Nathan Irving Hentoff (June 10, 1925 – January 7, 2017) was an American historian, novelist,
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
and
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
critic, and
syndicated columnist
A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the form of a short essay ...
for
United Media
United Media was a large editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States, owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, that operated from 1978 to 2011. It syndicated 150 comics and editorial columns worldwide. It ...
. Hentoff was a columnist for ''
The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...
'' from 1958 to 2009. Following his departure from ''The Village Voice'', Hentoff became a senior fellow at the
Cato Institute
The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries.Koch Ind ...
and continued writing his music column for ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', which published his works until his death. He often wrote on
First Amendment
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...
issues, vigorously defending the freedom of the press.
Hentoff was formerly a columnist for: ''
Down Beat
' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chi ...
'', ''
JazzTimes
''JazzTimes'' is an American magazine devoted to jazz. Published 10 times a year, it was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1970 by Ira Sabin as the newsletter ''Radio Free Jazz'' to complement his record store.
Coverage
After a decade of growth ...
'', ''
Legal Times
ALM (formerly American Lawyer Media) is a media company headquartered in the Socony–Mobil Building in New York City, and is a provider of specialized business news and information, focused primarily on the legal, insurance, and commercial rea ...
'', ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', ''
The Washington Times
''The Washington Times'' is an American conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., that covers general interest topics with a particular emphasis on national politics. Its broadsheet daily edition is distributed throughout ...
'', ''
The Progressive
''The Progressive'' is a left-leaning American magazine and website covering politics and culture. Founded in 1909 by U.S. senator Robert M. La Follette Sr. and co-edited with his wife Belle Case La Follette, it was originally called ''La Follett ...
'', ''
Editor & Publisher'' and ''
Free Inquiry
''Free Inquiry'' is a bimonthly journal of secular humanist opinion and commentary published by the Council for Secular Humanism, a program of the Center for Inquiry. Philosopher Paul Kurtz was the editor-in-chief from its inception in 1980 until ...
''. He was a
staff writer
In journalism, a staff writer byline indicates that the author of the article is an employee of the periodical, as opposed to being an independent freelance writer. In Britain, staff writers may work in the office instead of traveling to cover a b ...
for ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', and his writings were also published in: ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', ''
Jewish World Review
''Jewish World Review'' is a free, online magazine updated Monday through Friday (except for legal holidays and holy days), which seeks to appeal to "people of faith and those interested in learning more about contemporary Judaism from Jews who t ...
'', ''
The Atlantic
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'', ''
The New Republic
''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...
'', ''
Commonweal
Commonweal or common weal may refer to:
* Common good, what is shared and beneficial for members of a given community
* Common Weal, a Scottish think tank and advocacy group
* Commonweal (magazine), ''Commonweal'' (magazine), an American lay-Cath ...
'', and ''
Enciclopedia dello Spettacolo''.
Early life
Hentoff was born on June 10, 1925, in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
,
the
firstborn
A firstborn (also known as an eldest child or sometimes firstling) is the first child born to in the birth order of a couple through childbirth. Historically, the role of the firstborn child has been socially significant, particularly for a firstb ...
child of Simon, a traveling salesman, and Lena (née Katzenberg).
His parents were Jewish Russian immigrants. As a teen, Hentoff attended
Boston Latin School
The Boston Latin School is a public exam school in Boston, Massachusetts. It was established on April 23, 1635, making it both the oldest public school in the British America and the oldest existing school in the United States. Its curriculum f ...
and worked for
Frances Sweeney
Frances Sweeney (c. 1908 – June 19, 1944) was a journalist and activist who campaigned against fascism, antisemitism, and political corruption in 1940s Boston. She edited her own newspaper, the ''Boston City Reporter'', and started the '' Bost ...
on the ''Boston City Reporter'', investigating
antisemitic hate groups. Sweeney was a major influence on Hentoff; his memoir, ''Boston Boy'', is dedicated to her. He played soprano saxophone and clarinet as a youth, and became interested in jazz after listening to
Artie Shaw
Artie Shaw (born Arthur Jacob Arshawsky; May 23, 1910 – December 30, 2004) was an American clarinetist, composer, bandleader, actor and author of both fiction and non-fiction.
