jewish essay contest

Type [To] Search

B’nai B’rith International

Contact b'nai b'rith, 1120 20th street nw, suite 300n washington, d.c. 20036, [email protected], 202-857-6600, none shall be afraid essay contest – 2024 winner.

Winning Essay by Ilana Argentar​

Ilana Argentar

Incoming Freshman, Bradley University

Class of 2028

A trunk full of books, a bicycle and 30 dollars. That’s what my mom says she and her family had with them when they left Poland as refugees in 1979. My grandparents and great grandparents survived the Holocaust but life in Poland after the war was still not great for Jews. My grandmother was born in Belarus where Jewish children were spit on in the streets and Shabbat candles were lit and prayers whispered behind closed curtains. As an adult in Poland, my Bubbie became accustomed to the word “zyd” used as an insult or, as a compliment, being told that she was, you know, was not like the other Jews. She understood the power and meaning that hateful words possess.

Led by my Bubbie, my family gave up their citizenship and left Poland, with the hope that their children would be more free in the United States to live safely as proud Jews. They were right to do it. As she grew up, my mom’s Jewish identity was firmly planted and grew at preschool, summer camp, Hebrew School and through holidays and celebrations.

I asked my Bubbie her thoughts about the recent sharp rise in anti-Semitism on college campuses. Her response was that “nothing has changed.” She recalled her mother-in-law sharing the story of mandatory “Jew-free Tuesdays” on the university campus in Poland she attended in the1930s. While the Holocaust had not yet officially started, the seeds of hate had already been firmly planted in the DNA of campuses in Europe.

In November 2023, the ADL and Hillel published a poll which stated that 73% of Jewish college students experienced or saw anti-Semitic incidents since the beginning of the school year. Sadly, November 2023 feels worlds away from today, April 2024. Without looking at a new poll, I am confident that we all know that number must have risen exponentially since the fall. Even my TikTok algorithm has stepped up its game, sharing more and more videos each day featuring students rhyming those familiar chants, threatening the destruction of our people and homeland.

Unfortunately, it seems our top universities are leading the way, inspiring and allowing hate to grow, often under the guise of “free speech.” Of course, all speech is not free, and there are limits to free expression in every public environment. Schools must ensure that one person’s right to free speech does not shut down a Jewish student’s right to safety and security.

If they don’t already have one, universities must create a mechanism for students who have witnessed or encountered anti-Semitism or verbal threats against Jews or Israel to submit a complaint and then they must provide the resources necessary to follow up on those complaints. It is important that they work with university police and local law enforcement to take swift and decisive action against all verbal threats. The word must get out: You cannot make threats against Jews and Israel and get away with it. 

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. teaches that the Holocaust was preventable. Verbal threats are actually warning signs. By taking immediate action, universities still have the opportunity to lead the way, slow down the hate train and ultimately even save Jewish lives. Left unchecked, history has taught us that verbal threats can become actionable and then it is too late.

Remarkably my great grandmother managed to complete her master’s degree in Pedagogy in Poland in the 1930s.This was in spite of the many odds stacked against her, which included the university sanctioned “Jew-free Tuesdays.” Not long after that, most of her family was deported and murdered at Auschwitz, while she escaped and survived by hiding in the Ural Mountains.

As a teenager who has always invited friends over for Shabbat dinners, traveled to Israel and worn my Star of David necklace daily and proudly, this story can’t help but feel like a scary fairy tale from long ago. Yet, when I think about going to college next year and hear the threats against Jews and Israel that have spread throughout campuses, this unbelievable history sadly becomes a little closer and more real to me. Times are definitely scary for Jewish students on campuses. Universities must do what they failed to do for Jewish students in the past and act now to deter and shut down verbal threats before the hate becomes more institutionalized and it is too late.

Gettysburg College Gettysburg College

Georges Lieber Essay Contest

On this page, eligibility, awards and prizes, essay contest winners – 2024, fifth annual georges lieber essay contest on resistance.

Georges Lieber, at the age of 16, prided himself on being part of the French resistance. Perhaps because of that involvement, he and his family were identified and taken by the Nazis, and on July 3, 1944, Georges was deported to Auschwitz, where he was murdered. To make a blessing of Georges Lieber’s memory, please articulate an issue on or of resistance that you have encountered and analyze what it has taught you about resistance and yourself. Note that the most engaging essays often reflect deeply on a particularly meaningful experience or episode in one’s life. That approach could focus on resistance pertaining to:

• A personal issue
• A family matter
• An academic inquiry
• A dilemma in literature or film
• A recent article or editorial in a major newspaper
• A current conflict in American life
• An international crisis

Email your essay, with “Georges Lieber” as the subject, to the Jewish Studies Committee at Gettysburg College: [email protected]

In 3,000 words, you are encouraged to raise questions, single out issues, and identify dilemmas involving resistance. Essays may be written in the formal or informal tone, but most importantly, an individual voice should be evident. The essay should be developed from your point of view and may be biographical, historical, literary, philosophical, psychological, sociological or theological. It must be the original, unpublished work of one student. Only one essay per student per year may be submitted. It must have a title, and must be written in English. Essay should be titled, typed in 12-point font easily readable font (such as Times New Roman), double-spaced with 1” margins and numbered pages. Submissions will be judged anonymously, by the Gettysburg College Jewish Studies Committee. (We have heavily relied on the language from the Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics essay contest.)

Registered high school students—first-year through senior—during the spring 2024 semester.

