Bertram Wallace Korn, was an historian and rabbi

Rabbi

In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...

. He attended the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

, Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

 and the University of Cincinnati

University of Cincinnati

The University of Cincinnati is a comprehensive public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a part of the University System of Ohio....

, and received an M.H.L. degree from the Hebrew Union College

Hebrew Union College

The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is the oldest extant Jewish seminary in the Americas and the main seminary for training rabbis, cantors, educators and communal workers in Reform Judaism.HUC-JIR has campuses in Cincinnati, New York, Los Angeles and Jerusalem.The Jerusalem...

-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati (where he was ordained a rabbi), also receiving a D.H.L. degree from the College-Institute.

In 1944, Korn enlisted in the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 as a lieutenant in the Chaplain's Corps, where he was assigned to China with the 1st and 6th Marine Divisions. In 1975, he was promoted to Rear Admiral

Rear admiral (United States)

Rear admiral is a naval commissioned officer rank above that of a commodore and captain, and below that of a vice admiral. The uniformed services of the United States are unique in having two grades of rear admirals.- Rear admiral :...

 in the Chaplains Corps, U.S. Naval Reserve, the first Jewish chaplain to receive flag rank in any of the United States armed forces.

Korn wrote twelve books on American Jewish History, the most famous being American Jewry and the Civil War, in 1951. Other books by Korn include: The Jews of Mobile, Alabama, 1763-1841 (1971); Benjamin Levy: New Orleans Printer and Publisher (1961); Jews and Negro Slavery in the Old South, 1789-1865 (1961); The American Reaction to the Mortara Case: 1858-1859 (1957); and The Early Jews of New Orleans (1969). Korn was also the president of the American Historical Society.

Korn had two children, Judith Carole and Bertram Wallace, Jr.