The Jewish Americans

The opening programme picks up the story in the 18th century when a small number of Jews came to America to become part of the emerging nation. Though they fought in the American Revolution, they were tolerated at best and were ready scapegoats, while the Civil War found Jewish Americans fighting on both sides of the struggle.

As Jewish Americans tried to enter the mainstream of American life, they were frustrated by anti-Semitism even as they developed their own resources, often succeeding in businesses on the margins of society. In 1918, America was closing its doors to foreigners and anti-Semitism was on the rise again so Jewish Americans developed a parallel universe of their own.

In 1946, with Hitler defeated and six million European Jews murdered, American Jews were fighting despair yet, by the 1950s, a spirit of optimism had emerged as discrimination against Jews in daily life began to ease. Jews entered professions such as medicine, law and banking, and Jewish American culture went mainstream even if some of the old anxieties remained.