8:00 p.m. EST, April 17, 2024

First Place

Kira Good “A Resistance of Hope”

Second Place

Veronica Garcia “Korean Cultural: From Attempted Erasure to Global Sensation”

Third Place

Rebecca Venger “Resisting the Time, Restoring the Glory”

Honorable Mentions

• Zachary Rubin “Resistance, the Graveyard, and Parables of Life”
• Kaitlyn McIlroy “This is my Life”

The Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America La Ermandad Sefaradi

ב''ה

The Sephardic Studies Program of the University of Washington &

The Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood Foundation present:

Muestras Konsejas ‘Our Tales’ The National Sephardic Essay Competition 2023-2024 A writing contest rooted in Sephardic reflection and identity

Deadline for submission - march 22 2024.

In 1987, literary scholar Diane Matza went in search of memoirs written by people of Sephardic heritage from the lands of the former Ottoman Empire. She identified only one main title (Leon Sciaky’s evocative Farewell to Salonica [1946]). 

In the decades since Matza’s research, the descendants of Sephardic immigrants have taken up the task of reflecting on their families' generational trajectories and what it means to be “Sephardic.” Some have written privately for their families, whereas others have written for the public, sharing memoirs or fictionalized accounts inspired by family tales. Two writers of Sephardic heritage have won Nobel Prizes for work that draws on family memoir (Elias Canetti [1981] and Patrick Modiano [2014]), but a wealth of stories are still waiting to be told and widely shared.

Organizations such as the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research have encouraged Jews–especially youth and those of Yiddish-speaking heritage–to write about the multifaceted intricacies, aspirations, histories and anxieties among Ashkenazi Jews. No comparable enterprise has emerged to cultivate storytelling for Sephardic Jews. 

Thus, the Sephardic Studies Program of the University of Washington in Seattle and the Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood Foundation are thrilled to partner in presenting the inaugural National Sephardic Essay Competition to open a new space for the telling of Sephardic stories.

2023 National Sephardic Essay Competition - Entry, Guidelines, & Prize

Share an original, previously unpublished work of prose (fictional or memoiristic) that gives voice to the experiences of the Ladino-speaking Sephardic Jewish communities (whether from family lore, lived experience, community heritage, life stories, etc.).

Work submitted must not exceed the maxim um of 2,000 words and must be written in English* prose. Genre may be memoir, (auto)biography or fiction.*

*Submissions may include expressions or terms drawn from Ladino or other relevant languages. 

The competition will feature two categories: ‘Student’ (18+) and ‘Adult’. 

There is no entry fee required for either category. Writers can submit as many entries as they wish. Each submission will require a separate entry form. To ensure a fair process, judges will read submissions with the authors’ names removed.  For further instructions for how to submit, click below for the submission portal.

One Winner in each category will receive $1,000. 

One Runner Up in each category will receive $500.

In addition to the cash prize, winners and runners up will be featured in:

El Ermanado Sefaradi - the Sephardic Brother, the quarterly magazine published by the Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America

Online on the website of the Sephardic Studies Program at the University of Washington

A renowned panel of Sephardic American writers and thinkers

Professor Ruth Behar Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan and award-winning author

Elizabeth Graver Award-winning author of the acclaimed 2023 novel, Kantika

Ethan Marcus Managing Director of the Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America 

Dr Jane Mushabac Professor emerita of English at the City University of New York

Professor Devin E. Naar Chair of the Sephardic Studies Program at the University of Washington 

Faqs - frequently asked questions.

Who Qualifies as a Student? - Any individual age 18+ who is currently enrolled in a undergraduate or graduate studies program from an accredited University or Academic institution ​

Do I need to have Sephardic Heritage/Identify as Sephardic to apply? - No, you do not need to be Sephardic to apply.

Do I need to be a US Citizen to apply to the competition? - No, you do not need to be a US Citizen to apply for the competition 

The Joyce Z. and Jacob Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies

Undergraduate essay contests.

The Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies is pleased to announce its annual Essay Prize Competition for essays on any topic relating to Jewish Studies, including (but not restricted to) the study of Jewish history, religion, culture, thought, classical and modern texts, and languages.

The Center will award two prizes, each of $500. One prize will be awarded for the best essay related to Jewish Studies written for a course. The essay need not have been written for a course in Jewish Studies or for a course taught by a faculty member in Jewish Studies. A second prize will be awarded for the best B.A. Essay on a topic related to Jewish Studies.

Eligibility: The essay prize competition is open to all students currently registered in the College of the University of Chicago.

Application: Essays must be submitted electronically as a pdf file no later than 4 pm on Thursday, May 3, 2024, to Nancy Pardee at [email protected] .

Jewish Studies

Jewish studies essay contest.

Posted by malonj9 on Thursday, April 20, 2023 in News .

Comments are closed

What are you looking for?

Essay contest, jewish studies essay/media contest.

If you have questions, please contact [email protected] or the Louchheim School for Judaic Studies at 213-765-2113.

Jewish Studies Program

Jewish studies essay and project contest.

Application Deadline: April 5, 2024

All full-time Penn State undergraduate and graduate students are invited to submit an essay or creative project to our annual contest! You do not need to be a Jewish Studies student to apply. We offer prizes of up to $500. Any paper or project on any topic related to the field of Jewish Studies is eligible for submission.

Contest categories include: Best Undergraduate Paper, Best Graduate Paper, Best Short Paper, and Best Honor’s Thesis, and Best Creative Project.

For more details and to apply: https://jewishstudies.la.psu.edu/opportunities/funding-and-scholarships/jewish-studies-essay-contest/

Wayne State University

Cohn-haddow center cohn-haddow center, writing competition, 2024 writing competition winners, 2023 writing competition winners, 2022 writing competition winners and participants, 2021 writing competition winners, 2019 writing competition winners, 2018 writing competition winners.

