam Roberts’ entire column.

Witnessing all the damage caused by Sandy has me feeling a melancholy. I was born and raised in New Jersey and spent many summers “down the shore.” In recent summers I have taken my daughter to some of the same beaches I enjoyed as a kid. I’ve been a New Yorker since 1991 and am a regular visitor to Coney Island, and lived for a short time in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It is quite devastating to see all the massive destruction done to our great city and state and to our neighbors in New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. As I was preparing to write my post for University Press Week, I reflected on how university presses have bonded together in the past during times of tragedy to help us all understand what is happening at the moment and how we can move forward. “Books for Understanding” was developed by the Association of American University Presses (AAUP) soon after 9/11 to bring the latest and most valuable scholarship to readers in an easy to find and easy to use place. The AAUP instantly became a resource for people who wanted to know more and to find it from reliable sources—University Presses—the pillars of knowledge. The day after hurricane Sandy hit, a reporter from the Huffington Post contacted me about a Fordham University Press (FUP) author who wrote a history of the NYC subways. She wanted to interview him about the flooding of the tunnels and the mass transit shutdown. It is a prime example of how the media turns to university presses for expertise during times of crisis.

We emphasize scholarship by being witnesses to global events, detectives for finding the best authors, and sharers of critical information that has been researched and vetted. Combining efforts to make all of our books on a specific topic of current concern to citizens of the world is invaluable. There are several lists related to Hurricane Sandy, including one on Katrina. Knowing this, I’m not feeling as sad. Thank you AAUP! In preparation for University Press Week to celebrate the AAUP turning 75, Will Underwood, Director of Kent State University Press, asked fellow directors to gather some endorsements from key stakeholders. Happily, I got a great response from faculty and administrators on the Fordham campus as well as some FUP authors and friends. Here is what the Provost of Fordham University wrote:

“As the Association of American University Presses (AAUP) celebrates its 75th anniversary, Fordham University joins in honoring a rich history of committed leadership and collaborative service to the academy and to society. Fordham University Press has partnered with AAUP since 1938 to advance academic excellence in the full pursuit of truth and to enrich public discourse through the dissemination of scholarly research of the highest quality across the disciplines. We look forward to our work with the AAUP to engage evolving challenges and opportunities for university presses in the decades ahead. —Stephen Freedman, Provost, Fordham University

FUP celebrated its 100^th anniversary in 2007.  Established in 1907 to help Fordham faculty publish monographs based on their research, we now publish up to 70 books per year from faculty at institutions all over the globe. Not unlike the AAUP, FUP is a small organization with big ambitions. We have established ourselves as a leading academic press concentrating in history, literary theory, philosophy and religion. We also publish well established series in continental philosophy, American philosophy, medieval studies, World War II, and the Civil War among others and have created new series spanning a diversity of topics from Orthodox Christianity to Italian American studies. We have a long history publishing regional books focusing on New York City and the Hudson Valley. In 2010, we established the Empire State Editions imprint to better brand and market these titles.

To kick off the festivities of UP week, we hosted an open house for faculty showcasing their work as authors and series editors. Despite the previous evening’s nor’easter, we got a nice turnout and received positive feedback.  Here are a few shots.

On Veteran’s Day, FUP hosted a Veteran’s Day public program entitled Five Historians Reflect on World War II: What We Know, What We Still Need to Learn and What We May Never Know. It turned out to be a successful event with a lively engaged audience. Here are some pics.

Dr. Scott H. Bennett, author of Army GI, Pacifist CO: The World War II Letters of Frank and Albert Dietrich

Dr. G. Kurt Piehler, Dr. Scott H. Bennett, Dr. Sidney Pash, Dr. Ann Pfau, Dr. John Chambers, Dr. J. Garry Clifford

FUP is lean, resourceful, hardworking, and determined. I’d say that about captures the definition of a university press and the AAUP. I’m proud to be a member of this superb, caring, humane community. Happy birthday AAUP. Here’s to another 75 years.

I’ll end with a quote from a friend and a fan of university presses:

“What words to describe the university press? Patient, ambitious, demanding, sustaining, generous, utterly essential. Serious thinking is unimaginable without it.”
—William Germano, Dean of Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Cooper Union

Fredric Nachbaur (Twitter: @FNachbaur) is the Director of Fordham University Press.

Next stop:  Texas A&M University Press.

VETERAN’S DAY PUBLIC PROGRAM

Five Historians Reflect on World War II
“What We Know, What We Still Need to Learn and What We May Never Know”

Monday, November 12, 2012
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Fordham University, Lincoln Center Campus
113 West 60th Street
Lowenstein 12th Floor Lounge
New York, NY 10023

Participants:

Dr. Scott H. Bennett is an authority on the American peace movement and the Second World War and, among other works, is editor of Army GI, Pacifist CO: The World War II Letters of Frank and Albert Dietrich (Fordham University Press, 2005).

Dr. J. Garry Clifford is one of the country’s leading diplomatic historians and has written on how America raised an Army in World War II.

Dr. Sidney Pash is author of Defending the Open Door: American-Japanese Relations, 1899-1941 (forthcoming University Press of Kentucky) which offers a re-examination of the coming of war in the Pacific.

Dr. Ann Pfau is author of Miss Your lovin: GIs, Gender, and Domesticity during World War II (Columbia University Press), which examines how GIs thought about war and dreamed about the homefront.

Dr. G. Kurt Piehler is author of Remembering War the American Way (Smithsonian) and over the course of his career has interviewed over 300 World War II veterans. He is book series editor of FUP’s World War II: The Global, Human and Ethical Dimension.

Books in World War II: The Global, Human and Ethical Dimension series:

The United States and the Second World War: New Perspectives on Diplomacy, War, and the Home Front
edited by G. KURT PIEHLER and SIDNEY PASH
356 pages, 978-0-8232-5203-9, paper, $26.00

Army GI, Pacifist CO: The World War II Letters of Frank Dietrich and Albert Dietrich
by FRANK DIETRICH and ALBERT DIETRICH,
edited by SCOTT H. BENNETT
408 pages, 978-0-8232-2378-7, cloth, $38.00

Hungary in World War II: Caught in the Cauldron
by DEBORAH S. CORNELIUS
400 pages, 16 b/w illustrations, 978-0-8232-3344-1, paper, $28.00

Red Tail Captured, Red Tail Free: Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman and POW
by ALEXANDER JEFFERSON,
with LEWIS H. CARLSON
160 pages, 71 b/w illustrations, 978-0-8232-2366-4, cloth, $29.95

For more books in the World War II series, CLICK HERE.