Joseph Nathan Ulman collection

Joseph Nathan Ulman was a United States lawyer and jurist. Ulman, who was born in Baltimore, Maryland, taught at the University of Maryland Law School during 1908–1928 and served as judge of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore from 1924. As a judge, he advocated modernization of the state's divorce laws (1932), and a year later he wrote A Judge Takes the Stand, in which he discussed justice in Maryland, based on specific cases he had tried. About the same time, he told a convention of lawyers that the country's penal system "would be ludicrous if it were not so tragic." President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him head of a committee to study prison labor, then appointed him chairman of the newly-created Prison Industries Reorganization Board (1934–36), where he acted as a mediator in disputes concerning privately- and prison-made goods. Ulman was also active in civic affairs, serving as president of the Hebrew Benevolent Society (1925–28), president of the Baltimore Urban League (1931–34), and vice president of the Baltimore branch of the American Jewish Congress (1937–41).