Saying No to Hate: Overcoming Antisemitism in America

by Norman H. Finkelstein

Overview

Saying No to Hate grounds readers contextually in the history of antisemitism in America by emphasizing the legal, political, educational, communal, and other strategies American Jews have used through the centuries to address high-profile threats.

Norman H. Finkelstein shows how antisemitism has long functioned in America in systemic, structural, and interpersonal ways, from missionaries, the KKK, and American Nazis to employment discrimination, social media attacks, and QAnon. He explains how historic antisemitic events such as General Ulysses S. Grant’s General Order No. 11 (1862); the Massena, New York, blood libel (1928); and the mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue (2018) galvanized the Jewish community. Finkelstein shines light on Jews such as Louis Brandeis and Admiral Hyman Rickover who succeeded despite discrimination and on individuals and organizations that have tackled legal and security affairs, from the passage of Maryland’s Jew Bill (1826) to groups helping Jewish institutions better protect themselves from active shooter threats.

Far from a victim narrative, Saying No to Hate is as much about Jewish resilience and ingenuity as it is about hatred. Engaging high school students and adults with personal narratives, it prepares each of us to recognize, understand, and confront injustice and hatred today, in the Jewish community and beyond.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780827615236
Publisher:	The Jewish Publication Society
Publication date:	05/01/2024
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Norman H. Finkelstein taught Jewish history at Hebrew College for more than thirty-five years and is the author of twenty-one nonfiction histories and biographies. Two of his books, Heeding the Call and Forged in Freedom (both available from JPS), won National Jewish Book Awards.
 
 

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Why This Book
1. Origins of Hate
2. In the Beginning
3. Settling In
4. A Country Divided
5. The Great Wave
6. A Lynching and a Lawyer
7. The Bigoted 1920s
8. The Rising Storm
9. Into the Mainstream
10. Civil Rights and Legal Rights
11. Zionism = Judaism?
12. The Changing Landscape of Hate
Appendix 1: How to Fight Antisemitism with Advocacy and Pride
Appendix 2: How to Prepare for an Active Shooter Attack
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

While the alarming increase in antisemitism in the U.S. is cause for concern, storyteller Norman Finkelstein shows us this is just the latest iteration of prejudice Jews have fought on these shores for hundreds of years. Saying No to Hate should be required in every high school and college, and encouraged as necessary for adults as well, for its promise to open needed dialogues about long-standing hatred of Jews and the Jewish community’s courage and perseverance in combating it. More than a book, this is a tool for strengthening our society.”—Rabbi Charles E. Savenor, executive director, Civic Spirit


“Learning to recognize how antisemitism functions in America in systemic, structural, and interpersonal ways—which Norman Finkelstein teaches masterfully, in tandem with robust stories of Jewish resilience and courage—will help both adolescents and adults address instances of injustice and hatred today, in the Jewish community and beyond.”—Rabbi Laura Bellows, curriculum designer and facilitator of teen and adult learning programs

From the Publisher