The Cohn-Haddow Center for Judaic Studies at Wayne State University returns for the Ninth Annual Writing Competition for high school students in the Metro-Detroit area.

Students in ninth through twelfth grades are invited to submit an original work of poetry, prose, or non-fiction that deals with one of the themes listed below. The best submission in each category will be awarded a cash prize of $500, with awards of $100 for honorable mentions in each category . In addition, award winning entrees will be published online.

Competition Guidelines

• Eligible students must be currently enrolled in grades 9-12 in the Metro-Detroit area
• One entry per student
•  There is no minimum or maximum word-count or length for submissions. Suggested length is between 500 and 2000 words
• Submissions must be the student's own original work
• Submissions must be typed, double-spaced, and proofread thoroughly
• All judge's decisions are final
• The competition deadline is May 1st, 2024
• Please print out and mail a hard copy of your essay to:

                          Cohn-Haddow Center for Judaic Studies                           2311 Faculty/Admin. Building                           656 W. Kirby Detroit, MI 48202

                          ** Mailed in essays must be postmarked by May 1st, 2024**

        9. Please download and complete the entry form and attach to your submission

2023 suggested topics and themes.

• "Why is democracy good for Jews?"
• "The importance of critical thinking"
• "'What is the best way to combat Anti-semitism?"
• "What does it mean to be Jewish in the 21st century?"
• "Does Judaism have a diversity requirement"?
• "What does 'proud to be a Jew' mean in 2021"?
• "There is more than one way to be Jewish?"
• "Lessons from Jewish history that are relevant today"
• "The Jewish family is an essential feature of Jewish Life"
• "Jews have survived as a People because . . ."

If you have any questions, contact the Director: [email protected]

Adapting Podcast: Where Did We Go Wrong? Listen here!

The Forward's Youth Writing Contest

Sometime perhaps I shall transcend this Americanism in order that I may be free to enjoy the full freedom of those ideals which I now carry in my heart’s heart.”

Those words were written by a young man from Delaware named Benjamin Brodinsky who, during the depths of the Depression, was declared the winner of the Forward’s 1931 essay contest.

Back then, our writing contests were one of the ways the Forward brought together a nascent Jewish community. Our readers contributed essays about ideal relationships, about the most remarkable character in their lives, about what it meant to be a Jew and an American. Their words were judged by such luminaries as the Forward’s founding editor Ab Cahan and Sherwood Anderson, author of “Winesburg, Ohio.”

Today’s Forward.com looks a little different from the daily newspaper our early essayists read. But, especially in this moment of anxiety and social isolation, the themes they wrote about still resonate — the need to find connection, to see the unique human qualities in each other, to navigate between our roles as Jews and Americans.

In this spirit, as we look forward to Passover, The Forward is proud to announce the launch of a brand-new essay contest for young writers. The theme is one that Benjamin Brodinsky would have had a lot to say about: “What It Means To Be Free.”

In partnership with  The Jewish Education Project  and  BBYO  we’re asking middle-school and high-school age students to submit an essay, a story, or maybe even a poem about the meaning of freedom in 2020 America. We’ll publish some of the best entries on our site and award a cash prize of $180 to the top essay in three age categories.

Although Sherwood Anderson and Ab Cahan are no longer here to judge our contest, we’ve assembled a top-notch panel including  Dahlia Lithwick,  a senior writer at Slate.com; former U.S. ambassador to Israel  Dan Shapiro,  Forward senior editor  Adam Langer  and representatives of  The Jewish Education Project.

To enter our contest, please send your name, your age, the name of the school you attend, a photo of yourself, and your entry (no more than 1,000 words) to  essays@ forward.com by May 1, 2020 11:59 pm . For more information on our contest guidelines, click  here.

We look forward to reading your work.

Oh, and if you’re interested in learning a bit more about our 1931 essay contest winner, here’s a  remembrance  his daughter Elisa Miller wrote for the Forward in 2014.

Home / Student Writing Contest

2024 Middle School Writing Contest

Why do you think the united states should create a rosenwald schools national park.

Submissions Now Closed

2025 Writing Contest Prompt will be released early next year

2024 Essay Contest Winners:

1st place : aydin s., columbia, sc. read the 1st place entry here., 2nd place : netanya victoria h., new orleans, la. read the 2nd place entry here ., 3rd place : emzi f., new orleans, la. read the 3rd place entry here., congratulations to our 2024 writing contest winners we received submissions from students across our 13-state southern region and we thank all participants., contest details.

The Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience invites Middle School students to enter this year’s writing contest. This year’s theme is drawn from the Museum’s current special exhibition , “A Better Life for Their Children: Julius Rosenwald, Booker T. Washington, and the 4,978 Schools that Changed America”

This exhibition by photographer Andrew Feiler memorializes the Rosenwald schools, which were built across the South between 1917-1932. These schools, the vision of two important Americans – Jewish philanthropist Julius Rosenwald and African American education leader Booker T. Washington – narrowed the Black-white education gap that plagued Southern states, strengthened Black-Jewish relations, helped to build a new African American middle class, and paved the way for the Civil Rights movement.  

The work of Rosenwald, Washington, and the Black communities that built these 4,978 schools in the South is remarkable, but little known. There is currently a effort by historians and civil rights advocates to establish the Julius Rosenwald & Rosenwald Schools National Historical Park . MSJE is proud to support this campaign by encouraging people to write letters of support to their US representatives and senators.

____________________________________________

Your Writing Contest Prompt: 

Write a letter to your congressperson detailing why you support the campaign to create a rosenwald schools national park..

____________________________________________ 

*MSJE will not forward any letters on students behalf, but students are welcome to mail their letter if they so choose.

