In this special bonus episode to end our first season, AJHS Executive Director Gemma R. Birnbaum sat down with Franklin Foer of The Atlantic and Johns Hopkins University professor and author James Loeffler to talk about the intersections of American Jewish history and democracy.

Episode Image: Teenagers at Camp Wakitan, Hebrew Orphan Asylum of the City of New York Records (I-42)

All We Have Standing Between Us is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Knapp Family Foundation. Additional funding provided by the Leon Levy Foundation, the Achelis and Bodman Foundation, the Atran Foundation, and Anonymous.

Throughout the 2010s, political polarization fueled antisemitic conspiracy theories and helped bring violent white supremacist rhetoric into the mainstream. The 2017 Unite the Right rally, attacks on the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, and the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting heightened fears and concerns within Jewish communities. This episode traces the history and forces that contributed to the shooting — the deadliest act of antisemitism in American history — and examines how Jews responded in its aftermath.

Featuring Pamela Nadell and Gavriel Rosenfeld, and hosted by AJHS Executive Director Gemma R. Birnbaum.

Episode Image: Sign at the entrance to the Squirrel Hill neighborhood near the Tree of Life Synagogue after a mass shooting in Pittsburg, PA. October 27, 2018, Vincent Pugliese/EPA-EFE.

All We Have Standing Between Us is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Knapp Family Foundation. Additional funding provided by the Leon Levy Foundation, the Achelis and Bodman Foundation, the Atran Foundation, and Anonymous.

On September 11, 2001, New Yorkers on their morning commutes were stunned as a commercial jet flew into one of the towers of the World Trade Center. Morning television shows immediately switched their coverage to the towers, and seventeen minutes later, a second plane hit as millions around the world watched. News of additional deliberate crashes at the Pentagon in Virginia, and a field in Pennsylvania, soon emerged. This week's episode tells the story from the perspective of Steve Israel, a former Representative from New York who served in Congress from 2001 until 2017. Featuring additional commentary from Gavriel Rosenfeld, President of the Center for Jewish History, and hosted by Gemma R. Birnbaum, Executive Director of the American Jewish Historical Society.

Episode Image: September 11th commemoration ceremony, September 9, 2016. Courtesy of Representative Steve Israel.

All We Have Standing Between Us is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Knapp Family Foundation. Additional funding provided by the Leon Levy Foundation, the Achelis and Bodman Foundation, the Atran Foundation, and Anonymous.