America and the Jews: History, Identity, and the Road Ahead

America and the Jews: History, Identity, and the Road Ahead is a four-part virtual series that offers participants an accessible look at the forces that have shaped Jewish life in America — and the questions now testing that relationship. Tracing its arc from the foundational ideals that bound Jews to the American democratic experiment to the political, cultural, and generational pressures defining this moment, the series examines what it has meant — and what it means today — to be Jewish in America.

• Session 1: Thursday, August 6:  Zion in America. How the idea of “Zion” helped shape America as a new Israel, and how this concept has defined the relationship between Washington and Jerusalem.
• Session 2: Thursday, August 13: The Jewish Contract with America. The distinctive ingredients that framed the American Jewish experience, and what the potential end of a “golden age” means for the community’s future.
• Session 3: Thursday,  August 20: The Israel-American Connection. The key historical, cultural, and political forces shaping the U.S.–Israel relationship, and how American Jews and Israelis can make the case for its significance to a skeptical public.
• Session 4: Thursday, August 27: Jews and American Racism/Anti-Semitism. The roots of hate in America and the evolution of antisemitism alongside broader American racism, Jewish political power, and communal advocacy over 250 years.