How to Start Writing Your Letter

Have you already practiced writing persuasive letters in school? If so, use what you’ve learned. If not, don’t worry, the idea is to express your opinion in a way that makes the reader agree with you (even if they didn’t before reading your letter).

Use examples from your own experiences or interests to support your ideas, beliefs, and convictions for your letter. While you may use facts about the history of Rosenwald Schools as your starting point, don’t stop there. This is NOT a research paper, and the best letters will NOT be summaries of Rosenwald Schools history.

Your letter of support will be judged foremost for its thoughtfulness, persuasiveness, clarity of expression, and adherence to contest theme, as well as its historical accuracy, grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Museum staff will read and evaluate all entries and select the winning letters.

§ Visit MSJE’s A Better Life for this Children   Special Exhibition if you are able to.

§ Read through this short Rosenwald Schools Fact Sheet .

§ Watch this short video from the Julius Rosenwald & Rosenwald Schools National Historical Park Campaign.

§ Consider these questions:

• Why does it matter to you and your community that this history is preserved? 
• What lessons resonate with you about the Rosenwald Schools?

Rules and Formatting Guidelines

• Contest is open to all students (grades 5–8) in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. You don’t have to be Jewish.
• Your letter must be 500 words in length or less.
• Only one letter per student may be submitted.
• follow a conventional letter format
• be single-spaced
• have one-inch margins
• include an addressee
• be typed in 12 point font
• be saved and submitted as a .pdf
• Letters must be submitted via the contest website by April 15, 2024
• When you are ready to submit, click below, fill out this simple information form , and attach your letter

Click here to download PDF Printable Contest Flyer to share with your community.

If you have questions about eligibility, rules, or anything, email us at [email protected] .

2023 Essay Contest Winners:

Which Three Artifacts Would You Put In YOUR Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience?

1st Place : Leah S. – Virginia Beach, VA “My Southern Jewish Experience”

2nd place : dylan r. – nashville, tn “jewish christian crossroads in the south: a middle schooler’s perspective”, 3rd place : ezra h. – new orleans, la “my msje”.

Congratulations to our 2023 Essay Contest Winners! We received submissions from students across our 13-state Southern region and we thank all participants.

Help Us Tell Our (and Your) Stories!

Opening a new museum is the work of many hands, many hearts, and yes, many dollars.

Become an MSJE supporter by donating TODAY!

• Admission & Hours
• Directions & Parking
• Group Visits
• Private Events & Museum Rentals
• Field Trips
• History & Mission
• Join Our Team
• Exhibitions
• Collections
• Teachers & Students
• Southern Jewish Resources
• Founding Donors
• Make a Gift
• Ways to Give
• Mezuzah Society

2024 Holocaust Art and Essay Contest

All 6 th -12 th grade students in Tennessee and the Mid-South are invited to participate in Memphis Jewish Federation’s 15 th Annual Holocaust Art & Essay Competition.

Students in grades 6-8 are invited to submit artwork and students in grades 9-12 are invited to submit essays, on this year’s theme of From Generation to Generation .

Cash prizes for top winners in each category are provided by the Kaethe Mela Family Memorial Fund of the Jewish Foundation of Memphis. Kaethe, her husband Paul, and their 17-year-old daughter Doris were murdered in Auschwitz.

All entries are due by the close of business, Monday, April 1, 2024.

Click here for complete guidelines for art contest .

Click here to complete guidelines for essay contest..

For more information, please contact Carrie Richardson: [email protected]

2023 Art & Essay Winners

2023 Art & Essay Winners

1st Place: Kayla Lam, Colonial Middle School   2nd Place: Lucy Underwood, Riverdale   3rd Place: Willem Dorros, CPA Nashville TN

Honorable Mentions: Lulu King-Wilson, University of Memphis Middle School

      Essay   First Place: Nadav Lowell, MHA

Second Place: Phoebe Jo Fuerst, White Station 

Second Place: Lea Thomas, St. Mary's

• Letters to the editor
• Advertise with us
• Atlanta Jewish Connector
• Publisher: Michael Morris
• Editor & Managing Publisher: Kaylene Ladinsky

• Health and Wellness
• Jewish Time Podcast
• Bar/Bat Mitzvahs
• Engagements
• Anniversaries
• Submit a Simcha
• Atlanta Atlanta Jewish Times
• North New Jersey The Jewish Standard
• Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle
• United Kingdom The Jewish News
• Australia The Australian Jewish News
• For Publishers Become a Times of Israel Partner

Three Students Honored in B’nai B’rith Essay Contest

Wisdom can come from unlikely places, and no where is that more obvious than reading through b’nai b’rith’s enlighten america essay contest entries..

Get The AJT Newsletter by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

The competition encourages students to reflect on concepts of tolerance, equality and respect for all people, and “stresses harmony over violence and equality over prejudice.”

This year’s submissions exceeded all expectations, with more than 600 essays written, and schools selected from their entries, submitting 54 finalists to a panel of three judges.

“The schools did a pretty good job of slimming down the lists for us,” Anapolle said. “Teachers had read all the essays, and they selected the best ones from their class.”

This year’s judges were RuthE Levy, Margie Simonoff and Marcus Brodzki. Simonoff admitted that she was initially overwhelmed by the surplus of entries, as judges expected to see 10 or 12.

“As I began to read through them, I got caught up in the material and was so happy that so many youngsters were given an opportunity to reflect upon and write about this most important subject, which has such relevance in today’s world,” she said.

Levy, owner of And Thou Shalt Read bookstore, was impressed by the quality of the entries.

“It was so hard to choose a winner because there were so many good ones,” Levy said. “Congratulations to the winners and to all who participated.”

