For well over a century, historians and Jewish community leaders have rendered Jews’ experiences in the United States as exceptionally good, an embodiment of the goodness of American liberalism. Yet, as U.S. historian Lila Corwin Berman argues, this exceptionalist tale has obscured the past and present of American antisemitism and its intersections with other forms of homegrown American illiberalism.

About Dr. Berman: Lila Corwin Berman holds the Murray Friedman Chair of American Jewish History at Temple University, where she directs the Feinstein Center for American Jewish History. Her most recent book, The American Jewish Philanthropic Complex: The History of a Multibillion-Dollar Institution, has been awarded prizes from the Organization of American Historians and the American Jewish Historical Society. Her articles have appeared in several scholarly publications, including the American Historical Review and the Journal of American History, and she has written guest columns for the Washington Post, the Forward, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. She is currently writing a book called “American Jewish Citizenship: An Untold History.” Berman is a graduate of Amherst College and received her Ph.D. from Yale University.