Ernest and his father, mother, and sister all left Nazi Germany in 1934. His father, previously arrested, had escaped from Buchenwald and spent the war in hiding with a Dutch family. The rest of the family finally reunited with him after World War II.

Ernest transferred to Princeton from CCNY in March 1946. He majored in SPIA, earned his Phi Beta Kappa key, and was the co-manager of The Daily Princetonian. He belonged to Whig-Clio, Nassau Lit, Hillel, the Student Hebrew Association, and Prospect Club.

After earning a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Columbia, Ernest began his academic career focused on Jewish life and culture. He was associated with many Jewish institutions in New York, Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem, chief among which were the Jewish Agency and Brandeis University. He published at least seven scholarly books and articles during this time, assuring his reputation as a leading scholar in the field of Jewish political studies.

Ernest married his Israeli-born wife, Bracha, in 1951, and they have a son, Adlai, and two granddaughters. We salute Ernest’s and the family’s remarkable story and offer our condolences to all of them.