Dawidowicz, Lucy S.

Lucy S. Dawidowicz was born June 16, 1915 in New York City, to Max and Dora (Ofnaem) Schildkret. Her parents were secular Jews who were not affiliated with a synagogue. In fact, the first time that Lucy S. Dawidowicz went to a Jewish service was in 1938 in Vilna. Dawidowicz attended Hunter College and received her B.A. in 1936. She continued her studies as a Masters student in English Literature at Columbia University. Although she enjoyed poetry and literature, the events taking place in Europe made her desire to study literature waver. As a result of her search for a new field of study, she sought the advice of a Polish History teacher and mentor, Jacob Shatzky. He advised studying Jewish history.

The idea didn't come as a surprise to me, perhaps because it had been afloat in my subconscious. But I protested that I was academically unprepared. The Mitlshul graduate courses in Jewish history were the only history I had ever studied, besides those high school tariffs and railroads. I would have to start once more from the beginning. Furthermore, it was even more impractical than studying English literature, for in those days, except for the rabbinate, the possibility of a career in Jewish studies was little more than a daydream. ( From That Place and Time , 23)

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