Schwartz, a seventh grader, took first place, winning $750 for herself and $500 for Woodward, with her essay, “Subconscious Biases: The Elephant in the Room.”

Weatherill, also in seventh grade, took second for a $500 prize with his essay, “Diversity,” and eighth-grader Robinson took third for $250, with “Am I Safe?”

The two Woodward students, Schwartz and Robinson, received their awards on May 23 in front of their peers. Weatherill was recognized at Kol Emeth during Shabbat services May 24.

Anapolle explained that reaching students at this age was an important feature of the essay contest.

“They’re still forming their own thoughts and behaviors,” he said. “So we want to point out these issues at that age, and that really is our target. We want to see them figuring out how to address these issues.”

To read the winning essays, visit www.bit.ly/2I2r3If.

• B'nai Brith
• Englighten America Essay Contest
• Vic Anapolle
• B’nai B’rith International Achim Gate City Lodge
• Woodward Academy
• Temple Kol Emeth
• Margie Simonoff
• Marcus Brodzki

Connecting Jewish Tulsa

• Holocaust Education

The Council for Holocaust Education’s mission is to assist and coordinate the Holocaust educational efforts of teachers and students in the greater Tulsa area and beyond.

We believe in the critical importance of Holocaust education for students of all faiths and backgrounds, to encourage a society that tolerates diversity and respects human dignity for all citizens. Our Holocaust education programs provide educational opportunities for students and resources to help educators teach the history of the Holocaust.

• Yom HaShoah Interfaith Commemoration event
• Kristallnacht Remembrance event
• Kristallnacht Art Contest (for middle and high school students)
• Yom HaShoah Art Contest (for middle and high school students)
• White Rose Essay Contest (for middle and high school students)

White Rose Essay Contest

The White Rose movement was an intellectual resistance group in Nazi Germany led by five students and one professor at the University of Munich. The group conducted an anonymous leaflet distribution campaign that called for active opposition to the Nazi regime. The White Rose Essay Contest honors the memory of these brave individuals through their chosen medium of written work. The contest allows middle and high school students to reflect on their Holocaust studies through impactful research and a personalized writing experience, using a new theme each year. The contest meets Oklahoma Academic Standards by generating an understanding of the effects of the Holocaust, and highlighting the ramifications of bigotry, stereotyping and discrimination.

All Oklahoma Middle and High School students, grades 6-12 are eligible to enter the contest. Cash prizes awarded to both students and teachers.

Deadline: March 3, 2025

For questions or more information, contact Sofia Thornblad at [email protected]

Yom HaShoah Art Contest

The Yom HaShoah Art Contest aims to enhance student learning of the Holocaust by providing an opportunity for middle and high school students to turn their historical knowledge into works of art. Each year the contest take on a new theme to inspire artists to showcase their classroom learning using the medium of visual art. The contest meets Oklahoma Academic Standards by relating artistic ideas with societal, cultural, and historical context to deepen understanding.

Deadline: April 17, 2025

What is Yom HaShoah?

Kristallnacht art contest.

The Kristallnacht Art Contest aims to enhance student learning of the Holocaust by providing an opportunity for middle and high school students to turn their historical knowledge into works of art. Each year the contests take on a new theme to inspire artists to showcase their classroom learning using the medium of visual art. The contest meets Oklahoma Academic Standards by relating artistic ideas with societal, cultural, and historical context to deepen understanding.

All Oklahoma Middle and High School students, grades 6-12 are eligible to enter the contests. Cash prizes awarded to both students and teachers.

Deadline: November 4, 2024

What is Kristallnacht?

What Is Kristallnacht?

On the night of November 9–10, 1938, Nazi leaders unleashed a coordinated wave of violence against Jewish homes, Jewish owned businesses, and Jewish places of worship in Nazi Germany. This event came to be called “Kristallnacht” in German, or “The Night of Broken Glass” in English, because of the shattered glass that littered the streets after the widespread vandalism and destruction.

JFT News and Updates

Jewish federation of tulsa 2021 e. 71st street tulsa, ok 74136 918-495-1100.

• Leadership & Staff
• Ways to Give
• Annual Campaign
• Legacy Giving
• Tribute Gifts
• Tulsa Jewish Review
• Annual Report
• Get Involved
• Privacy Policy
• Staff Log-in

© 2023 Jewish Federation of Tulsa | All Rights Reserved

• Senior Living
• Akiva Academy
• Mission Statement
• 2023 Annual Report
• Board Members
• Strategic Plan Summary
• Careers at Youngstown Area Jewish Federation
• Follow Us on Social Media
• Transformative Journey: Local Educators' Holocaust Experience in Poland
• 2024 Annual Meeting
• Voter Registration Drive
• Lunch with MinniJean
• Car Donation
• Annual Campaign
• Legacy Gifts
• PACE & Lion of Judah
• Pay Your Pledge
• Community Calendar
• Photo Gallery
• Survivor Interviews (A - H)
• Survivor Interviews (I - Z)
• Jewish Education
• Other Organizations
• Community Mikvah
• New to the Area
• Jewish Community Center
• Senior Living by the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation
• Speak Up, Speak Out: Erase the Hate!
• JCRC Staff & Board
• Volunteer with JCRC
• JCRC Partner Organizations
• Holocaust Writing, Art, and Multimedia Contest 2024 Winners
• Jewish Family & Community Services
• Youngstown Area Jewish Cemeteries Association
• Jewish Journal Staff
• 2024 Issues
• 2016-2023 Issues
• Classified Ads
• Rosh Hashanah Greetings
• March for Israel video
• We Stand with Israel Statements
• A Primer to the Israel-Hamas War
• Jewish Federations of North America
• American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
• Jewish Agency for Israel
• Partnership2Gether
• Ukraine Updates

Student Holocaust Writing, Art and Multimedia Contest

“Righteous Among the Nations”

"I believe that it was really due to Lorenzo that I am alive today; and not so much for his material aid, as for his having constantly reminded me by his presence…that there still existed a just world outside our own, something and someone still pure and whole…for which it was worth surviving."

