By Donald H. Harrison  

Prof. Noel Pugach has been teaching American and Jewish history at the University of New Mexico for nearly four decades, and is the first to admit that any good lecturer needs to have a bit of the performer in him—or, dare I say this about a fellow Jew—be something of a "ham."  But Pugach has raised his level of  theatrics to an art, and appears around the country in one-man portrayals of such  figures in American history and literature as President Harry S. Truman, Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, Lew Wallace and John Steinbeck.

Unlike actors who memorize scripts, Pugach draws on his own intensive research in history, biography and literature to become that person on stage—first giving a talk in which the subject tells about the high points of his life, and then testing his wits by taking questions from the audience while remaining in historical character. For people who love history, the combination is compelling.  Pugach packs a lot of information and anecdotes into his lectures, and obviously enjoys sparring with audiences, who sometimes dispute him.  

For example, during one portrayal of Truman, a man in the audience gave "Harry" hell about his account of his famous meeting at Wake Island with General Douglas MacArthur.  The man indignantly told the Truman on stage that it wasn't true that MacArthur had kept him waiting, and he ought not be telling such a story.  The Truman character vigorously defended himself, saying everyone who had been at Wake Island would back up his story.                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                             Pugach as Truman

At the end of his presentation, however, Pugach took off his hat, and said he now wanted to step out of character. The questioner was correct to doubt the veracity of Truman's account, he said, but that was the way Truman told the story, and he, as Truman, had to stick to it.  But as a historian, he knew that there were other versions of the story.

Viewing his portrayal of Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise  (1819-1900), I found myself impressed by the depth of Pugach's research.  There are far fewer sources about Wise than there are about Truman, but the history professor was able to bring this seminal figure in American Reform Judaism to life.  As Wise, he introduces himself as "an American of the Jewish faith" and carefully sets out his positions on a number of controversies that raged in 19th Century Judaism.  

Wise felt Orthodox Judaism lacked decorum in its prayer, and believed the cantors who led Orthodox congregations in the United States to be "ignorant men."  As an American rabbi, he made it a point to shorten services and to speak out on issues of the day.  After being ousted from one pulpit in Albany, he started another congregation in which he instituted "the family pew," where men and women could sit at services together.  He predicted that women one day would preach from Jewish pulpits.  He also began holding Friday night services to provide an opportunity for Shabbat worship for those who worked on Saturdays.
   Pugach as Rabbi Wise

At the same time as he was changing the established order of Jewish worship, Wise also was making "many non-Jewish friends," including New York state senators who elected him their chaplain, and President  Zachary Taylor, who made the "Jewish trivia" books by being the first President to greet a rabbi at the White House.

Wise published a Jewish newspaper, American Israelite, both to spread his views and to defend the Jewish community against attack.  He was a strong supporter of the doctrine of Separation of Church and State, and was a leader in a campaign in Cincinnati, where he spent 45 years of his life, to resist having Bible readings in the public schools.  In addition, Wise was the main force behind the creation of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the Hebrew Union College, and the Central Conference of Rabbis.  He also created an American-style Jewish prayer book, Minhag America.

Today, some of his positions may seem surprising.  He opposed Zionism on the grounds that he believed Judaism should become an international religion rather than a religion tied to one nation.  He also was dismissive of Darwin's Theory of Evolution in that it contradicted the notion that God created man separately. On the biggest issue of the day, the abolition of slavery, he declined to be drawn into the debate.

Pugach's portrayal of Harry S. Truman also treats some Jewish issues. He tells how when he was still a U.S. senator he criticized President Franklin D. Roosevelt for not doing more to help Jews and other victims of Hitler.  He provides the background for the decision to cast the U.S.  vote at the United Nations  in November 1947 for partition of Palestine, and goes on to talk about all the pressure he was subjected to by both sides concerning whether or not the United States should recognize the Jewish State. On the one hand, Zionists  including Rabbi Stephen S. Wise (1874-1949) called for recognition; on the other hand were allied the oil companies, Great Britain, the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. Military service, and the U.S. State Department.  

The Pugach Truman explained that the effects of the Holocaust weighed heavily in the decision;  he knew that the Jews who were living in Displaced Persons Camps could never return to their former homes in Europe.  He dismissed the charge that he took a pro-Israel stand in order to win the "Jewish vote," pointing out that in the subsequent successful 1948 presidential election against New York Gov. Thomas Dewey, he lost the electoral votes of New York State—then, as now, the state with the largest Jewish population.  