Widely regarded as "one of jazz's finest clarinetists", Shaw led ...
play. He received his
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
degree with highest honors, in 1946 from
Northeastern University.
That same year he enrolled for graduate study at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
.
In 1950, he attended
Sorbonne University
Sorbonne University (french: Sorbonne Université; la Sorbonne: 'the Sorbonne') is a public research university located in Paris, France. The institution's legacy reaches back to 1257 when Sorbonne College was established by Robert de Sorbon ...
in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, France, on a
Fulbright Scholarship.
Career
Hentoff began his career in broadcast journalism while hosting a weekly jazz program on Boston radio station
WMEX.
In the 1940s, he hosted two radio shows on WMEX: ''JazzAlbum'' and ''From Bach to Bartók''. In the early 1950s he continued to present a jazz program on WMEX, and as a Staff Announcer for WMEX, he regularly hosted remote broadcasts from the ''Savoy'', and ''
Storyville'', two Boston clubs run by
George Wein
George Wein (October 3, 1925 – September 13, 2021) was an American jazz promoter, pianist, and producer. , and during that period was an announcer on the program ''Evolution of Jazz'' on
WGBH-FM
WGBH (89.7 MHz; branded as GBH without the " W" since August 31, 2020) is a public radio station located in Boston, Massachusetts. WGBH is a member station of National Public Radio (NPR) and affiliate of Public Radio Exchange (PRX), which m ...
. In 2013, the ''Evolution of Jazz'' series was contributed to the
American Archive of Public Broadcasting
The American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) is a collaboration between the Library of Congress and WGBH Educational Foundation, founded through the efforts of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The AAPB is a national effort to digital ...
by the University of Maryland's National Public Broadcasting Archives as part of the National Association of Educational Broadcasters (NAEB) collection.
By the late 1950s, he was co-hosting the program ''The Scope of Jazz'' on
WBAI-FM
WBAI (99.5 FM) is a non-commercial, listener-supported radio station licensed to New York, New York. Its programming is a mixture of political news, talk and opinion from a left-leaning, liberal or progressive viewpoint, and eclectic music ...
in New York City. He went on to write many books on jazz and politics.
In 1952, Hentoff joined ''
Down Beat
' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chi ...
'' magazine as a columnist. The following year, he moved to New York to become the city's editor of the magazine. He was fired in 1957, he alleged, because he attempted to hire an African-American writer.
Hentoff co-wrote ''Hear Me Talkin' to Ya: The Story of Jazz by the Men Who Made It'' (1955) with
Nat Shapiro.
The book includes interviews with jazz musicians such as
Dizzy Gillespie and
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...
. Hentoff co-founded ''
The Jazz Review
''The Jazz Review'' was a jazz criticism magazine founded by Nat Hentoff and Martin Williams in New York City in 1958. It was published until 1961. Hentoff and Williams were co-editors throughout its brief existence (which lasted 22 issues).
M ...
'' in 1958,
a magazine that he co-edited with
Martin Williams until 1961.
In 1960 he served as artists and repertoire (
A&R) director for the short-lived jazz label
Candid Records
Candid Records was a jazz record label first established in New York City.
Early Candid Records
The CANDID jazz label was founded in New York City in 1960 as a subsidiary of Cadence Records, owned by Archie Bleyer. The jazz writer and civil right ...
, which released albums by
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was an American jazz upright bassist, pianist, composer, bandleader, and author. A major proponent of collective improvisation, he is considered to be one of the greatest jazz musicians and ...
,
Cecil Taylor, and
Max Roach
Maxwell Lemuel Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz Jazz drumming, drummer and composer. A pioneer of bebop, he worked in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in h ...
.
Around the same time, Hentoff began freelance writing for ''
Esquire
Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title.
In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...
'', ''
Playboy
''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother.
K ...
,'' ''
Harper's'', ''
New York Herald Tribune
The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...