-  Primo Levi describing his rescuer, Lorenzo Perrone (“ If This Is A Man” )

The Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation invited students in grades 7-12 in Mahoning, Trumbull, and Columbiana Counties, and Western Pennsylvania, to enter its annual Holocaust Writing, Art, and Multimedia contest. This annual contest is held in conjunction with Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Memorial Day), an internationally recognized day to be commemorated this academic year on Monday, May 6, 2024, set aside for remembering all victims of the Holocaust and for reminding society of what can happen to civilized people when bigotry, hatred, and indifference reign.

The theme for the 2024 contest was “Righteous Among the Nations,” an official title awarded by Yad Vashem , the world Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, Israel, to courageous non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.

Attitudes towards Jews during the Holocaust largely ranged from indifference to hostility. The mainstream watched as their former neighbors were rounded up and killed. Some collaborated with the perpetrators. Many benefited from the expropriation of Jews’ property.

However, many non-Jews took great risks to save Jews, despite posted notices warning the population against this practice. Rescuers who sheltered Jews faced severe punishment that included incarceration in camps or execution. Non-Jews watched the Nazis’ brutal treatment of Jews, knowing that they would suffer greatly if they attempted to help the persecuted.

As a result, rescuers and those being hidden lived under constant fear of being caught, making it more difficult for ordinary people to defy the conventions and rules. Those who decided to shelter Jews had to sacrifice their normal lives and embark upon a clandestine existence, often against the accepted norms of the society in which they lived, in a life ruled by fear of their neighbors and friends, and by dread of denunciation and capture.

In a world of total moral collapse, this small minority who mustered extraordinary courage to uphold human values and rescue Jews were the “Righteous Among the Nations.” Most rescuers were ordinary humans from all walks of life and religions who risked everything to care for and protect those in need. Their humanity and courage of the Righteous serve as a model, teaching us that every person can make a difference in fighting hate, bias, injustice, discrimination, and persecution.

2024 Winners:

Charles Beichner, first place, grade 7-8 Poetry, Boardman Glenwood Junior High

Ronnell Gordon, second place, Grade 7-8 Poetry, Akiva Academy

Shelby Sullivan, third place, Grade 7-8 Poetry, Austintown Middle School

Danica Stanley, third place, Grade 7-8 Poetry, Austintown Middle School

Morgan Avery, first place, Grade 7-8 Essay, Austintown Middle School

Averi Billups, second place, Grade 7-8 Essay, Austintown Middle School

McKena Briggs, third place, Grade 7-8 Essay, Austintown Middle School

Addison Woodburn, first place, Grade 7-8 Art/Multi-media, Lowellville School District

Rubylyn Payumo, second place, Grade 7-8 Art/Multi-media, Austintown Middle School

Marion Pazin, third place, Grade 7-8 Art/Multi-media, Akiva Academy

Kharma Flowers, first place, Grade 9-10 Poetry, Sebring McKinley High School

Ava Acevedo, second place, Grade 9-10 Poetry, Boardman High School

Gianna Berardino, first place, Grade 9-10 Essay, Boardman High School

Jack Benson, second place, Grade 9-10 Essay, Boardman High School

Alexander Hoffman, third place, Grade 9-10 Essay, Boardman High School

Ella McGree, first place, Grade 9-10 Art/Multi-Media, Boardman High School

Kyrie Heeman, second place, Grade 9-10 Art/Multi-Media, Boardman High School

Natalie Vasquez, first place, Grade 11-12 Poetry, Boardman High School

Kaylee McCarty, second place, Grade 11-12 Poetry, West Middlesex High School

Ayzlin Jones, third place, Grade 11-12 Poetry, West Middlesex High School

Brayden Aratari, first place, Grade 11-12 Essay, Crestview High School

Lola Gordiejew, second place, Grade 11-12 Essay, Boardman High School

Maggie Hoffman, third place, Grade 11-12 Essay, West Middlesex High School

Natalie Vasquez, third place, Grade 11-12 Essay, Boardman High School

Sara Tackett, first place, Grade 11-12 Art/Multi-Media, Boardman High School

Ella Bartholomew, second place, Grade 11-12 Art/Multi-Media, West Middlesex High School

