Saying No to Hate: Overcoming Antisemitism in America

Two-time National Jewish Book Award winner Finkelstein (The Shelter), who died this year, sets forth a sweeping survey of American antisemitism. Tracing its roots to European attitudes imported well before the country’s founding, Finkelstein cites New Amsterdam governor Peter Stuyvesant’s 1654 efforts to push out Jews, whom he labeled a “deceitful race”; Civil War general Ulysses S. Grant’s 1862 attempt (foiled by President Lincoln) to remove Jews from parts of the South for fear they were hindering the Union war effort through cotton smuggling; and the lynching of “Yankee Jew” Leo Frank in 1915 Atlanta. Taking note of shifting manifestations of antisemitism across U.S. history, Finkelstein analyzes how American Jews’ precarious political position during the Holocaust limited their efforts to help German Jews, and discusses how Israel’s founding in 1948 catalyzed a complex relationship between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. Finkelstein draws on exhaustive research for an account that’s comprehensive, accessible, and nuanced, though his suggestions for combating antisemitism lean toward the expected (readers are advised to “engage allies” and hold elected officials accountable for actions that run counter to Jewish interests). Still, it’s a valuable complement to Diana Fersko’s We Need to Talk About Antisemitism. (May)