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American history
Barbara Griffiths, age four (Courtesy Barbara Klemens Griffiths)
September 10, 2019, 3:46 pm
How a missing girl and an atmosphere of hate brought a blood libel to US shores
In 1928, 4-year-old Barbara Griffiths got lost in a NY town. In his new book, Edward Berenson examines how the incident became America’s first, and only, blood libel case
By Renee Ghert-Zand
President John Adams as painted by John Trumbull, circa 1792 (public domain)
August 27, 2019, 12:56 pm
200 years ago, John Adams promoted a Jewish state in the Holy Land
Second president’s support of Jewish ‘restoration’ to Land of Israel flowed from Enlightenment ideals, say historians. Trump’s ‘Christian Zionism’ speaks to his voter base
By Matt Lebovic
The 'face' of Woodstock, Jewish promoter Michael Lang. (Screenshot)
August 17, 2019, 2:41 am
America’s iconic Woodstock festival was more Jewish than you’d think
On the 50th anniversary of the historic concert, a look at the Members of the Tribe who promoted, funded, and performed — and the dairy man who made it all possible
By Jordan Hoffman
The raising of the new swastika flag aboard the S.S. Bremen as it was docked in the Hudson River. Captain Adolf Ahern, behind the stand with the draped Nazi flag, conducted the ceremonies. (Photo by Jimmy Condon/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)
July 25, 2019, 2:00 pm
What one US sailor did when a German ocean liner flew the Nazi flag in 1935 NYC
In a new book, journalist Peter Duffy tells how 84 years ago merchant marine Bill Bailey risked jail to tear a swastika from a ship carrying Rockefellers, movie stars, and nobility
By Rich Tenorio
Detail from 'Seder,' painted in the United States by French-born artist Nicole Eisenman. (The Jewish Museum, New York, Purchase: Lore Ross Bequest; Milton and Miriam Handler Endowment Fund; and Fine Arts Acquisitions Committee Fund, 2011-3 © Nicole Eisenman)
June 1, 2019, 1:29 pm
50 years after Stonewall Inn, US Jewish institutions take pride in LGBTQ support
Marking confrontational pivot point in the gay rights movement which saw police violence, museums and nonprofits join consortium to commemorate the event through art and education
By Cathryn J. Prince
Clockwise, from upper left: Rebecca Gratz, Bella Abzug, (Public domain); Gloria Steinem (CC/SA/Gage Skidmore); Emma Goldman's police mug shot (Public domain).
February 27, 2019, 4:34 am
First-ever US Jewish herstory to hit stores ahead of International Women’s Day
Finding almost no women’s histories on shelves, professor and author Pamela Nadell compiled four centuries of the female Jewish experience in ‘America’s Jewish Women,’ out March 5
By Rebecca Shimoni Stoil
Alfred Lion, seated, and Francis Wolff. (Courtesy Mosaic Images LLC)
February 13, 2019, 2:27 am
This Jewish duo escaped the Nazis to break sound barriers with Blue Note Records
New documentary ‘It Must Schwing!’ celebrates the founders of jazz’s top label, who recorded legendary African-American musicians of the 20th century at a time of racial strife
By Rich Tenorio
A float advertising the incubator show. (Courtesy Dawn Raffel)
September 30, 2018, 4:07 am
As hospitals prematurely spurned incubators, this carnival showman saved lives
A new book details how, despite his bunk credentials, ‘Dr.’ Martin Arthur Couney successfully nurtured thousands of preemie babies back to health on the sideshow midways of America
By Rich Tenorio
Backpiece by 'Lew the Jew' Alberts on San Francischo tattooer C.J. 'Pop' Eddy's promotional flyer, c. 1920. (Courtesy/ Don Ed Hardy)
August 26, 2018, 11:51 pm
How a nice Jewish boy helped break America’s tattoo taboo
Through June 2019, the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco hosts an exhibit celebrating Albert Morton Kurzman, who as ‘Lew the Jew’ dedicated his life to ink
By Rich Tenorio
Escape artist Harry Houdini is shown before being lowered in a packing crate into the ice-covered Detroit River in 1907. (AP Photo)
June 22, 2018, 2:07 am
How Harry Houdini stayed chained to his roots as a rabbi’s son
A Maryland exhibit opening June 24 highlights the life and mysterious death of the world famous escape artist, born in Hungary as Erik Weisz
By Rich Tenorio
The Ohabei Shalom Cemetery with its burial chapel in East Boston, Massachusetts, on June 10, 2018 (Matt Lebovic/The Times of Israel)
June 20, 2018, 10:55 pm
Immigrant center planned in the grounds of Boston’s oldest Jewish cemetery
Inside a converted burial chapel, the city’s newest and most vulnerable residents will access citizenship resources alongside content on East Boston’s Jewish past
By Matt Lebovic
Bertha Reynolds, born Bertha Hurwitz in Poland, served as a White House secretary in the Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations. (Courtesy of Shirley Thaler/via JTA)
May 3, 2018, 2:58 am
Recalling Aunt Bertie, the longest-serving Jewish staffer in White House history
An old suitcase schlepped down from the attic turns out to contain a trove of historical American treasures from a woman who, in a hostile-to-Hebrews world, worked with giants
By Steve North
Rachel Sharansky Danziger
September 10, 2017, 3:37 pm
Rachel Sharansky Danziger
Renewal in Boston’s North End
A city old enough to have a rich history beneath its present day exterior, and young enough to be forever becoming
Jack Schwartz
September 6, 2017, 12:40 pm
Jack Schwartz
Rescinding DACA and Jewish history
The Dreamers’ fate will indicate how dark America’s immediate discriminatory path
Nathan Lewin
August 25, 2017, 1:14 pm
Nathan Lewin
Trump a hero of Jewish history?
The president can transform his legacy by using his exclusive power to change US policy on Jerusalem’s status
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