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American Jewish history

'Playmakers,' by author Michael Kimmel. (Courtesy)
September 1, 2026, 2:37 am
Toy story: From teddy bears to Tiddlywinks, how Jews helped shape American childhood
New book ‘Playmakers’ by sociologist Michael Kimmel looks at how children of Jewish immigrants built the dolls, games, books and comics that became cultural touchstones in the US
By Rich Tenorio
Jewish Americans gather at a rally in Washington, DC, November 14, 2023. (Luke Tress/Times of Israel)
August 25, 2026, 2:08 am
As Jews seek place in American life, Brandeis opens 250 years of wondering to public
Massachusetts university’s upcoming course explores the American Jewish story, from colonial immigrants to Hollywood and summer camps, amid tensions on US campuses and in politics
By Agatha Khishchenko
Woody Guthrie (left) and Yiddish poet Aliza Greenblatt. After Guthrie married Greenblatt's daughter, Marjorie Mazia, the two developed a close bond, explored in the new documentary 'Dust Bowls and Jewish Souls.' (Woody Guthrie Publications via JTA)
August 6, 2026, 2:27 am
Woody Guthrie was surprisingly in tune with Judaism. A new documentary explains why
‘Dust Bowls and Jewish Souls,’ now making the rounds on the Jewish film circuit, shows a little-known side of the legendary American folk singer that was steeped in Jewish culture
By Andrew Silow-Carroll
A Star of David on the door to the not-yet-renovated synagogue at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, April 2, 2008. (AP/Matt Rourke)
July 17, 2026, 4:44 pm
First US prison synagogue stages new exhibit with story of Jewish inmates who built it
Dedicated in 1929, the chapel at Eastern State Penitentiary reflects America’s dynamic Jewish history as crime, conversion, community and immigration converged some 100 years ago
By Stephen Silver
A cartoon from the July 4, 1900 issue of Puck, title 'No Envy,' shows stereotypically dressed Jews enjoying a building fire. (Courtesy NYU Press via JTA)
July 7, 2026, 1:03 pm
Scholar unpacks slur that early US Jewish immigrants were arsonists — and why it stuck
Jeffrey Marx’s new history, ‘Jewish Firebug,’ puts new light on an old trope as newcomers are again being blamed for economic and social ills and antisemitism reaches new highs
By Andrew Silow-Carroll
The Jewish cemetery in Sint Eustatius had its first burials in 1720. (CC BY-SA 4.0/Jrryjude)
April 27, 2026, 5:16 pm
Did this tiny Caribbean island’s Jewish community help win the US Revolutionary War?
A new exhibition opens at the Weitzman Museum in Philadelphia about a small group of Sephardic merchants on Sint Eustatius and the outsized impact they had in the fight for America’s freedom
By Andrew Silow-Carroll
Cathryn J. Prince, author of 'For the Love of Labor: The Life of Pauline Newman.' (Courtesy)
April 26, 2026, 6:13 am
From child laborer to union leader: Too-relevant story of 20th-century immigrant Pauline Newman
In ‘For the Love of Labor,’ ToI contributor Cathryn J. Prince follows the Lithuanian-born labor activist who blazed trails fighting sexism and classism in her new homeland, America
By Rich Tenorio
Rabbi Joel Fleekop points to a monument marking the 1878 consecration of Temple Beth El in Pensacola, Florida. (Larry Luxner/ JTA)
April 25, 2026, 1:40 am
As Pensacola’s oldest synagogue turns 150, locals celebrate the community’s rich history
Far from most of Florida’s three-quarters of a million Jews is a small pocket of 1,800 that significantly predates its southern counterparts – and, locals say, is ripe for a renaissance
By Larry Luxner
The Pee Dee Rosenwald School, Marion County, South Carolina, c. 1935. (Public Domain image from the South Carolina Department of Archives and History via JTA)
April 17, 2026, 4:19 pm
With DEI out of favor, some push to honor Jewish philanthropist behind 5,000 Black schools
Lawmakers, archivists and activists seek recognition for Julius Rosenwald, the Sears exec who partnered with Booker T. Washington to fund education across the Jim Crow South in 1917-1932
By Andrew Silow-Carroll
Jewish thinkers, giants in their fields. From left to right: Moshe Davis, Mordecai Kaplan (center) and Hillel Bavli (Inset from an image courtesy of the Mordecai Kaplan Center)
April 6, 2026, 8:53 am
How an upstart rabbi was excommunicated over his prayer book for a ‘new US Judaism’
Mordecai Kaplan’s vision of a unified, reconstructed religion for American Jews was plagued by backlash but launched a new denomination. Now he’s the subject of a new biography
By Rich Tenorio
An outer wall of the abandoned Beth Israel synagogue in Mahanoy City collapsed on February 12, 2026. (WFMZ, via YouTube/ via JTA)
February 19, 2026, 1:12 am
Defunct synagogue from once-proud community collapses in Pennsylvania coal region
Emergency crews respond to reports of falling walls and scattered debris at the former Beth Israel Synagogue, founded in 1923 by Jewish merchant families serving the booming coal economy
By Andrew Silow-Carroll
Black and Jewish chef, writer, educator and food historian Michael W. Twitty sits at the head of the table at an interfaith seder attended by members of the Black and Jewish communities in this undated photo. (Courtesy of Sara Wolitzky)
February 11, 2026, 4:24 am
New PBS series examines bittersweet ties that have historically bound US Blacks and Jews
For Black History Month, docuseries ‘Black and Jewish America: An Interwoven History’ parses what has unified and divided the communities, amid today’s renewed tensions
By Rich Tenorio
'New York Havurah Shabbat School, Jay Greenspan, Simchat Torah, 1976' dates to photographer Bill Aron's time as a member of the grassroots Jewish congregation on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. (Bill Aron, American Jewish Historical Society via JTA)
February 10, 2026, 1:08 am
Bill Aron, photographer of Jewish countercultures, gets his due in sweeping NYC retrospective
A new American Jewish Historical Society exhibit running through June 4 spans five decades’ worth of images — from the heyday of the havurah movement to the fading glory of the Jewish Lower East Side
By Andrew Silow-Carroll
A political drawing depicting the trial of Aaron Sapiro (at right) v. Henry Ford. (Courtesy of Gaylen Ross and Carol King)
January 21, 2026, 4:31 pm
New documentary depicts the lawsuit that humbled Henry Ford – and revved up US Jewry
After its world premiere at the Miami Jewish Film Festival on Sunday, ‘Sapiro v. Ford’ is making the Jewish festival rounds
By Rich Tenorio
New York City police commissioner Theodore Alfred Bingham (left) with then-Mayor George Brinton McClellan Jr. in an undated photograph. Bingham served as police commissioner from January 1, 1906, to July 1, 1909. (Bain News Service/Library of Congress via JTA)
January 18, 2026, 3:09 am
A century before Trump targeted Somalis, New York’s Jews faced an antisemitic crime libel
In 1908, NYC’s police commissioner falsely attributed half the city’s crime to ‘Hebrews.’ Today, the Jewish mayor of Minneapolis says an entire community shouldn’t be charged for the crimes of a few
By Andrew Silow-Carroll
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