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Antisemitism, an American Tradition

Pamela S. Nadell

$52.95

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English
Norton
07 December 2025
Jews experienced antisemitism the moment they landed on what would become the United States. When they first arrived in New Amsterdam in 1654, Peter Stuyvesant tried but failed to deport them. As historian Pamela S. Nadell tells in Antisemitism, an American Tradition, this was only antisemitism's beginning on our shores, as negative European stereotypes about Jews rooted into American soil.

Compared with the Old World, with its expulsions, Inquisition, ghettos, and Holocaust, America's Jews have a different history-but one where antisemitism, even if it has had fewer dramatic eruptions, is deeply embedded. Jews in America faced restrictions on holding office and getting financial credit. Universities set quotas to limit the number of Jews attending and businesses refused to hire them. Jews endured verbal and physical attacks, and their synagogues and cemeteries, continuing to this day, were vandalized and desecrated.

Antisemitism, an American Tradition investigates the depths of this fraught history and its recent manifestations: white nationalists chanting ""Jews will not replace us"" in Charlottesville, Virginia, and a gunman murdering eleven worshippers at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue building.

Nadell also shows Jews responding to prejudice and hate. America's Jews created advocacy organizations. They turned to the courts to safeguard their constitutional rights. They made common cause with allies to confront all types of hate. They even used their fists when needed.

At a time when prejudice, discrimination, and hate against Jews is flaring across the country, Antisemitism, an American Tradition argues that we must understand the past. This momentous work reveals how antisemitism-and resistance to that hatred-endures, representing not a rupture from America's history, but a centuries-old legacy.
By:  
Imprint:   Norton
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 236mm,  Width: 160mm,  Spine: 28mm
Weight:   611g
ISBN:   9781324050643
ISBN 10:   1324050640
Pages:   352
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming

Pamela S. Nadell holds the Patrick Clendenen Chair in Women’s and Gender History and directs the Jewish Studies Program at American University. Her works include America’s Jewish Women, winner of the 2019 National Jewish Book Award’s Jewish Book of the Year, and Women Who Would Be Rabbis. Past president of the Association for Jewish Studies, she lives in North Bethesda, Maryland.

Reviews for Antisemitism, an American Tradition

No book could be more timely than Pamela S. Nadell's magisterial history of American antisemitism. Reading her meticulous account of this country's anti-Jewish rhetoric, agitation, and physical violence helps us to better understand the nature of today's antisemitism.--Michael Brenner, author of In Hitler's Munich This is the book that the world needs now, a bracing narrative of dark chapters from America's past--history that continues to stalk the nation. Nadell writes with command and a detective's sense for where buried episodes of antisemitism can be found.--Franklin Foer, author of The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden's White House and the Struggle for America's Future Today it has become common to hear people lament the rise of American antisemitism with words akin to 'I never thought I would see this in America.' Pamela S. Nadell, with her well-proven skill of making the historically complex highly accessible, demonstrates that this is not a new phenomenon. It is an American tradition. Anyone who has been scared, perplexed, or surprised by the current expressions of antisemitism in America should read this book. Anyone who has not should read it as well.--Ambassador Deborah E. Lipstadt, author of Antisemitism: Here and Now Pamela S. Nadell understands that 'antisemitism was and remains a powerful American tradition.' In this timely and comprehensive book, she courageously bares that tradition, unveiling a darker side of American Jewish history that has, for far too long, lain hidden from view.--Jonathan D. Sarna, author of American Judaism


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