,'' ''
Commonweal
Commonweal or common weal may refer to:
* Common good, what is shared and beneficial for members of a given community
* Common Weal, a Scottish think tank and advocacy group
* Commonweal (magazine), ''Commonweal'' (magazine), an American lay-Cath ...
'', and ''
The Reporter''.
From 1958 to 2009, he wrote weekly columns on education, civil liberties, politics, and capital punishment for ''
The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...
''.
He also wrote for ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' (1960–1986), ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' (1984–2000), and ''
The Washington Times
''The Washington Times'' is an American conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., that covers general interest topics with a particular emphasis on national politics. Its broadsheet daily edition is distributed throughout ...
''.
He worked with the
Jazz Foundation of America
The Jazz Foundation of America (JFA) is a non-profit organization based in Manhattan, New York that was founded in 1989. Its programs seek to help jazz and blues musicians in need of emergency funds and connect them with performance opportunitie ...
to help American jazz and
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
musicians in need. He wrote many articles for ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' and ''The Village Voice'' to draw attention to the plight of America's pioneering jazz and blues musicians.
Beginning in February 2008, Hentoff was a weekly contributing columnist at
WorldNetDaily
''WND'' (formerly ''WorldNetDaily'') is an American far-right fake news website. It is known for promoting falsehoods and conspiracy theories, including the false claim that former President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.
Th ...
. In January 2009, ''The Village Voice'', which had published his commentary and criticism for fifty years, announced that he had been laid off.
He then went on to write for ''
United Features
United Feature Syndicate (UFS) is a large American editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1919. Originally part of E. W. Scripps Company, it was part of United Media (along wi ...
'', ''
Jewish World Review
''Jewish World Review'' is a free, online magazine updated Monday through Friday (except for legal holidays and holy days), which seeks to appeal to "people of faith and those interested in learning more about contemporary Judaism from Jews who t ...
'', and ''The Wall Street Journal''.
He joined the
Cato Institute
The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries.Koch Ind ...
, a libertarian think tank, as a senior fellow in February 2009.
In 2013, ''The Pleasures of Being Out of Step'', a biographical film about Hentoff, explored his career in jazz and as a
First Amendment
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...
advocate. The independent documentary, produced and directed by David L. Lewis,
won the Grand Jury prize in the Metropolis competition at the
DOC NYC festival
and played in theaters across the country.
Political views, commentary, and activism
Hentoff espoused generally
liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
views on
domestic policy
Domestic policy is a type of public policy overseeing administrative decisions that are directly related to all issues and activity within a state's borders. It differs from foreign policy, which refers to the ways a government advances its inter ...
and civil liberties, but in the 1980s, he began articulating more
socially conservative
Social conservatism is a political philosophy and variety of conservatism which places emphasis on traditional power structures over social pluralism. Social conservatives organize in favor of duty, traditional values and social institution ...
positions especially in regard to
medical ethics
Medical ethics is an applied branch of ethics which analyzes the practice of clinical medicine and related scientific research. Medical ethics is based on a set of values that professionals can refer to in the case of any confusion or conflict. T ...
and
reproductive rights
Reproductive rights are legal rights and freedoms relating to reproduction and reproductive health that vary amongst countries around the world. The World Health Organization defines reproductive rights as follows:
Reproductive rights rest on t ...
. He was opposed to abortion, voluntary euthanasia, and the selective medical treatment of severely disabled infants.
He believed that a
consistent life ethic
The consistent life ethic, also known as the consistent ethic of life or whole life ethic, is an ideology that opposes abortion, capital punishment, assisted suicide, and euthanasia. Adherents oppose war, or at the very least, unjust war; some adh ...
should be the viewpoint of a genuine civil libertarian, arguing that all
human rights
Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...
are at risk when the rights of one group of people are diminished, that human rights are interconnected, and that people deny others' human rights at their peril.
Anti-Semitism
Hentoff believed
anti-semitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
was rampant.
