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review September 2026

Credit where it’s due: Jewish immigrant bankers and American finance

Review by Zachary Mazur
Black-and-white photograph taken from above of a large crowd of depositors under umbrellas in the rain outside the failed Bank of United States in New York, around 1930–31. Many hold protest placards with slogans such as "Pay small depositors first in full," "Tax stockholders," "U.S. Government liable – name was bank's," and "No evictions for non-payment of rent."
In Credit to the Nation (Harvard University Press, 2026), Rebecca Kobrin shows how Eastern European Jewish immigrant bankers transformed commercial banking in the United States by extending credit to those whom traditional lenders would not serve. Zachary Mazur calls it an original, timely study that reveals how the judgment of financial risk depends on who is taking it.
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