ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author presents a period in Philadelphia Jewish history which exactly spans his own adult life. One of his South Pacific shipmates and a close friend, for instance, played an important role in eliminating the categorical exclusion of Jewish alumni from membership in the Harvard Club of New York City. The author himself gave up a prewar business career to become a sociologist, receiving a Ph.D. from Columbia and then spending his entire academic career at the University of Pennsylvania. His first book, Philadelphia Gentleman examined the historical background and contemporary structure of Philadelphia’s leadership class in 1940, a date purposely chosen because it preceded the post-war social changes. The first and most important thing to be said about elite anti-Semitism in the years since the end of World War II, especially since 1963, is that while Philadelphia was a familistic and class society in 1940, it is a relatively individualistic and bureaucratic society.
