Lion Koppman, who wrote numerous books on American Jewish history, folklore and travel, died in San Diego on May 1 at the age of 88.
Koppman’s books of Jewish Americana started with “A Jewish Tourist’s Guide to the United States,” co-authored with Bernard Postal and published in 1954 by the Jewish Publication Society of America.
The book received awards from the Jewish Book Council and American-Jewish Tercentenary Committee, which cited it for “contributing to the literature of American-Jewish history on the 300th anniversary of Jewish settlement in the U.S.”
That book led to “Jewish Landmarks of New York,” the updated four-volume “American Jewish Landmarks” and the spin-off “Guess Who’s Jewish in American History,” all co-authored with Postal.
Koppman also co-authored “A Treasury of American-Jewish Folklore” with his son, Steve Koppman.
Born in Waco, Texas, in 1920, Koppman attended Waco’s Baptist Baylor University, where he became news editor of the Daily Lariat and graduated in 1942 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. He worked as a reporter for newspapers in Waco and nearby Temple, Texas.
Classified as ineligible for military service during World War II due to asthma, but wanting to contribute to the war effort, he moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked for the War Department’s Surgeon General’s Office, editing medical bulletins.
Introduced by his sister Martha to Postal, her then-boss at B’nai Brith in Washington, Koppman was hired as assistant PR director at the organization. He later moved with Postal to the National Jewish Welfare Board in New York, where he worked for 40 years, serving as director of publications and public information and executive editor of JWB Circle, the agency’s magazine.
Before a 2004 diagnosis of congestive heart failure, Koppman and his wife, Mae, lived part of the year in Oakland, where their son, daughter and granddaughters reside.
For over a decade, Koppman was managing editor of the Jewish Digest, a monthly Reader’s Digest–type magazine focusing on the Jewish world.
Also an educator, Koppman received a master’s degree in religious education in 1969, after nine years of night school from Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. He taught Sunday school in Queens for 25 years, and contributed articles on Jewish history and other Jewish subjects to “The Dictionary of Bible and Religion.”
The youngest of four children, and the only surviving son of immigrants from Latvia and Byelo-russia, Koppman was deeply affected by anti-Semitism he encountered growing up in Texas.
Originally given the name Aryeh Leib, and needing an English name to start school, he was given the name Lionel. A longtime Scrabble enthusiast, after realizing the name Lionel anagrammed into “ill one” following a string of serious illnesses in 1988, he shortened it to Lion, the literal translation of his original names.
He developed an interest in lions that culminated in “Ari Among the Lions,” a children’s book he and his daughter, Debbie, co-published in 2007.
He is survived by his wife, Mae, of San Diego, son Steve, daughter Debbie, granddaughters Sharon Koppman and Julia Koppman Norton, all of Oakland; and sister, Martha Greenhood, of San Francisco.
Interment and funeral services May 3 were with Am Israel Mortuary in El Camino Memorial Park, San Diego.