Join us for the second session in our online “Ideals of Freedom: Jewish Immigration, Arts and Advocacy” series for ““Filthy, Un-American, and Often Dangerous: Antisemitism and the Emergency Quota Act of 1921.”
After the destruction of World War I, hundreds of thousands of European Jews sought to escape violence and poverty by emigrating to America. American consuls in Europe viewed these desperate Jews through a deeply antisemitic lens, fearing that they were radicals trying to enter and destroy the country with help from an international Jewish conspiracy.
Acting on these fears, officials at the State Department worked with congressional leaders to release reports that publicized the dangers of Jewish immigrants and ultimately led to the passage of the 1921 Emergency Quota Act.
That legislation was instrumental in establishing the quota system that would keep desperate European Jews out of the country only a decade later, as they attempted to flee the Holocaust.
About our speaker:
Kirsten Fermaglich is professor of history and Jewish studies at Michigan State University. Her most recent book, “A Rosenberg by Any Other Name: A History of Jewish Name Changing in America” (New York University Press, 2018), was awarded the Saul Viener Book Prize by the American Jewish Historical Society in June 2019. From January 2022 through June 2023, she served as a National Archives Distinguished Fellow, tasked with studying antisemitism in the United States federal government. Fermaglich is also the author of “American Dreams and Nazi Nightmares: Early Holocaust Consciousness and Liberal America, 1957-1965” (Brandeis University Press, 2006). From 2016 through 2021, she was co-editor of the journal American Jewish History. She currently serves on the board of the Association for Jewish Studies.
This series is made possible by a grant from the Congregation Ahabat Shalom Religious Fund and other generous donors.
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