Cleveland author aims to rescue Jewish Confederate artist from culture wars

Moses Jacob Ezekiel was a long-forgotten 19 th century artist until the culture wars of the 21 st century caught up with him.

As a Jew who fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War before creating Jim Crow monuments that are now controversial, he possessed an unlikely mix of identities and accomplishments.

Today, he’s a hot topic more for his loyalty to the Southern “Lost Cause’’ than for his artistic merits.

That’s one reason Cleveland State University art historian Samantha Baskind wrote a new book about him. She wants Ezekiel (1844-1917) seen in his entirety, not merely “whipsawed,’’ as she put it, between antagonists on both sides of the political spectrum.

“He was controversial in the liberal cancel culture of the first half of this decade,’’ Baskind said in a recent intervi