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Oliver B. Pollak

Oliver B. Pollak earned his doctorate in history at the University of California at Los Angeles and his law degree from Creighton University School of Law. He has published eight books. His interests include American Jewish history, Southern Africa, Burma, legal history, the history of higher education, and studies in reading, book arts and bibliography. He is co-founder of the Nebraska Jewish Historical Society and has been on the board of the Nebraska Humanities Council and the Nebraska Center for the Book. He is a professor of history at the University of Nebraska at Omaha where he has taught since 1974.

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Barbara Tuchman

Barbara W. Tuchman

From a young age, Barbara W. Tuchman was engaged with contemporary international affairs. Her passion for research and engaging writing style won her two Pulitzer Prizes for her popular histories The Guns of August and Stilwell and the American Experience in China.
Tillie Olsen

Tillie Olsen

Tillie Olsen was an American-Jewish author, professor, feminist, and social activist whose powerful fiction about the lives of the working poor, women, and minorities have shaped the development of the American literary cannon. Tillie Olsen’s own struggles to combine writing with working and raising a family spurred her to recover the writing of other silenced women writers, revolutionizing the study of women’s literature.
Anna Held circa 1899

Anna Held

Anna Held was a performer with a flamboyant reputation for bathing in milk and champagne. As an actor in numerous farces, comedies, and musical comedies, she led a life of showmanship that prevents bibliographical certainty. Held was best known for her relationship with Florenz Ziegfeld, and some credit her with helping him create his famous Follies.

Mary Arbitman Fellman

Mary Arbitman Fellman

Mary Arbitman Fellman was the first woman editor of the Omaha Jewish Press, led multiple Jewish organizations, and cofounded the Nebraska Jewish Historical Society. As a historian, a journalist, a community leader, and a matchmaker, she cared for the past, present, and future of the Jewish community in Omaha.

Felice Cohn

Felice Cohn was one of Nevada’s first women lawyers in the early twentieth century, an author of suffragist legislation in Nevada, and one of the first women allowed to argue before the United States Supreme Court.

Sophie Braslau

Sophie Braslau

In her short life, Sophie Braslau was an extraordinary contralto and international opera sensation. After making her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York at age eleven, she toured the United States, Europe, and Canada and recorded many albums. She also sang at fundraisers such as the Omaha Hebrew Club campaign to raise money for Jewish war sufferers.

Meta Pollak Bettman

Meta Pollak Bettman was an untiring volunteer in Jewish and civic causes in the early twentieth century.

bELLE bAKER

Belle Baker

Belle Baker has been described as a famed torch singer and vaudeville star, as well as a Yiddish, Broadway, and motion picture actor. Among the songs associated with her are “Eli Eli” and “My Yiddishe Mama.” Her resonant voice made her the first choice of many composers to debut their songs, and she helped to introduce 163 songs to the public throughout her career.

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How to cite this page

Jewish Women's Archive. "Oliver B. Pollak." (Viewed on December 25, 2024) <https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/author/pollak-oliver>.