The Kosher Bookworm: Joseph Pulitzer, a man who hid from his religious past

By Alan Jay Gerber

Issue of June 4, 2010 / 22 Sivan 5770

No name in journalism is as emblematic of the profession itself as Joseph Pulitzer. This is not on account of talented reportage, scandals uncovered or a gifted personality. Rather, the name earned its longevity through its bearer’s endowment of a much sought after journalistic prize, the crown jewel of the American writer’s craft, bar none. So much for Pulitzer, the name. The man behind that name is another story.

A recently published biography, “Pulitzer: a life in politics, print, and power” [Harper Collins, 2010], by James McGrath Morris, offers a detailed study of the life and times of this complicated personality, studded with misery, and dysfunctional personal, family, and professional relationships.

Most intriguing to this writer was the relationship and regard as well as disregard that this distinguished personage had toward Judaism, the faith of his birth.

Joseph Pulitzer was born in Mako, Hungary in 1847. Most previous biographies gloss over, or ignore one major fact of his background: his birth faith. Pulitzer was born into a Hungarian Jewish family, though this in no way was to neither play a role in his religious life nor govern his moral standards.

While such behavior was not unique among European Jews of that era, Pulitzer’s life story and notoriety made his assimilatory behavior rather strange. Unlike previous biographers, Morris delves deep into Pulitzer’s religious affiliations, tracing them back to childhood and then working their way to adulthood. Family tragedy is given due regard, noting the possible influence of the deaths of all but one of his siblings, and the early death of his father, upon his resolute desire for independence that took him to these shores. That desire led him to join the US military during the Civil War, and to determinedly master the English tongue and thus make a name for himself in American journalism. In all these efforts his distance from his Jewish background seemed deliberate. He intermarried and raised his progeny as Christian Protestants. Unlike Disraeli, Pulitzer was never to identify with nor involve himself in anything remotely related to the faith of his ancestors. Nevertheless, just like Disraeli, according to Morris, this in no way prevented bigots from attacking him on the basis of his Jewish birth.

The author goes to great lengths to demonstrate the rabid, and at times cruel nature of these attacks. Consider the following example taken from the writing from a disgruntled former employee, Leander Richardson. It appeared in the reputable trade publication, “The Journalist.”

“In all the multiplicity of Nature’s freaks, running from Albino Negroes to seven-legged calves, there is one curiosity that will always cause the observer to turn and stare. This freak is a red-headed Jew.”

Pulitzer is further described by this person as “combing his hair with talons,” “rubbing the sores around his eyes,” and remaining in the shadows “in order to escape turning rancid in the hot sun.”

Examples from other publications are given as well, pointing to an era when such race-based vituperation was not uncommon, even in legitimate journalistic venues. The irony here is that the target was one who was as far from a Jewish ethnic identity as one could ever get. Nevertheless, Pulitzer was as much a target of such anti-Semitism as if he were the chief rabbi of New York.

Nobody would ever give Pulitzer a prize for a charming personality. He had none. He was crude and rude. He was primitive in his interpersonal relations and easily antagonized his journalistic and political adversaries. Nevertheless, whatever the criticism that he deserved, anti-Jewish attitudes should not have been among them. The lesson to be learned from this should be easy to absorb. Anti-Semitism can and will be found and practiced in many diverse venues. We may lower our heads in disgust at the experiences that our fellow Jews experience ‘til this day with this bigotry. However, history teaches us, daily, that you can’t teach common sense. It is a trait that comes with intelligence, and this too cannot be taught in a classroom.

The year 2011 will mark the centennial of Pulitzer’s passing. Check out and read this most engaging, well-written biography. And the next time you read or hear of the presentation of the Pulitzer Prizes, know that there was more to the prize behind that distinguished Hungarian-Jewish name.