A Jewish Sculptor with a Complicated Legacy

Over the past few months, the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) has been in the news, spurred by a Washington Post exposé of widespread racism at the institute and prompting Virginia’s governor to order an independent investigation of the allegations. In the short term, campus officials agreed to something of a Band-Aid to address the charges of bigotry leveled at the school—the removal of a large statue of Confederate Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson from the center of campus. Therein lies an intriguing tale of the monument’s history and making, and of the greatest Jewish artist of the Confederacy.