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Sasha Rogelberg | Staff Writer
I rwin Gellman isn’t afraid to talk about
any bad reviews for his books. The
Jewish author and historian has
received his fair share of scrutiny for
his most recent book “Campaign of
the Century: Kennedy, Nixon, and the
Election of 1960,” but Gellman believes
it’s just par for the course.

The book, released on Jan. 22, 2022,
details the 1960 presidential election
between Democrat John F. Kennedy
and Republican Richard Nixon. Counter
to the election’s well-accepted narra-
tive, Gellman argued, the relation-
ship between the two candidates was
actually cordial, and had the election not
been altered by scandal, Nixon would
have won.

“Because I’m changing the narrative
of how we look at the ‘great’ John
Kennedy and the ‘evil’ Richard Nixon,
there are people that look upon me as
the lowest form of life,” Gellman said.

“You don’t change a narrative that you
want to be a narrative and not pay
the price.”
If an angry reader leaves a one-star
review on Amazon, the 80-year-old
author doesn’t mind. Yale University,
which published Gellman’s book,
nominated the author for a Pulitzer
Prize and a National Book Award.

On March 4, Gellman, a West Chester
resident, will discuss his newest book
at a signing at Tredyff rin Public Library
in Wayne. All proceeds from the
evening will be donated to Beth Chaim
Reform Congregation, where Gellman
is a member.

Gellman, with 27 years of experience
researching Nixon, has worked to set
the record straight. According to the
author, Theodore White’s “Making of
the President 1960,” a seminal book
in political journalism, got the story
wrong, pitting the two presidential
8 FEBRUARY 9, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
Irwin Gellman
candidates against each other and
overstating Kennedy’s primary victory
in West Virginia, in which he won a
sweeping victory among a population
that was about 95% Protestant.

Instead, Gellman said, Kennedy
paid an exorbitant amount of money
campaigning in the state that essentially
amounted to corruption.

And while Gellman agrees that the
outcome of the general election was
close, he believes that it would have
swung in Nixon’s favor had there not
been scandal, including alleged vote
fraud in Texas, Kennedy’s vice presiden-
tial nominee Lyndon Johnson’s home
state, and Illinois.

Throughout his career — including
bachelor’s and master’s degrees from
the University of Maryland and a doctor-
ate from Indiana University-Bloomington
— Gellman has observed that once a
mistake in recording history is made,
there’s little eff ort to correct the course.

“Once they get it wrong, they won’t
bother to check sources,” Gellman said
of some historians.

In an age of information that is so
democratized that much of what is
being disseminated is false, Gellman
argues that the key to fi nding the truth is
thoroughly searching for it.

“What I learned in graduate school
was a mass of diff erent views,” he said.

“But when it comes down to it, and push
comes to shove, it’s how you do the
research.” When Gellman was researching for
“Campaign of the Century,” he said that
when he wrote about Kennedy, he was
a Democrat, and when he wrote about
Nixon, he was a Republican. He removes
himself from his opinions and instead
embodies what the sources he’s reading
about are telling him.

Though Gellman removes his personal
politics and identities from his research,
his Jewish identity still shines through in
his scholarship at times.

“Probably the speech I give that
gets the most passionate response
from audiences is [about] the American
response to the Holocaust,” Gellman
said. “And I don’t try to make it emotional,
and I don’t try to make it passionate. It
just comes out that way.”
Rabbi Michelle Pearlman of Beth
Chaim argues that, even when Gellman
does not write or speak about Jewish
topics, his work refl ects Jewish values.

“One of God’s names is emet. ... One
of God’s names is truth,” she said. “So,
I think there’s a big spiritual value, a
prominent spiritual value in Judaism
about discernment of the truth.”
Gellman grew up in the suburbs
of Baltimore, one of the few Jews
in a mostly Polish Catholic neighbor-
hood. Though his family was ambitious
and accomplished, Gellman grew
up not thinking of himself as excep-
tional. Despite how he viewed himself,
Gellman received his doctorate at 25.

“I wasn’t so smart to get my degree
in that time, I thought. I was just tired of
being poor,” he said.

After spending decades research-
ing 20th-century presidents such as
Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the U.S.

response to the Holocaust — his 1995
book on the topic earned Gellman his
fi rst Pulitzer Prize nomination — Gellman
became a Nixon scholar at the behest
of his wife Joanne Borin. At the time, the
couple lived in California.

“She said, ‘Why don’t you go to the
Nixon library that’s half an hour away?’”
Gellman recounted. “I wasn’t interested
in Richard Nixon! I couldn’t care less.”
After befriending the librarian there
and spending time in the stacks, Gellman
became a Nixon scholar. The author is
working on “only” three books, including
a book on Nixon in the 1960s.

His work includes listening to 4,000
hours of tape and looking through
500 various manuscripts, searching
for the truth.

“That’s what I’m doing: I’m upstairs,
reading a massive amount of material
trying to fi nd out if it’s good or bad or
indiff erent, and then going from there,”
he said. ■
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com Courtesy of MasterMedia Speakers Bureau
Jewish Pulitzer Prize Nominee Details
Book on 1960 Kennedy vs. Nixon
Election



Safeguarding the Community
Antisemitism continues to rise locally and worldwide. The Jewish Federation of Greater
Philadelphia is committed to enhancing Jewish life while taking steps to safeguard and
secure local communities and institutions. Just over a year ago, hostages were held in their
synagogue in Colleyville, TX. They accredited their escape to active shooter and security
training received in partial from the Secure Community Network (SCN), the official
safety and security organization for the Jewish community in North America.

2,717 antisemitic incidents in
the United States in 2021, a
34% increase from the year 2020*
Working to Combat Antisemitism
In Fiscal Year 2022, the Jewish Federation supported 765+ events or activities locally and
in Israel to educate participants about antisemitism. In addition, the Jewish Community
Relations Council (JCRC) continues to teach the dangers of hatred and discrimination that led
to the Holocaust, advocating for a more just and safe world while building a support system of
interfaith leaders.

1 in 3
Jewish students on a college
campus experienced
antisemitism in 2021*
JCRC has been a great partner to us at Temple Hillel
whenever there have been reports about antisemitic
or anti-Israel incidents on campus.

- Rabbi Daniel Levitt, Executive Director, Temple Hillel
Expanding the Safety Net
This past year, the Jewish Federation launched an expanded initiative in
partnership with the SCN. Leveraging SCN’s national resources and tools, the
Jewish Federation continues to develop and administer a comprehensive program
that provides risk mitigation, security consultations, assessments and training to Jewish
institutions throughout the region.

Making an Impact in Security
• In the first 60 days of partnering with SCN, 45 community security needs were addressed,
including consultations, law enforcement briefings or event-related security staffing. In addition,
more than 210 community members received safety training.

• Through the Jewish Federation’s LiveSecure Campaign and government advocacy work, the region’s local
synagogues, schools and agencies may be eligible for $150,000 through federal security grants and $150,000
through state security grants.

• Institutions and organizations locally and in Israel received $276,000+ for security enhancements through Jewish
Federation Real Estate (JFRE) grants.

See it, Say it, Report it
There is a new way to report threats, incidents, or suspicious activity related
to Jewish organizations, facilities, or community members. The Incident
Reporting Form, created by SCN, allows the Jewish Federation to fully track the
number and kinds of threats to the Jewish community in Greater Philadelphia.

Learn more or report an incident at jewishphilly.org/security
*Sourced from the Anti-Defamation League
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