page_title: Erasmus Hall High School
section_title: 20th century
hierarchical_section_title: Erasmus Hall High School / Notable alumni / 20th century
caption_attribution_description: Promotional photo of Barbra Streisand
context_page_description: Erasmus Hall High School was a four-year public high school located at 899-925 Flatbush Avenue between Church and Snyder avenues in the Flatbush neighborhood of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It was founded in 1786 as Erasmus Hall Academy, a private institution of higher learning named for the scholar Desiderius Erasmus, known as Erasmus of Rotterdam, a Dutch Renaissance humanist and Catholic Christian theologian. The school was the first secondary school chartered by the New York State Regents. The clapboard-sided, Georgian-Federal-style building, constructed on land donated by the Flatbush Reformed Dutch Church, was turned over to the public school system in 1896.
  Around the start of the 20th century, Brooklyn experienced a rapidly growing population, and the original small school was enlarged with the addition of several wings and the purchase of several nearby buildings. In 1904, the Board of Education began a new building campaign to meet the needs of the burgeoning student population. The Superintendent of School Buildings, architect C. B. J.
context_section_description: Rebecca Alpert (born 1950), professor of Jewish American religious history who was one of the first congregational women rabbis
  Mary Anderson, silent film actress
  Irving Anker (1911–2000), educator and administrator
  Herbert Aptheker (1915—2003), Marxist historian, Communist and political activist
  Bob Arum, boxing promoter.
  David Attie, photographer, who later shot portraits of fellow Erasmus Hall alumnus Bobby Fischer
  Tony Balsamo (1931), Major League Baseball Pitcher for the Chicago Cubs
  Joseph Barbera (1928); artist; cartoonist; co-founder of Hanna-Barbera.
  Sylvan Barnet (1926–2016), literary critic and Shakespearean scholar
  Jeff Barry (Joel Adelberg) (1955); songwriter/producer; Songwriters Hall of Fame member
  Louis Begley (born 1933), Polish-born American novelist
  Karen Bernod, singer
  Miriam Bienstock (1923–2015), record company executive
  Morton Birnbaum (1926–2005), lawyer and physician
  Julius Blank (1925–2011), semiconductor pioneer
  Clara Bow, silent film actress
  Oscar Brand (1920– 2016), Canadian-born American folk singer-songwriter and author
  Alvin Bronstein (1928–2015), lawyer, founder and Director Emeritus of the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation
  Carol Bruce, actress and singer
  Phillip Brutus, Florida politician
  Artie Butler, music arranger and songwriter
  Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum, Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
  Theodore Caplow (1920-2015); sociologist, author, founder of the Department of Sociology at the University of Virginia
  Jeff Chandler (Ira Grossel) (1935); actor
  Andrew Cheshire (1981); artist/musician
  Hy Cohen, Major League Baseball player
  Karl P. Cohen (1913–2012), physical chemist who became a mathematical physicist
  Steven M. Cohen (born 1950), sociologist
  Al Cohn, tenor saxophonist
  Betty Comden (1933); playwright; Broadway musical songwriter with Adolph Green.
  Jane Cowl (1902); actress, playwright (original name Grace Bailey).
  Billy Cunningham (1961); player and coach, Philadelphia '76ers basketball team.
  Jon Cypher (1949); actor (Hill Street Blues)
  Al Davis (c.1947); Oakland Raiders owner, Pro Football Hall of Fame member.
  Clive Davis (1949); Grammy Award winning record producer; Chairman & CEO BMG North America; founder of Arista Records
  Elaine de Kooning; painter
  Neil Diamond, attended Erasmus from 1954–56; singer/songwriter.
  Will Downing (1981); singer
  Mort Drucker (born 1929), caricaturist and comics artist
  Norm Drucker, professional basketball official.
  Bobby Fischer (dropped out in 1960); chess champion.
  Jim Florio (1964); former Governor of New Jersey.
  Dave Getz (1957); drummer Big Brother and the Holding Company
  Theresa Goell, archaeologist
  Jonah Goldman, major league baseball player
  Deborah Grabien (c. 1971); novelist/essayist; musician and songwriter.
  Earl G. Graves (1952); publisher of Black Enterprise magazine
  Clement Greenberg (1909–1994), essayist
  William Lindsay Gresham (1909–1962), novelist and non-fiction author
  Arno Gruen, psychoanalyst, psychologist and writer
  Susan Hayward (Edythe Marrenner), (1935); Oscar-winning actress
  Mel Holder (1978), Grammy-nominated saxophonist/songwriter/author/pastor
  Eleanor Holm (1932); Olympic swimmer
  Mikhail Horowitz (born 1950), poet, parodist, satirist, social commentator, author and editor.
  Moe Howard (Moses Harry Horwitz), (dropped out after two months, 1915) member of the Three Stooges comedy team
  Waite Hoyt, Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher for the New York Yankees and long-time broadcaster for the Cincinnati Reds.
  Stanley Edgar Hyman (c. 1933); literary critic; husband of Shirley Jackson.
  Marty Ingels, comedian; husband of Shirley Jones.
  Ned Irish (1924); organizer of first Madison Square Garden basketball tournament (1934); founder of the New York Knicks; president, Madison Square Garden; member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.
  Roger Kahn (1945); sportswriter, author of several books including The Boys of Summer.
  Tom Kahn (1956); leader of the civil rights, social-democratic, and labor movements.
  Eric Kandel (1944); winner of Nobel Prize for Medicine or 
caption: Barbra Streisand
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