Hadassah Magazine published an essay by Pamela Nadell tracing how American Jews, from Gershom Seixas in the founding era to the Samuel and Lemann families in later generations, have navigated an “ambivalent embrace,” gaining unprecedented opportunity while facing pressure to dilute Jewish identity to belong.
Read the full article here: Hadassah Magazine – Compromise and Hard Choices for Jews in America
Pamela Nadell, professor and Patrick Clendenen Chair in women’s and Gender History at American University, is a historian specializing in American Jewish history antisemitism. She authored America’s Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today, winner of the 2019 National Jewish Book Award’s “Jewish Book of the Year.” Her new book Antisemitism, An American Tradition will be published on October 14, 2025 (W.W. Norton) and was supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholars Award.
Nadell also wrote Women Who Would be Rabbis, which was a finalist for a National Jewish Book Award in Women’s Studies, and has consulted for museums, including Philadelphia’s Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, Pittsburgh’s rebuild of the Tree of Life Congregation, and Tel Aviv’s ANU: The Museum of the Jewish People. A past president of the Association for Jewish Studies, she lectures widely and teaches courses on antisemitism, the Holocaust, and American Jewish History. She has testified before Congress three times and was the fourth witness in the congressional hearing with the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and University of Pennsylvania.
Do you have a question or an inquiry? Whether you’re interested in booking a lecture, discussing my work, or reaching out for media or scholarly collaborations, I welcome your message. Please click here to contact me.