Social and individual freedom
Hentoff was a
civil libertarian
Civil libertarianism is a strain of political thought that supports civil liberties, or which emphasizes the supremacy of individual rights and personal freedoms over and against any kind of authority (such as a state, a corporation, social no ...
and free speech activist
who opposed abortion and
capital punishment
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
.
The ''
American Conservative
Conservatism in the United States is a political and social philosophy based on a belief in limited government, individualism, traditionalism, republicanism, and limited federal governmental power in relation to U.S. states. Conser ...
'' magazine called him "the only Jewish, atheist, pro-life, libertarian
hawk
Hawks are bird of prey, birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. They are widely distributed and are found on all continents except Antarctica.
* The subfamily Accipitrinae includes goshawks, sparrowhawks, sharp-shinned hawks and others. Th ...
in America."
Although he supported the
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...
for many years, he criticized the organization in 1999 for defending government-enforced
speech codes
A speech code is any rule or regulation that limits, restricts, or bans speech beyond the strict legal limitations upon freedom of speech or press found in the legal definitions of harassment, slander, libel, and fighting words. Such codes are ...
in universities and the workplace. He served on the board of advisors for the
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), formerly known as the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, is a non-profit civil liberties group founded in 1999 with the aim of protecting free speech rights on college campus ...
, another civil liberties group.
His book ''Free Speech for Me—But Not for Thee'' outlined his views on
free speech
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recog ...
and criticized those who favored censorship "in any form."
Vietnam
Hentoff agitated against the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
and
against the United States' participation. Although he said he was a "hardcore
anti-communist
Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...
" since the age of 15, he had "no illusions about the corrupt, undemocratic government of South Vietnam."
After the
war's end ''War's End'' is a journalistic comic about the Bosnian War written by Joe Sacco. It contains two stories; the first, ''Christmas with Karadzic'', about tracking down and meeting the Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić, and the second, ''Soba'', ...
, Hentoff,
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez (; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more ...
, and
Ginetta Sagan
Ginetta Sagan (June 1, 1925 – August 25, 2000) was an Italian-born American human rights activist best known for her work with Amnesty International on behalf of prisoners of conscience.
Born in Milan, Italy, Sagan lost her parents in her teen ...
of
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
repeatedly protested what he called "the horrifying abuses of human rights
ommittedby the Vietnamese Communist regime."
[
]
Middle East
Hentoff defended the existence of the state of Israel. He criticized Israeli policies such as the absence of due process
Due process of law is application by state of all legal rules and principles pertaining to the case so all legal rights that are owed to the person are respected. Due process balances the power of law of the land and protects the individual pers ...
for Palestinians
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
and the 1982 invasion of Lebanon. His opposition to Israel's invasion of Lebanon led three rabbis symbolically to "excommunicate" him from Judaism. He commented, "I would have told them about my life as a heretic, a tradition I keep precisely because I am a Jew."[ He supported the ]2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...
.
War on terror
Hentoff criticized the Clinton administration
Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following a decisive election victory over Re ...
for the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996
The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), , was introduced to the United States Congress in April 1995 as a Senate Bill (). The bill was passed with broad bipartisan support by Congress in response to the bombings of th ...
. He also criticized the Bush administration for "authoritarian" policies such as the Patriot Act
The USA PATRIOT Act (commonly known as the Patriot Act) was a landmark Act of the United States Congress, signed into law by President George W. Bush. The formal name of the statute is the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appro ...
and other civil liberties restrictions legislated through invoking the ostensible need for homeland security
Homeland security is an American national security term for "the national effort to ensure a homeland that is safe, secure, and resilient against terrorism and other hazards where American interests, aspirations, and ways of life can thrive" t ...
.
An ardent critic of the G. W. Bush administration's expansion of presidential power, in 2008 Hentoff called for the new president to deal with the "noxious residue of the Bush-Cheney war against terrorism". According to Hentoff, among the casualties of that war have been "survivors, if they can be found, of CIA secret prisons ('black site
In military terminology, a black site is a location at which an unacknowledged black operation or black project is conducted. According to the Associated Press, "Black sites are clandestine jails where prisoners generally are not charged with ...
s'), victims of CIA kidnapping renditions, and American citizens locked up indefinitely as 'unlawful enemy combatants". He wanted lawyer John Yoo
John Choon Yoo (; born July 10, 1967) is a Korean-born American legal scholar and former government official who serves as the Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. Yoo became known for his legal opinions ...
to be prosecuted for war crimes.
