Jewish leaders used to insist that there was no such thing as “Jewish politics” in the United States: it does not exist and should not exist.  The historical record going all the way back to Abraham Lincoln paints a different picture.  Focusing on presidential elections, this lecture will survey Jewish politics in the United States from the Civil War to the present.

Dr. Jonathan Sarna is University Professor and the Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History as well as the Director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University. He is also past president of the Association for Jewish Studies and Chief Historian of the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia.

Dubbed by the Forward newspaper in 2004 as one of America’s fifty most influential American Jews, he was Chief Historian for the 350^th commemoration of the American Jewish community, and is recognized as a leading commentator on American Jewish history, religion and life.  In 2009, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He holds four honorary degrees.

Free and open to the public!

Sponsored by the Leon Black Lecture Series, Jewish Studies Program and the Religion Department