Episodes

Antisemitism has deep roots in American history. Yet in the United States, we often talk about it as if it were something new. We’re shocked when events happen like the Tree of Life Shootings in Pittsburgh or the Unite the Right Rally in...

Before the American Revolution, Sephardic Jews like Aaron Lopez found economic opportunity and religious freedom in Newport, Rhode Island, but not full citizenship, nor the right to vote. What promise did an independent United States hold for American...

In 1809, North Carolina lawmakers tried to stop Jacob Henry from taking his seat in the state legislature because he was Jewish. Many Americans believed that Jews like Henry couldn’t be moral citizens in a Protestant America, and this inspired them...

The California gold rush enticed many Jewish merchants west in search of prosperity in the mid-19th century, but their success drew unwelcome attention from state legislators, who passed laws requiring all businesses to close on the Christian Sabbath....

In Gilded Age America, immigration from Europe rapidly grew the nation’s Jewish population, convincing many Americans that Jews were a dangerous and undesirable race. As lawmakers debated ways to restrict immigration, business owners denied service...

At the turn of the 20th century, conspiracy theories about Jews ran rampant in American society. Many Americans – from the famed automaker Henry Ford and to officers in the U.S. Army – believed that Jews controlled media, dominated international...

Despite the rise of Nazi Germany in the 1930s and the threat of renewed war in Europe, most Americans remained resolutely opposed to higher levels of Jewish immigration. Even as Jews faced persecution and genocide, antisemitic beliefs delayed American...

In post-war America, Bess Myerson became the first Jewish woman to win the Miss America competition, but she confronted bigotry and exclusion far more daunting than any pageant. Meanwhile, changing demographics of urban neighborhoods and the emerging...

In the early 1970s, two powerful men, President Richard Nixon and evangelist Billy Graham, held secret Oval Office conversations about Jews. “America’s Pastor” and the 37th President of the United States didn’t consider themselves antisemites,...

In the decades following the Six-Day War in 1967, anti-Zionism gained momentum in American academia and led to the rise of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement on college campuses. Nearly sixty years later, the October 7, 2023, Hamas...

In August 2017, white supremacists marched on Charlottesville, VA to silence the Jews, Black Americans, and other minorities whom they feared would “replace us.” The Unite the Right Rally was one of many ominous signs of persistent antisemitic...