Bloom, Solomon Frank
BLOOM, SOLOMON FRANK
BLOOM, SOLOMON FRANK (1903–1962), U.S. historian of modern Europe. Born in Romania, Bloom went to the U.S. in 1920. In 1931 he was appointed professor of history at Brooklyn College, New York. In 1949 Bloom wrote an article entitled "Dictator of the Lodz Ghetto." Based on sources in Yiddish and French, it was the first English-language account of Mordechai Chaim *Rumkowski, the controversial Nazi-appointed chairman of the *Judenrat of the *Lodz ghetto in Poland (Commentary 7 (Feb. 1949): 111–22). In 1950 Bloom wrote an essay on the political role of the heads of the Judenrate, entitled "Toward the Ghetto Dictator" (Jewish Social Studies 12 (Jan. 1950): 73–78). In Commentary magazine, Bloom also wrote his memoirs, entitled "On the Horizon: Memoir of a Rumanian Rope-Climber" (vol. 21, Feb. 1956). Bloom's major works were The World of Nations (1941, 19672), a study of Karl Marx in the larger context of history; Europe and America (1961); and A Liberal in Two Worlds (1968).
[Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)]