[1] Epstein replaced Richard Gutstadt, the national director from 1931 to 1948,[3] part of a broader generational shift in which Gustadt's crowd of German, Jewish particularist gradualists gave way to Epstein's younger cohort of eastern European, universalist, activist leaders.[4] In assuming leadership, Epstein changed tactics to favor aggression in pursuit of fighting antisemitism and Nazism in the United States.Epstein went to investigate, and he learned that then-journalist, future senator Alan Cranston had commissioned the translation.Cranston had been shocked that the available English translations of Mein Kampf left out the worst of Hitler's antisemitism and militancy.At time of his death in 1983, Epstein was survived by his wife Ethel, his children David and Ellen, and five grandchildren.