Presidential politics
Hentoff stated that while he had been prepared to support Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
enthusiastically in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, his view changed after looking into Obama's voting record on abortion. During President Obama's first year, Hentoff praised him for ending policies of CIA renditions, but criticized him for failing to end George W. Bush's practice of "state torture" of prisoners.
Awards and honors
Hentoff was named a Guggenheim Fellow
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
in 1972. He won the American Bar Association
The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of acad ...
's Silver Gavel Award
The Silver Gavel Award (also known as the ABA Silver Gavel Awards for Media and The Arts) is an annual award the American Bar Association gives to honor outstanding work by those who help improve comprehension of jurisprudence in the United State ...
in 1980 for his columns on law and criminal justice
Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes. The criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institutions. Goals include the Rehabilitation (penology), rehabilitation of o ...
. In 1983, he was awarded the American Library Association
The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members a ...
's Imroth Award for Intellectual Freedom. In 1985, he received an honorary Doctorate of Laws
A Doctor of Law is a degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country and includes degrees such as the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D), Juris Doctor (J.D.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), and Legum Doctor (LL. ...
from the Northeastern University. In 1995, he was honored with the National Press Foundation
The National Press Foundation is a nonprofit journalism training organization. It educates journalists on complex issues and trains them in reporting tools and techniques. It recognizes and encourages excellence in journalism through its awards.
...
's Award in recognition of his lifetime distinguished contributions to journalism. In 2004, Hentoff was named one of six NEA Jazz Masters
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), every year honors up to seven jazz musicians with Jazz Master Awards. The National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Fellowships are the self-proclaimed highest honors that the United States bestows upon ...
by the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...
, thus becoming the first nonmusician in history to win this award. That same year, the Boston Latin School
The Boston Latin School is a public exam school in Boston, Massachusetts. It was established on April 23, 1635, making it both the oldest public school in the British America and the oldest existing school in the United States. Its curriculum f ...
honored him as alumnus
Alumni (singular: alumnus (masculine) or alumna (feminine)) are former students of a school, college, or university who have either attended or graduated in some fashion from the institution. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for grou ...
of the year. In 2005, he was one of the first recipients of the Human Life Foundation's "Great Defender of Life" award.
Personal life
Hentoff grew up attending an Orthodox
Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to:
Religion
* Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...
synagogue
A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...
in Boston. He recalled that as a youth, he would travel around the city with his father during the High Holidays
The High Holidays also known as the High Holy Days, or Days of Awe in Judaism, more properly known as the Yamim Noraim ( he, יָמִים נוֹרָאִים, ''Yāmīm Nōrāʾīm''; "Days of Awe")
#strictly, the holidays of Rosh HaShanah ("Jew ...
to listen to various cantors
A cantor or chanter is a person who leads people in singing or sometimes in prayer. In formal Jewish worship, a cantor is a person who sings solo verses or passages to which the choir or congregation responds.
In Judaism, a cantor sings and lead ...
and compare notes on their performances. He said cantors made "sacred texts compellingly clear to the heart," and he collected their recordings. In later life, Hentoff was an atheist
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
, and sardonically described himself as "a member of the Proud and Ancient Order of Stiff-Necked Jewish Atheists
This page lists well-known Jewish atheism, Jewish atheists. Based on Jewish law's emphasis on matrilineal descent, religiously conservative Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox Jewish authorities would accept an atheist born to a Jewish mother as Who is ...
". He expressed sympathy for Israel's Peace Now
Peace Now ( he, שלום עכשיו ''Shalom Achshav'', ) is a non-governmental organization, liberal advocacy and activist group in Israel with the aim of promoting a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Objectives/position ...
movement.["Nat Hentoff," in Murray Polner, ''American Jewish Biographies'' (New York: Facts on File, Inc., Lakeville Press, 1982), pp. 168–9.]
