Elias Lieberman

Elias Lieberman (1883-1969) was an American poet, writer and educator, known for 1916 poem "I Am an American".[1][2]

Background
Lieberman’s family left before the October Revolution—here, Bolsheviks celebrating May 1 near Winter Palace (1918)

Elias Lieberman was born on October 30, 1883, in St. Petersburg, Russia. At age seven, he emigrated to the United States with his Russian Jewish family. In 1903, he graduated cum laude from the City College of New York, where he joined the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity. In 1911, he earned a PhD from New York University.[1][2]

Career
Thomas Jefferson High School, where Lieberman was principal from 1924 to 1940

In 1903, Lieberman began working as an English teacher at public schools. At NYU, he served as editor of Puck, The American Hebrew, and The Scholastic.[1][2]

In 1915, Juliet Stuart Poyntz became education director of the Worker's University of Local 25 of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) under committee chair Lieberman.[3][4]

In 1918, he became head of the English department at Bushwick High School in Brooklyn through 1924.[1]

In 1924, Lieberman became principal of Thomas Jefferson High School in Brooklyn.[1] Students included movie star and comedian Danny Kaye and wife Sylvia Fine, scientist Martin Pope, Jack Rollins (producer), and typewriter expert Martin Tytell. Thomas Jefferson was one of seven public high schools in New York to receive a M. P. Moller pipe organ in 1926 under Lieberman. (In the 1990s, this organ was removed and discarded.)[5]

In 1940, Lieberman joined the New York City Board of Education, as an associate superintendent of schools in charge of the junior high school division.[1][2] He retired in 1954.[1]

Personal life and death

Lieberman married Rose Kiesler; they had two children who became a surgeon and a professor.[1]

In 1918, Arthur Guiterman and Joyce Kilmer nominated Lieberman to the Poetry Society of America. He later served there as director and vice president. In 1969, he became a fellow of the society.[1]

He served as president of the Associate Alumni of City College.[1]

Lieberman died age 85 on July 13, 1969, at his home in the Richmond Hill district in Queens, New York.[1]

Awards
  • 1940: National Poetry Center gold medallion for Man in the Shadows[1]
  • 1953: Townsend Harris Medal for distinguished service as educator and author[1]
  • 1966: James Joyce Award of the Poetry Society of America for "Ballade of Heraclitean Flux"

Works

Lieberman wrote poetry all his life. "I am an American" appeared in the July 1916 issue of Everybody's Magazine. He last published in the Alaska Review.[1]

  • 1903: “Lavender,” alma mater song of CCNY[1][6]
  • 1916: “I Am an American” (poem)[2]
  • 1918: Paved Streets[1]
  • 1930: Hand Organ Man[1]
  • 1940: Man in the Shadows[1]
  • 1954: To My Brothers Everywhere[1]
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References
  1. "Dr. Elias Lieberman Dies at 85; Poet Wrote 'I Am an American'; Retired Executive of Schools Here Was Author of 4 Volumes of Verses". The New York Times. 1969-07-14. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-12-13.
  2. "What so Proudly We Hail: The American Soul in Story, Speech, and Song" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-12-13.
  3. "A Lady Vanishes: The Disappearance of Juliet Stuart Poyntz". Kheel Center, ILR School, Cornell University. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  4. Levine, Louis (1924). The Women's Garment Workers: A History of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. B. W. Huebsch. pp. 487 (ILGWU).
  5. "Thomas Jefferson High School". New York City American Guild of Organists. Retrieved January 3, 2010.
  6. "Lavender, My Lavender". Alumni Association of the City College of New York. City College of New York. Retrieved 2019-09-07.
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