{"id":84222,"date":"2025-08-20T17:49:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T17:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/84222\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T17:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T17:49:07","slug":"gratz-college-president-publishes-book-on-americas-obsession-with-greatness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/84222\/","title":{"rendered":"Gratz College president publishes book on America\u2019s obsession with \u2018greatness\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"ZEV<\/a><\/p>\n

ZEV ELEFF\u2026president of Gratz College and professor of American Jewish History.<\/p>\n

Why do Americans spend so much time talking about \u201cgreatness?\u201d How Is the American view of greatness different from the views of Jews or Europeans?\n<\/p>\n

These are two of the questions Zev Eleff discussed during an interview about his latest book, \u201cThe Greatest of All Time: A History of An American Obsession.\u201d Eleff is the president of Gratz College and a professor of American Jewish history at Gratz, which was founded in 1895 and has multiple campuses in the Philadelphia suburbs.\n<\/p>\n

Eleff, interviewed at Gratz\u2019s Bala Cynwyd, PA campus, said he was motivated to write the book after writing an earlier book, \u201cDyed in Crimson,\u201d about the 1920 Rose Bowl, which was won by Harvard. Eleff, a huge sports fan, saw that the famed Jim Thorpe said that Eddie Mahon, a running back for Harvard and a coach of the 1920 team, was the greatest running back he had ever seen.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never seen Eddie Mahan raised to the rank of the football gods,\u201d said Eleff. He added that he saw that \u201cgreatness\u201d is a variable that has changed over time. This book is not a Jewish book or a religious studies book, noted Eleff, but rather an American cultural history book.\n<\/p>\n

Quoting Jonathan Sarna, his teacher at Brandeis, Eleff said that \u201cmachloket\u201d (disagreement), debate, and change is an historian\u2019s friend.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m interested in how Americans have used greatness discourse,\u201d said Eleff. As an example, he pointed to the debate about whether Michael Jordan or Lebron James is the greatest basketball player ever. Ostensibly, the debate is about sports, but Eleff said it\u2019s also about race.\n<\/p>\n

Michael Jordan was apolitical, refusing to campaign for Democratic candidates. His image was clean-cut, and he once said that Republicans buy shoes too. Lebron James, on the other hand, is more outspoken politically. \u201cThere is something going on about race\u201d in the conversation, said Eleff. This was also true about legendary football player Jim Brown, who was very political. He was replaced as \u201cthe greatest\u201d at the time by OJ Simpson, who was viewed, ironic in retrospect, as more \u201cpalatable.\u201d Greatness has a lot to do with our own expectations, noted Eleff.\n<\/p>\n

Eleff said that Jews have their own particular historical view of greatness and pride in achievement, whether it be Barbra Streisand, Sandy Koufax, or the \u201cthe Gedolim,\u201d the great rabbis. \u201cWe too are part of a long history of establishing \u2018symbolic exemplars,\u2019\u201d said Eleff.\n<\/p>\n

Eleff\u2019s book talks about how Americans and Europeans differ on their views of greatness. Americans view \u201cchangemakers\u201d as great. Jordan changed the game of basketball. America also extols self-made people who changed the world, such as Abraham Lincoln. In Europe, greatness was reserved for military leaders and kings and queens.\n<\/p>\n

Jewish culture, said Eleff, also celebrates meritocracy. Moses wanted his sons to lead, but G-d said that Joshua would lead because he deserves it. Jews have also celebrated those responsible for change, such as Herzl, Maimonides, and Henrietta Szold. \u201cThey rose to the level of changemakers,\u201d said Eleff.\n<\/p>\n

Asked about President Trump and his \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d movement, Eleff said that every president since Ronald Reagan has spoken about American greatness, but Donald Trump has received more attention.\n<\/p>\n

Eleff said that Trump\u2019s view of greatness has a larger \u201cnostalgia\u201d element to it than past presidents, whose view of greatness was more \u201cforward-thinking.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not new with Donald Trump, but context matters\u2013a nostalgia element as well as the polarization,\u201d commented Eleff. He said that in the past, Americans would talk about the great changemakers Thomas Edison, Babe Ruth, the Beatles, who changed the sound of music. Now, we are looking at greatness nostalgically.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ZEV ELEFF\u2026president of Gratz College and professor of American Jewish History. Why do Americans spend so much time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[353,49,48,75],"class_list":["post-84222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-books","tag-books","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}