Remembering Allan Brownfeld

A tribute to a mentor, a gentleman, and a fierce defender of civil rights and human dignity.

For any writer, losing a mentor is a painful moment, and such was the case when I found out that Allan Brownfeld had died on August 4, 2025, at 85 years old. Allan passed so quietly that I missed the news at the time. I fear many others did as well. I did not want his passing to go by without writing a tribute. The end of any friendship causes moments of reckoning and gratitude, but Allan in particular will be sorely missed. I agree with this: It is how we learn that matters, and it makes life more interesting. Allan knew how to learn. Who was Allan Brownfeld? His resume is stellar: syndicated columnist; longtime writer for the St. Croix Review; popular speaker here and abroad; expert on the Middle East; staffer for a vice president, for congressmen, and for the U.S. Senate Internal Subcommittee; editor of respected journals like The Lincoln Review and Issues. His books included Hung Up On Freedom (1969); The New Left (1978); Dossier on Douglas (1970); co-author with Jay Parker of What the Negro Can Do About Crime (1974); and co-author with J. Michael Waller of The Revolution Lobby (1984). He was a fiscal conservative and, as time passed, a social liberal. According to the beautiful tribute his son Peter wrote for the American Council for Judaism, a group Brownfeld worked with for decades, Allan’s Jewish grandparents immigrated from Lithuania and Poland to New Jersey and New York. Hardworking and dreaming of a better life for their children, they embraced the land of the free and home of the brave, and family members like Allan thrived as he grew up in Brooklyn. Education was first and foremost. Brownfeld attended the College of William and Mary, where he became involved in politics and journalism and wrote for the student newspaper. He eventually attended law school at his alma mater, but never practiced because his passions were the power of the written word and statecraft. Civil rights were fiercely important to Allan, and he defended blacks and American Indians ...