Anti-Semitism and Immigration

Over the past 400 years, Jews have flourished in the welcoming embrace of America, but they have, at the same time, endured the tragically familiar impact of classical anti-Semitism. Plagued by centuries of violent Judeophobia in their countries of origin, the original stimulus for emigration, Jews have had to struggle against anti-Semitism in America itself—a consistent challenge to assimilation. Hatred of Jews, both abroad and at [Page 114]home, has affected generations of American Jews with a haunting sense of uneasiness and marginality even as they rose to extraordinary heights of political, economic, and cultural success.

Undeniably, America’s tradition of democracy, respect for human rights, private enterprise, egalitarianism, and secular government structures proved to be a boon to Jewish immigrants throughout the centuries. But in the hour ...