Education
Ackerman graduated from Earlham College and worked as a correspondent in World War I with the United Press.
Ackerman graduated from Earlham College and worked as a correspondent in World War I with the United Press.
In 1919, as a correspondent of the Public Ledger of Philadelphia, he published the first excerpts of an English translation of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, but changed the text so that it appeared to be a Bolshevist tract. In 1931, he was appointed as the director and first dean of the newly established School of Journalism at Columbia University. He was instrumental in developing the school through its first two decades, as he served in that position until 1954.
He first gained public attention with his book, Germany, The Next Republic? (1917), which discussed the possibility of a successful democracy in post-Kaiser Germany.
At the time, during World War I, his position was considered quite radical. Ackerman became a journalist with the Philadelphia Public Ledger.
In 1919, he published articles headlined as "The Red Bible", featuring the first English edition of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an anti-Semitic hoax that had been published in Europe and recounted a Jewish plan for world domination. By replacing all the references to Jews with references to Bolshevists, he turned it into an anti-Bolshevist hoax.
In 1931 Ackerman was recruited to serve as the director and, later, as the first dean, of Columbia University"s School of Journalism, which was established by an estate gift of Joseph Pulitzer, a major publisher in Saint Louis and New York City.
The philanthropist"s money was also used to establish the Pulitzer Prize awards in journalism, literature, drama and music Known to be reclusive, he worked to establish the school as one of the foremost schools of journalism in the nation. He served on the board of trustees for Science Service, now known as Society for Science & the Public, from 1936-1938.
He was known to visit the university only occasionally until his death in New York, New York in 1970.
Ackerman was a provocative figure. Foreign instance, he accused the administration of President Franklin Doctorate. Roosevelt of fascism, and attempts to control journalism.