Baseball, apple pie, mom and hatred of Jews? Is that prejudice so deeply woven into American history? Sadly, as Pamela S. Nadell writes in Antisemitism, An American Tradition, the “persistence of old ideas about evil Jews and the evolution of new ones” has been and remains a “powerful American tradition.”
Nadell is exactly the right expert to shine a light on this shameful history. A professor at American University where she holds a chair in Women’s and Gender History and leads the Jewish Studies program, Nadell is recognized in academia and respected as a public intellectural. A prolific scholar, she has testified before Congress several times, most recently in 2023 about antisemitism on college campuses. Antisemitism is an accessible work, grounded in serious research, equally appropriate in a graduate school classroom or a public library.
The feel-good history of Jews in America tells a story of waves of immigration, security from the pogroms and prejudices of Europe, and access to education, identity and success. Many Jews lived and exemplified the American dream. Nadell acknowledges and celebrates this “classic arc.” However, a close look a the country’s history, from Colonial times to the present, reveals a counter narrative. Nadell moves deftly through the centuries, folding individual accounts and events into broader themes of persistence prejudice, repression and conflict. The book stands as a much needed corrective to the idea that antisemitism is foreign to America. The facts she marshals in this book are compelling and deeply troubling.
Antisemitism begins with an account Peter Stuyvesant in 1654, who wrote to the Dutch about the danger of Jews coming to New Amsterdam. Nadell provides background on the lengthy history of European prejudice against Jews. It is important to remember that just as Columbus “discovered” the Americas in 1492, Jews were simultaneously banished from Spain. In colonial America, Jews in some towns and provinces had some rights. In many places, though, they did not and laws were passed that specifically constrained Jews and their way of life. Many of these regulations remained in effect for centuries (think about Sabbath laws as an example). The new republic offered more opportunities for Jews, particularly with President Washington’s well-documented desire to affirm a vision of the nation with no bigotry. By 1840, approximately 15,000 Jews lived in the United States.
The Civil War and all of the crises that came with the period brought more opportunities for Jewish people and for antisemitism. Jewish service in the military was contested in the Union and Confederacy. Complaints about Jewish peddlers and suppliers led to formal and informal actions, including an order issued by General Grant expelling Jews from a captured territory. That order was countermanded by President Lincoln. Antisemitism was a national concern. Jews were blamed for smuggling, speculation and profiteering. Those complaints remained potent in the decades after the war. By the 1870s, the rise of Jewish bankers fed conspiracy theories and antisemitic arguments.
Even as some Jews gained wealth and status, Jews were barred from hotels and clubs. In 1877 the Grand Union Hotel in Saratoga prohibited the family of Joseph Seligman, a wealth banker, from staying. It became a flashpoint in antisemitism and was covered extensively by the national press. Two years later the American Society for the Suppression of the Jews met in the same hotel. Nadell provides example after example, from housing to schools to employment, of the many ways that Jews were discriminated againts. As the number of Jewish immigrants increased, though, so did Jewish organizations to secure rights. By 1900 approximately one million Jews lived in the US.
The start of the new century witnessed a concomitant rise in organized racism, discrimination and prejudices that specifically included antisemitism. Nadell’s account is strong on the lynching of Leo Frank in Atlanta, the conflation of Jews with anti-American sentiment, and the creation of the Protocols of Zion, one of the most influential works of fiction to drive hatred of Jews. Despite advances for many Jews, antisemitism, public and private, remained potent. We learn about riots, protests, violence and institutional antisemitism in the twentieth century right up until the present day. The penultimate chapter is titled “No Age is Golden.”
Politics of the twenty-first century have proven equally fraught, especially as criticism of Israeli policies often intertwines with antisemitism. Nadell is clear about the impact on college campuses: Jewish students and faculty experience what they perceived as antisemitism not matter what others called it. 2016 was a turning point; incidents of antisemitism became significantly more frequent. Violence, murders such as the Tree of Life killings in Pittsburgh, the rise of white nationalists, and wide spreading conspiracy theories all indicate antisemitism on the rise.
History, done well, gives us a better understanding of the choices, actions and events that shape our today. It challenges us to think about what has happened, not about what wish had happened. Pamela Nadell does history well. Her book is a sobering reminder of how prevalent and persistent antisemitism has been in America.
David Potash