Hentoff married three times, first to Miriam Sargent in 1950; the marriage was childless and the couple divorced that same year. His second wife was Trudi Bernstein, whom he married on September 2, 1954, and with whom he had two children, Miranda and Jessica. (Jessica Hentoff is the founder of Circus Harmony, a non-profit social circus and circus school in St. Louis, Missouri.) He divorced his second wife in August 1959. On August 15, 1959, he married his third wife, Margot Goodman, with whom he had two children: Nicholas and Thomas. The couple remained together until he died of natural causes at his Manhattan apartment on January 7, 2017, aged 91.
Books
Non-fiction
* ''Hear Me Talkin' to Ya: The Story of Jazz as Told by the Men who Made it'', with Nat Shapiro. (1955)
* ''The Jazz Makers'', with Nat Shapiro. (1957)
* ''The Jazz Life''. (1961)
* ''Peace Agitator: The Story of A. J. Muste
Abraham Johannes Muste ( ; January 8, 1885 – February 11, 1967) was a Dutch-born American clergyman and political activist. He is best remembered for his work in the labor movement, pacifist movement, antiwar movement, and civil rights movemen ...
''. (1963)
* ''The New Equality''. (1964)
* '' Our Children Are Dying'' (with John Holt). (1967)
* ''A Doctor Among the Addicts: The Story of Marie Nyswander''. (1968)
* ''A Political Life: The Education of John V. Lindsay'' (1969)
* ''Journey into Jazz''. (1971)
* ''Jazz Is''. (1976)
* ''Does Anybody Give a Damn?: Nat Hentoff on Education''. (Random House; 1977)
* ''The First Freedom: The Tumultuous History of Free Speech in America''. (1980)
* ''American Heroes: In and Out of School''. (1987)
* ''John Cardinal O'Connor
John Joseph O'Connor (January 15, 1920 – May 3, 2000) was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of New York from 1984 until his death in 2000, and was made a cardinal in 1985. He previously served as a U. ...
: At the Storm Center of a Changing American Catholic Church''. (1988)
* ''Free Speech for Me—But Not for Thee: How the American Left and Right Relentlessly Censor Each Other''. (1993)
* ''Listen to the Stories: Nat Hentoff on Jazz and Country Music''. (1995)
* ''Living the Bill of Rights: How to Be an Authentic American''. (1999)
* ''The War on the Bill of Rights and the Gathering Resistance''. (2004)
* ''American Music Is''. (2004)
Novels
* ''Jazz Country''. (1965)
* ''Call the Keeper''. (1966)
* ''Onwards!'' (1968)
* ''I'm Really Dragged But Nothing Gets Me Down'' (1968)
* ''This School is Driving Me Crazy''. (1976)
* ''Does This School Have Capital Punishment?'' (1982)
* ''Blues for Charlie Darwin''. (1982)
* ''The Day They Came To Arrest The Book''. (1983)
* ''The Man from Internal Affairs''. (1985)
Memoirs
* ''Boston Boy: Growing Up With Jazz and Other Rebellious Passions''. (1986)
* ''Speaking Freely: A Memoir''. (1997)
Compilations
* ''The Nat Hentoff Reader''. (2001)
Edited volumes
* ''Hear Me Talkin' to Ya: The Story of Jazz by the Men Who Made It'' (with Nat Shapiro). (1955)
* ''Black Anti-Semitism and Jewish Racism''. (1969)
* ''Jazz: New Perspectives on the History of Jazz by Twelve of the World's Foremost Jazz Critics and Scholars''. (with Albert McCarthy
Albert J. McCarthy (1920 – 3 November 1987 London) was an English jazz and blues discographer, critic, historian, and editor.
McCarthy began listening to jazz in his teens, and edited publications of the Jazz Sociological Society in the 1940s. ...
) (1975)
References
Bibliography
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hentoff, Nat
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