Ohio State navigation bar

• BuckeyeLink
• Search Ohio State

Annual Scholarships and Awards for Undergraduate and Graduate Students

*PLEASE NOTE CHANGES IN DEADLINES FOR SOME OF THE AWARDS

* the norbert and gretel b. bloch endowed scholarship fund in jewish studies to coordinate a program to enhance awareness of topics relevant to jewish life, culture, or history, and are returning autumn 2024 semester . , deadline to apply: nov. 15, 2024., * the ellen e. and victor j. cohn education abroad scholarship fund for study at hebrew university for students attending hebrew university. preference will be given to students who wish to study at hebrew university for the entire academic year. , deadline to apply: march 3, 2025 for summer or fall semester, dec 2, 2024 for winter semester., the emily and george severinghaus beck education abroad scholarship this scholarship is for students who wish to study yiddish in the united states and abroad. priority will be given to those who demonstrate financial need and are returning autumn 2024 semester . the award is contingent on acceptance to the academic program and ohio state approval of student travel to a country outside the united states (if the program is located in an institution abroad). please contact [email protected] for a current list of yiddish programs approved for this scholarship. , deadline to apply: march 3, 2025, the morris and fannie skilken family foundation endowment fund scholarship for yiddish and ashkenazi studies   supports undergraduate students who study hebrew, yiddish and ashkenazi studies, jewish studies, or studies in jewish oral history, and are returning for the autumn 2025 semester. two scholarships will be awarded. , deadline to apply: march 3, 2025., the reva and sanford lipson student support fund supports undergraduate students who have studied or researched the history of the jewish people, and are returning autumn 2024 semester . two scholarships will be awarded. , the charlotte susan roth memorial fund essay contest for currently enrolled undergraduate and graduate students who have written a paper on any aspect of jewish studies. ,               deadline to apply: march 3, 2025, the leah metchnick godofsky and martin r. godofsky scholarship awarded to a student for showing excellence in the classroom.  this award is nominated by faculty and does not require an application.  , the norbert and gretel b. bloch endowed scholarship fund in jewish studies, a $1,000 scholarship plus a program budget is awarded to a student engaged in jewish studies who will coordinate a program that will enhance awareness of topics relevant to jewish life, culture, or history. the student will receive a program budget and will collaborate with melton center staff to plan, publicize and carry out the program. , eligibility requirements:.

• Current enrollment as an undergraduate at Ohio State and continued enrollment for the following year
• Current enrollment as an undergraduate or graduate at Ohio State 
• Successful completion of at least one Jewish studies course (e.g., Hebrew, Yiddish, or any other course with a Jewish studies topic)
• Must be willing to commit time to help plan, publicize and carry out programming in conjunction with Melton Center staff.

Application Requirements:

• Completed application form   Deadline: Nov. 15, 2024
• A copy of an Advising Repor t
• A one-page proposal for a program or programming to enhance awareness of topics relevant to Jewish life, culture, or history
• Two letters of recommendation from faculty members . Electronic letters of recommendation are acceptable (email to [email protected] )

The Ellen E. and Victor J. Cohn Education Abroad Scholarship Fund for Study at Hebrew University

Financial support is available for up to $5,000 for study at the hebrew university in jerusalem. preference will be given to students attending hebrew university for the entire academic year and are returning autumn 2024 semester . the award is contingent on acceptance to the hebrew university and ohio state approval of student travel to israel. deadlines:  december 2, 2024 for winter semester 2025, and march 3, 2025  for summer or fall of 2025., up to $5000 is available for up to two students..

• Desire to study at Hebrew University
• Completed application form   Deadline for spring semester, December 2, 2024 ; Deadline for summer or fall, March 3, 2025 .
• A copy of an  Advising Report
• Detailed budget including program expenses and travel , including the dollar amount you are are able to contribute.
• Two letters of recommendation from faculty members. Electronic letters of recommendation are acceptable (email to [email protected] )
• Please submit a statement (250-400 words) explaining how you expect study at Hebrew University to enhance your academic career.
• A copy of the acceptance letter from Hebrew University

The George and Emily Severinghaus Beck Education Abroad Scholarship

This scholarship is for students who wish to study yiddish in the united states and abroad. priority will be given to undergraduate students who are returning autumn 2025 semester . the award is contingent on acceptance to the academic program and ohio state approval of student travel to a country outside the united states (if the program is located in an institution abroad). please contact [email protected] for a current list of yiddish programs approved for this scholarship., up to $2,000 is available to up to two students each year..

• Current enrollment as at Ohio State   and continued enrollment for the following semester
• Past foreign language experience  (any foreign language experience)
• Completed  application form   Deadline: Friday, March 3, 2025 .
• Detailed budget including program expenses and travel, including the dollar amount you are are able to contribute.
• A copy of your acceptance letter to the program you have chosen.
• One letter of recommendation from a faculty member. Electronic letters of recommendation are acceptable. (email to  [email protected] )
• Please submit a statement (250-400 words) explaining how you expect study at the the program you have chosen to enhance your academic career, and plans for how the program would be beneficial to you in the future.

The Morris and Fannie Skilken Family Foundation Endowment Fund Scholarship for Yiddish and Ashkenazi Studies

Supports undergraduate students who study hebrew, yiddish and ashkenazi studies, jewish studies, or studies in jewish oral history and are returning autumn 2025 semester ., up to $2000 is available per academic year for up to two students..

• Minimum 3.3 overal GPA
• Recipients will be chosen on the basis of academic performance and commitment to the goals of Jewish Studies scholarship.
• Must have completed one course in an area of Jewish Studies
• Completed application form . Deadline: March 3, 2025 .
• Please submit a statement (250-400 words) explaining the award's relevance to your academic, professional, and personal goals.

The Reva and Sanford Lipson Student Support Fund

Up to $2,000 can be awarded to two students..

• Successful completion of one Jewish Studies course (e.g., Hebrew, Yiddish, or any other course with a Jewish Studies topic). Preference given to students who major or minor in Jewish Studies, Jewish Oral History, Hebrew, or Yiddish. 
• Completed application form . Deadline:  March 3, 2025

The Charlotte Susan Roth Memorial Fund Essay Contest

There are first and second prizes in the graduate and undergraduate categories. first prize is $750, second prize is $500. essay topics can include any aspect of jewish studies (bible, language, literature, history, philosophy, sociology, culture of israel, rabbinics, etc.)  open to any currently enrolled graduate and undergraduate student who has written a paper on a topic related to jewish studies from autumn semester to spring semester. .

