Sol Levitas (1894-1961) was an American magazine editor, an "old-line Socialist" and "Russian refugee journalist" who served as managing editor of ''
The New Leader'' (1940-1950) and "shaped the journal's character."
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Background
Sol Levitas was born Samuel Moisewitch Levitas in 1894 in the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
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Career
Levitas became a Socialist at age 15, became a Menshevik
The Mensheviks ('the Minority') were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903. Mensheviks held more moderate and reformist ...
and close friend of Alexander Kerensky
Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky ( – 11 June 1970) was a Russian lawyer and revolutionary who led the Russian Provisional Government and the short-lived Russian Republic for three months from late July to early November 1917 ( N.S.).
After th ...
. In 1916, he first visited Chicago but returned home after the overthrow of the Romanov dynasty in February 1917. After the Bolshevik Revolution
The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. It was led by Vladimir L ...
, he was imprisoned several times. In 1923, dressed as a Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...
colonel, he fled to New York City. He joined the Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of America ...
and wrote for the '' Jewish Daily Forward'' and the ''Leader''.[
On January 19, 1924, the first issue of '' The New Leader'' hit newsstands. In 1930, Levitas became its business manager. In 1936, after years of infighting, editor James Oneal left Levitas in charge. In 1939, Levitas attacked the Hitler-Stalin Pact. In 1943, he criticized ]Upton Sinclair
Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American author, muckraker journalist, and political activist, and the 1934 California gubernatorial election, 1934 Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...
for signing a petition in support of the Soviet Union. In 1945, Levitas criticized all accommodation with the USSR (i.e., the Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference (), held 4–11 February 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union to discuss the postwar reorganization of Germany and Europe. The three sta ...
). By 1949, the magazine was in dire financial straits. In 1950, Levitas said that "friends" were contributing to the magazine and in 1957 said that amount with $15,000 per year.[
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Personal life and death
Levitas married Esther Fera. Their children were a daughter, Nora, and a son, Mitchel R. Levitas, ''New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' editor and 1959 Nieman Fellow,[
Levitas died age 66 on January 3, 1961, in New York City.][
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Legacy
In 1960, former US Assistant Secretary of State and member of FDR's " Brain Trust, Adolf A. Berle wrote that Levitas made ''The New Leader'' "a wellspring of first-hand information on foreign affairs." He noted, "In particular, he wished to prevent the crystallization into accepted history of untrue myths propagated by propaganda services."[
In 1984, ]Sidney Hook
Sidney Hook (December 20, 1902 – July 12, 1989) was an American philosopher of pragmatism known for his contributions to the philosophy of history, the philosophy of education, political theory, and ethics. After embracing communism in his youth ...
and Arnold Beichman wrote "what distinguished ''The New Leader'', under Sol Levitas, from other publications was that its writers consistently involved themselves with other questions of the day, what Mr. Glazer felicitously calls ''the large areas of the public realm,'' such as technology, nuclear arms, ethnic relations, trade unionism and other issues."[
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See also
* '' The New Leader''
* James Oneal
* Myron Kolatch
References
1894 births
20th-century American writers
1960 deaths
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