Max Dimont

Max I. Dimont.

Max Isaac Dimont (12 August 1912 – 25 March 1992) was a Finnish American historian and author.

Early life

Raised in a Jewish family in Helsinki, Grand Duchy of Finland, Dimont came to the United States in August 1929 with his mother and his siblings. On the steerage passenger list of their ship, SS Berengaria his place of birth is listed as Kovno, Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire.

On arrival, he was sent to the Ellis Island hospital after being certified as suffering from "simple goiter." He was discharged on August 10 and the family set out for Cleveland, Ohio.

He taught himself the English language by reading Shakespeare, the King James version of the Bible, and American plays.

Career

After serving with U.S. Army intelligence in World War II, Dimont worked in public relations and human resources for Edison Brothers Stores in St. Louis, Missouri.

In 1962, he published Jews, God and History, which received critical acclaim and has sold over 1.5 million copies. The Los Angeles Times has praised the book as "unquestionably the best popular history of the Jews written in the English language." After its publication, he traveled and lectured extensively on Jewish history throughout the United States, Canada, South Africa, Brazil, and Finland.

Other works include The Indestructible Jews, The Jews in America, and Appointment in Jerusalem.

Death and legacy

Dimont died in 1992 in St. Louis, Missouri. He had been at work on a second edition of Jews, God and History which was not yet finished. His wife, Ethel, who had worked with him on this since 1955, completed his work after his death and published the second edition in 1994, with the assistance of their daughter, Gail Goldey.

Works

• Jews, God and History
• The indestructible Jews: is there a manifest destiny in Jewish history?
• The Jews in America: The roots, history, and destiny of American Jews
• Amazing Adventures of the Jewish People
• Appointment in Jerusalem: A Search for the Historical Jesus