Gertrude Himmelfarb, a historian and author, as well as an influential conservative
writer, has died at 97.
She focused much of her work on Victorian Britain, but also dedicated two books — “The Jewish Odyssey of George Eliot” and “The People of the Book” — to discussing attitudes toward Jews, Judaism and Zionism in English history, The Jewish Chronicle of London wrote in an obituary.
She was professor emerita of history at the City University of New York.
Himmelfarb was married to the late Irving Kristol, an American journalist and “Godfather of Modern Conservativism.”
Kristol, who died in 2009, was an influential architect of the neoconservative movement in the United States in the 1960s and ’70s.
Her son Bill is a leading voice of American conservatives and a frequent commentator on several networks. Kristol, a chief of staff for former vice president Dan Quayle, is a frequent critic of President Donald Trump.
Himmelfarb, who died in Washington on Dec. 30 was born in Brooklyn, to a Russian Jewish family.
—JTA News and Features