Far more important than Jewish domestic votes, he said, was being able to woo the Jews of Palestine to the American cause. He said he was quite concerned that the Soviet Union would also try to recruit them as allies in the Cold War which was then reshaping the post World War II globe.  At the time, he added, neither side considered the Arabs to be reliable allies.

The presentation also told of Truman's friendship during World War I with Eddie Jacobson, a Jew with whom he later opened a financially unsuccessful haberdashery store in Kansas City, Missouri. The two men became life-long friends, and although Pugach didn't mention the fact in the videotaped version of his Truman performance that I saw, Jacobson would play an important role in persuading Truman to discuss the Middle East with Chaim Weizmann, who later became Israel's first president.

In a post-performance interview included with the non-commercial Truman video, Pugach said he has five criteria for deciding which historical subjects to portray. They should have made a mark in the world, there should be plenty of information available about them; "I have to like them;" there has to some humor in the story, and "they have to have something to say."

While it is not a requirement for the subjects he selects, Pugach likes, when possible, to be able to tell some Jewish story about the subject.  Wallace's famous fictional character, Judah Ben-Hur, was a Jew who furiously fought the Roman overlords in the Holy Land, and who ultimately embraced the Christian message of forgiveness.  Wallace developed the famous story before he traveled to the Middle East.  According to Pugach, he was able to craft an amazingly accurate depiction of the landscape of the Holy Land by interviewing travelers.

When Wallace did go to the Middle East, as U.S. minister to the Ottoman Empire, he interceded in behalf of early Zionists who were seeking permission to live in Palestine.  He also spoke out against the persecution of Jews in Romania.  

Pugach weaves such Jewish tidbits into the overall Wallace narrative that deals with other aspects of his career, including Wallace's support for the Mexican revolution of Benito Juarez, his Civil War generalship for the Union, his service on the tribunal in the war crimes trial of  Confederate Capt. Henry Wirz (the commander of the south's infamous Andersonville Prison); his encounter with the outlaw Billy the Kid, and his term as governor of the New Mexico territory.

Likewise, Pugach found a bit of Jewish seasoning for his portrayal of novelist John Steinbeck, telling briefly about the writer's trip to Israel where he was shown around Masada by archaeologist Yigal Yadin. Steinbeck sent columns to Newsday on his impressions of the Holy Land.

With both American history and Jewish history as areas that Pugach knows well, the professor finds himself attracted to stories in which his two interests converge.  His personal story is of an American Jewish boy with Orthodox grandparents, and less observant parents—until a day that his mother agreed to let his grandmother kasher the kitchen.  Pugach attended the Brooklyn Talmudical Academy one class behind future Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz, but resisted suggestions that he continue onto Yeshiva University.   Instead, Pugach did his undergraduate work at Brooklyn College, and "got out of New York" to do his graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin.

Approaching his 67th birthday, which will fall on Passover, Pugach is planning to retire after this, his 38th year, as a professor at the University of New Mexico.  "Retirement!" he laughs, knowing that he will most likely transfer his teaching from the university classroom to the stages of auditoriums and Chautauqua tents across the country, where performers impersonating historic figures—and even dialoguing and debating each other—are a popular form of entertainment.  

The performance as Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise that I saw had him being introduced by a character playing the American author and philosopher Henry David Thoreau.  At other times his Truman has had lively debates with another impersonator's MacArthur.

Ever the teacher, Pugach also instructs Reform Jews of Albuquerque's  Congregation Albert—New Mexico's oldest Reform temple— in studies of biblical texts.  He  recently completed a class on the Book of Ruth. He utilized not only classical rabbinical scholarship to analyze the story of Judaism's most famous convert, but also incorporated sources from feminist literature and from archaeological expeditions to Moab, located in modern-day Jordan. His own affiliation is with Chavurat HaMidbar, which he describes as "one of the oldest independent Chavrot in the U.S.. 

"We have about 80 units—some single, more married, a couple of gays and lesbians. We are traditionally oriented, (we use a traditional prayerbook) and Zionist,  but open, egalitarian, somewhat experimental,
democratic, totally lay led.  We function though organized chaos. A very interesting group. We were formed in 1973."

Pugach may be reached by telephone at the University of New Mexico at 505-277-2701or via email, npugach@unm.edu.
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