Berman, Hyman (1925–2015)

Hyman Berman was a University of Minnesota history professor and a popular public historian known widely for his contributions to the Almanac public affairs program on Twin Cities PBS. Although his earliest scholarship focused on labor history, upon arriving in Minnesota in 1961 Berman wrote extensively about Minnesota’s immigrant history, the state’s political parties, and the Jewish experience in Minnesota.

The son of Polish, Jewish immigrants, Hyman Berman was born on February 20, 1925, in New York, and spoke Yiddish almost exclusively until he was five years old. His father, David, was a labor activist in the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union. David was kicked out of the union for his criticism of its leadership. Berman’s mother, Yetta, identified herself as being even more left-wing than her husband.

As a child, Berman was influenced by Communist Party-affiliated organizations, most notably Camp Kinderland, a summer camp for the children of socialist-leaning parents. Berman eventually became a counselor at the camp, a stint that earned him a mention by an informer to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1955.

After serving in the US Army during World War II and graduating from New York’s City College, Berman became disillusioned with the Communist Party. That distance was triggered by his realization of the repression of the Stalin regime, particularly its virulent antisemitism.

Berman’s progressive views evolved into a dyed-in-the-wool New Deal Democrat position with strong support for labor unions and, once he arrived in Minnesota, a deep affection for and connection with the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party.

Berman was married to Betty Silbering, a Holocaust survivor and librarian, in 1950. They had three children. One, a daughter, died in 1971 at age seven, something Berman called “the heaviest personal psychological blow I’ve ever received in my life.”

After earning his PhD from Columbia University—his dissertation was about the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union—Berman taught briefly in New York-area colleges and at Michigan State University before joining the University of Minnesota’s history department in the fall of 1961. Soon after, he became part of a team of University scholars who embedded themselves on the Iron Range to study the lives and cultures of the region’s immigrant populations. During this period, Berman befriended an aspiring politician from Hibbing, dentist Rudy Perpich. That friendship led Berman to become an advisor to Perpich as the politician’s career progressed from two terms in the state senate to two terms as Minnesota’s governor.

Berman’s expertise in American labor history allowed him to create an international niche, teaching and lecturing about US worker history in, among other places, India, Israel, Germany, and China. He also was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1967 and 1968.

Known for his compelling and entertaining classroom lectures, Berman amplified his knowledge and showmanship via radio and television. He often appeared as a commentator on election nights to place current events into an understandable historic context. TPT’s Almanac was his most frequent stage, but he also narrated a handful of public television documentaries, was a frequent guest on Minnesota Public Radio, and wrote regular opinion pieces in the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

An active University of Minnesota citizen, Berman worked to form a professors’ union (an effort that failed), served regularly on key faculty governance committees, helped establish curricula in African American, Latino, and women’s studies, and advocated for philanthropy to the U of M.

His high profile often placed Berman at the center of news himself, such as when in 1977 he was appointed by Perpich to be a member of the committee to select Minnesota’s first woman Supreme Court justice, Rosalie Wahl. Berman also crossed paths with, and befriended, a wide range of elected officials, such as Wendell Anderson, Hubert Humphrey, Harold Stassen, and Paul Wellstone.

Berman retired from the University in 2004, but he remained in public view via Almanac and media interviews for another decade. He died on November 29, 2015, at the age of ninety after a brief illness. He is buried in Temple Israel’s Memorial Park cemetery in South Minneapolis.