Antisemitism in America

In an enligthening history of anti-Semitism in the U.S., Dinnerstein argues that deeply ingrained hostility toward Jews embedded in Christian teachings is the mainspring of this prejudice. During the Civil War, he notes, Jews became scapegoats for the ills of society; non-Jews in both the North and South accused Jews of profiteering and of supporting the enemy. This scapegoating continued, Dinnerstein shows, through the Great Depression and into WW II, when Charles Lindbergh, addressing an isolationist rally in Iowa in 1941, blamed Jews for pushing the U.S. toward war with Germany. Professor of history at the University of Arizona, Dinnerstein offers an illuminating analysis of black anti-Semitism since WW II, tracing its roots in many instances to Protestant theology. Noting that antagonism toward Jews has always been weaker in the U.S. than in Europe, he predicts that countervailing traditions of tolerance, legal equality and pluralism will continue to weaken anti-Semitism in America. (June)