Tag: Antisemitism an American Tradition Book

The powerful story of antisemitism in America and how it has shaped the lives of Jews for almost four centuries. In 1654, when the first Jews landed in New Amsterdam, Governor Peter Stuyvesant tried to expel them. The founding of the US changed little as negative European stereotypes were rooted into American soil. Jews faced restrictions on holding office, admission to schools, and employment in industry. Their synagogues and cemeteries were vandalized. Recently, white nationalists chanted “Jews will not replace us” in Charlottesville, Virginia; a gunman killed eleven members at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue building; and college students opposing Israel’s war with Gaza have attacked Jewish students on campus whether or not they support Israel. In Antisemitism, an American Tradition, scholar Pamela S. Nadell investigates the depth of this fraught history. She explores how Jews fought antisemitism through the law and by creating organizations to speak for them. Jews would also fight back with their fists and join with allies to stand up to all expressions of hate. This momentous work sounds the alarm on a hatred that continues to plague our country.