Ruth Gay (née Slotkin; October 19, 1922 – May 9, 2006) was an American writer whose work concerned Jewish life. She won the 1997

National Jewish Book Award The Jewish Book Council (Hebrew: ), founded in 1943, is an American organization encouraging and contributing to Jewish literature. The goal of the council, as stated on its website, is "to promote the reading, writing and publishing of qual ...

for non-fiction for ''Unfinished People: Eastern European Jews Encounter America'' (1996).

Early life and education

Ruth Slotkin was born to Harry Slotkin and Mary (Pfeffer) Slotkin on October 19, 1922, in New York City. Although she grew up in

The Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

, her family moved to

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

due to her father's job. As a result, she transferred to

Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the New York City borough of Queens. Part of the City University of New York system, Queens College occupies an campus primarily located in Flushing. Queens College was established in 1937 and offe ...

, where she was a member of the leftist student

Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

organization. Slotkin earned a bachelor's degree from Queens College and a master's in

library science Library and information science (LIS)Library and Information Sciences is the name used in the Dewey Decimal Classification for class 20 from the 18th edition (1971) to the 22nd edition (2003). are two interconnected disciplines that deal with info ...

from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

in 1969.

Career

From 1948 to 1950 she was the editor of the JDC Review of the

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Advert Where and how does this article resemble an WP:SOAP, advert and how should it be improved? See: Wikipedia:Spam (you might trthe Teahouseif you have questions). American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, also known as Joint or JDC, is a J ...

. In 1997, Gay received the

for nonfiction for her book "Unfinished People: Eastern European Jews Encounter America." In 2002, she published "Safe Among the Germans: Liberated Jews After World War II" through

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day and Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...

Personal life

Ruth Slotkin was first married to sociologist

Nathan Glazer Nathan Glazer (February 25, 1923 – January 19, 2019) was an American sociologist who taught at the University of California, Berkeley, and for several decades at Harvard University. He was a co-editor of the now-defunct policy journal ''The Pu ...

in 1942; during this 15-year marriage they had three daughters. She published extensively in ''

Commentary Commentary or commentaries may refer to: Publications * ''Commentary'' (magazine), a U.S. public affairs journal, founded in 1945 and formerly published by the American Jewish Committee * Caesar's Commentaries (disambiguation), a number of works ...

'' and other publications during this period. They divorced in 1957. Slotkin married historian

Peter Gay Peter Joachim Gay ( né Fröhlich ; June 20, 1923 – May 12, 2015) was a German-American historian, educator, and author. He was a Sterling Professor of History at Yale University and former director of the New York Public Library's Center for ...

in 1959. Gay died in 2006 from leukemia.

Publications

* ''Safe among the Germans liberated Jews after World War II'' (New Haven, CT:

, 2002) * ''Unfinished People: Eastern European Jews Encounter America'' (New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997) * ''The Jews of Germany: A Historical Portrait'' (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992)

External links

“Biographical Note.” Guide to the Ruth Gay Collection 1980s–1993, 2002.
Processed by Yakov Illich Sklar.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gay, Ruth Jewish women writers Jewish American non-fiction writers 1922 births 2006 deaths Queens College, City University of New York alumni Columbia University School of Library Service alumni 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews