Morris Schappes

Morris U. Schappes (pronounced SHAP-pess, born Moishe Shapshilevich; 1907–2004) was an American educator, writer, radical political activist, historian, and magazine editor. Schappes is best remembered for a 1941 perjury conviction obtained in association with testimony before the Rapp-Coudert Committee investigating Communism in education in New York, and as the long-time editor of the radical magazine Jewish Currents.

Morris U. Schappes was born Moishe ben Haim Shapshilevich in Kamianets-Podilskyi, Ukraine, then part of the Russian empire. The Shapshilevich family left Tsarist Russia when Morris was a small child, living first in Brazil before emigrating to the United States in 1914. The family name was truncated to "Schappes" by Brazilian immigration authorities and Moishe's mother later Americanized his name to "Morris" upon the family's arrival in North America. His middle initial, "U," referred to nothing, but was inserted by Schappes as a collegiate journalist to add zest to his byline.

Schappes earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from City College of New York and a Masters degree from Columbia University. Schappes joined the faculty of City College in 1928 when he accepted a position as a lecturer in the English Department there.

Schappes was regarded as an effective teacher and was awarded annual pay raises seven times during his career at City College. He was regarded as a scholar by his peers and frequently contributed reviews and commentary to the popular and academic press, including such magazines as Saturday Review, the New York Post, The Nation, Poetry, and American Literature.

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