Background

Abraham Gordon Duker was born on September 27, 1907, in Rypin, Poland. His family went to the United States in 1923.

Education

Duker obtained his bachelor’s degree in 1930 from the City College of New York, and his doctor's degree from Columbia University.

Career

Duker began his career as a clerk and cataloger for the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1927, working there for six years. He later served as a research librarian and instructor for the Graduate School for Jewish Social Work from 1934 to 1938, as an editor for the American Jewish Committee Research Institute on Peace and Post-War Problems from 1938 to 1943, and as an editor for the weekly magazine The Day from 1945 to 1949. That same year Duker began to work as a lecturer for various institutions, staying at that position till 1952. For six years from 1952, he had been a managing editor for Jewish Social Studies. He also served as a professor and president of the College of Jewish Studies from 1955 to 1962, and as a professor and director of libraries for Yeshiva University from 1962 to 1972.

Duker wrote nine books in his career, including The Situation of Jews in Poland (1936, his first monograph); Jewish Survival in the World Today (1939-41); The Impact of Zionism on American Jewry (1958); and his last book Emancipation and Counter-Emancipation (1971), co-edited with Meir Ben Horin. The final book listed in his California sketch. Selection of Essays on Polish Jewish History never actually appeared. He also contributed numerous articles to scholarly and popular periodicals.

Achievements

• Duker is mostly known for his educational surveys, books and articles in his main fields of interest, Polish-Jewish relations and American Jewish sociology.

Works

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  • Contemporary Jewish Record

    (A Review Of Events And A Digest Of Opinion, Volume II, Nu...)

    1939
  • Emancipation and Counter-Emancipation

    (Selected Essays from Jewish Social Studies (Editors; Intr...)

    1974
  • Japanese, Nazis & Jews

    (The Jewish refugee community of Shanghai, 1938-1945)

  • Post-War Migrations: Proposals for an International Agency

    (Contributing Authors Include Franklin D. Roosevelt, Herbe...)

  • Governments-in-Exile on Jewish Rights

    (Jews and the Post-War World, No. 3)

    1942
  • The situation of the Jews in Poland 1936
  • Political And Cultural Aspects Of Jewish Post-War Problems 1943
  • Historical and Sociological Factors in Jewish Communal Leadership 1955
  • The Impact of Zionism on American Jewry 1958
  • Jews in the post-war world 1945