University News

In Memoriam: Jules Chametzky

Jules Chametzky, professor emeritus, died Thursday, Sept. 23 in Amherst, Massachusetts. He was 93.

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NEWS Jules Chametzky
Jules Chametzky

An expert in American Jewish and ethnic literatures, Chametzky’s books include “Out of Brownsville,” “From the Ghetto: The Fiction of Abraham Cahan,” “Our Decentralized Literature,” and “Jewish-American Literature: A Norton Anthology;” he received the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States (MELUS) Award for Distinguished Contribution to Ethnic Studies in 1995. A founder and for many years the editor of the “Massachusetts Review,” Chametzky taught at the University of Massachusetts Amherst from 1958 and at universities in Zagreb, Venice, Berlin, Copenhagen, Freiburg and Tübingen.

In 2010, the Massachusetts Review established an annual Jules Chametzky Translation Prize, awarded to a translation published in the magazine, to honor both Chametzky’s role at the Massachusetts Review and his contributions in advancing cross-cultural understanding. In 1969 he and his UMass colleague Sidney Kaplan edited “Black & White in American Culture,” an anthology of essays and stories from the Massachusetts Review’s first ten years, dedicated to Martin Luther King, Jr. The critic Julius Lester wrote about this book in the New York Times, “... this collection is more than a documentary. It is an exciting book, with a higher degree of relevance to an America on the eve of a second Civil War than almost any book of its kind.”  Retired Harvard University professor Werner Sollors wrote in an email that “[Jules] not only gave me a research agenda for decades but also a model of an engaged, somewhat egalitarian, at times tentative-seeming teaching and speaking style that, however, in reality firmly guided students toward responsible scholarship, of which his own work was a model.”

Lee R. Edwards, former Dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts said that “Jules Chametzky, through his personal scholarship, teaching, and mentoring; his institution building with, among others, the Massachusetts Review, the University Press, and the Massachusetts Society of Professors; his pushing for the establishment of departments of Afro-American Studies, Women’s Studies, and Judaic Studies; and his service in literally every initiative that increased diversity at the University, did more over the years than any other single individual to transform the sleepy backwater at which he arrived into today’s vibrant, thriving, and mature campus of which all citizens of the Commonwealth can be justly proud, feel truly belongs to them, and at which they fully belong. We are all in his debt.” 

Generations of students testified not only to Chametzky’s intellectual depth and breadth and firm but kind counsel but also to his unbounded humanity and decency.

In an email, John P. (Jack) Polidori, Chametzky’s trusted advisor and dear friend from the Massachusetts Teachers Association, said of him, “He was union to the core. Without Jules, there would be no faculty-librarian union at UMass. At a moment of crisis, he provided the essential leadership that helped to secure the first contract and stave off the anti-union forces."

Jules Chametzky was born May 24, 1928 to Beny and Anna (Zweig) Chametzky,. He had an older brother, Leslie.

Chametzky graduated from Brooklyn Tech high school, and, in 1950, from Brooklyn College. Chametzky did his graduate work in English at the University of Minnesota, earning his Ph.D. in 1958 with a dissertation on Elizabethan drama and where he studied with noted scholars in American Studies such as Henry Nash Smith and Leo Marx.

Chametzky was predeacsed by his wife of over 50 years, Anne Halley. He is survived by his three children: Matthew, Robert, and Peter; six grandchildren; and his partner for the last thirteen years, Joann Kobin. In her words: “The relationship came late in both our lives, after long and strong marriages. It was a great gift that brought him -- and us -- unexpected happiness and joy.”

At his request, a “green,” Jewish burial was held at Wildwood Cemetery in Amherst on Sept. 27. A Memorial Service will be held at the University of Massachusetts on a date to be determined.