Modern Jewish History

Modern Jewish History

Key Issues in Modern Jewish History

How emancipation, nationalism, capitalism and liberalism affected the Jews.

American Jews

Jewish Immigration to America

The size and character of the American Jewish community has been defined by the 3.5 million Jews who have emigrated since the 17th century.

FAQ

Where the False Claim That Jews Controlled the Slave Trade Comes From

Like many others, Jews participated in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, but they by no means dominated it.

False Messiahs in Judaism

Many have claimed to be the Jewish Messiah, and the results have often been disastrous.

What Were Pogroms?

Anti-Jewish violence sweeping the Russian Empire in the late 19th century spurred many Jews to emigrate and organize politically.

A Timeline of the Holocaust

From Hitler's rise to power to the Nuremberg trials, key events of the Shoah.

Who Was Anne Frank?

The story of the young diarist who became a symbol of the Holocaust.

Jews and Finance

The idea that Jews are good with money is one of the oldest Jewish stereotypes. But it's undeniable that Jews are well-represented in finance and business.

Nazi Germany 1933-1939: Early Stages of Persecution

How Hitler laid the groundwork for genocide.

Jewish Immigration to Pre-State Israel

The story of who went to Palestine, and how these successive waves of Jewish immigration shaped Jewish life there from 1881-1939.

Zionism 101

The Jews as a nation in the land of Israel

Jews in the Civil Rights Movement

Nowhere did Jews identify themselves more forth­rightly with the liberal avant-garde than in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.

Jewish Refugees During and After the Holocaust

Jews fleeing the Nazis had difficulty finding countries that would take them in.

America and the Holocaust

Where were the United States government and the American Jewish community during the destruction of European Jewry?

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and the Making of Modern Hebrew

The Lithuania-born visionary turned an ancient language into a spoken one.