• Current enrollment as an undergraduate or graduate student at Ohio State.
• One essay of no fewer than 1500 words . Bibliography and footnoting of research materials are required. Essay may be a revision of a paper initially written for a course. Your name and/or course information must not appear on your essay, so the committee may score your essay without knowing who it belongs to.
• Please submit essay in PDF format via the "browse" function on the application form . Your name must NOT appear on your essay . We will match your essay with your application submission.  

The Leah Metchnick Godofsky and Martin R. Godofsky Scholarship of the Columbus Jewish Foundation in memory of Clara U. and Abraham Mayer Metchnick

Upon consultation with the faculty, the Student Awards Committee of the Melton Center for Jewish Studies at The Ohio State University will award $1,200 annually to one deserving undergraduate student who is enrolled in courses of Jewish study at the university level. This award is nominated by faculty and does not require an application.

For more information, contact Lori Fireman, [email protected] .

Meet the 2024 History Teachers of the Year!

• AP US History Study Guide
• History U: Courses for High School Students
• History School: Summer Enrichment
• Lesson Plans
• Classroom Resources
• Spotlights on Primary Sources
• Professional Development (Academic Year)
• Professional Development (Summer)
• Book Breaks
• Inside the Vault
• Self-Paced Courses
• Browse All Resources
• Search by Issue
• Search by Essay
• Become a Member (Free)
• Monthly Offer (Free for Members)
• Program Information
• Scholarships and Financial Aid
• Applying and Enrolling
• Eligibility (In-Person)
• EduHam Online
• Hamilton Cast Read Alongs
• Official Website
• Press Coverage
• Veterans Legacy Program
• The Declaration at 250
• Black Lives in the Founding Era
• Celebrating American Historical Holidays
• Browse All Programs
• Donate Items to the Collection
• Search Our Catalog
• Research Guides
• Rights and Reproductions
• See Our Documents on Display
• Bring an Exhibition to Your Organization
• Interactive Exhibitions Online
• About the Transcription Program
• Civil War Letters
• Founding Era Newspapers
• College Fellowships in American History
• Scholarly Fellowship Program
• Richard Gilder History Prize
• David McCullough Essay Prize
• Affiliate School Scholarships
• Nominate a Teacher
• State Winners
• National Winners
• Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize
• Gilder Lehrman Military History Prize
• George Washington Prize
• Frederick Douglass Book Prize
• Our Mission and History
• Annual Report
• Contact Information
• Student Advisory Council
• Teacher Advisory Council
• Board of Trustees
• Remembering Richard Gilder
• President's Council
• Scholarly Advisory Board
• Internships
• Our Partners
• Press Releases

Programs & Events

Student opportunities, david mccullough essay prizes.

David McCullough at Trinity School in Manhattan, October 15, 2019

The 2024 David McCullough Essay Prize Contest is now closed for submissions.

This contest is named in memory of David McCullough (1933–2022)—a Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and Gilder Lehrman Life Trustee—and honors his career telling America’s stories and examining its histories. Learn more about his life and legacy here .

High school students attending schools in our Affiliate School Program are eligible and encouraged to participate. They are invited to submit an original essay, written independently or for a 2023–2024 class, that has been revised, expanded, and adapted to conform with the new McCullough Prize specifications. The two essay categories are as follows:

Research Essay: Students are invited to submit a research essay incorporating primary and secondary sources on a topic in American history from 1491 to 2001.

Interpretive Essay: Students are invited to submit an interpretive essay focusing on close reading and analysis of one primary source from American history, 1491 to 2001, in the Gilder Lehrman Collection of more than 86,000 historical documents.

More requirements for both essay categories can be found in these updated 2024 rubrics .

All participants will receive a certificate of participation suitable for framing. Prize winners in each of our two categories—research essays and a new interpretive essay category—will receive cash awards as follows:

• 1st Prize: $5,000 (plus a $500 prize awarded to the school)
• 2nd Prize: $1,500 (plus a $500 prize awarded to the school)
• Five 3rd Prizes: $500 each

 A panel of Gilder Lehrman master teachers will choose the pool of finalists, from which a jury of eminent historians will choose the winners. Essays will be evaluated for their historical rigor, the clarity and correctness of their style, their use of evidence, and their qualities of empathy and imagination. 

Winners will be notified and announced no later than Friday, September 13, 2024.

General Requirements

Font and Page Style: Papers should be submitted in 12-point, Times New Roman font with one-inch margins at the top, bottom, and sides. Essays should be free of teacher commentary or other notes.

Organization: Top essays have an introduction, body, and conclusion and a clearly stated, well-developed thesis statement with supportive historical evidence.

Essay Topics: Essays can be on any topic related to American history from 1491 to 2001. Essays in the interpretative category must feature a primary source (letter, broadside, art, political cartoon, speech, etc.) from the Gilder Lehrman Collection .

Stay up to date, and subscribe to our quarterly newsletter.

Learn how the Institute impacts history education through our work guiding teachers, energizing students, and supporting research.

Find anything you save across the site in your account

Two Paths for Jewish Politics

My first and only experience of antisemitism in America came wrapped in a bow of care and concern. In 1993, I spent the summer in Tennessee with my girlfriend. At a barbecue, we were peppered with questions. What brought us south? How were we getting on? Where did we go to church? We explained that we didn’t go to church because we were Jewish. “That’s O.K.,” a woman reassured us. Having never thought that it wasn’t, I flashed a puzzled smile and recalled an observation of the German writer Ludwig Börne: “Some reproach me with being a Jew, others pardon me, still others praise me for it. But all are thinking about it.”

Thirty-one years later, everyone’s thinking about the Jews. Poll after poll asks them if they feel safe. Donald Trump and Kamala Harris lob insults about who’s the greater antisemite. Congressional Republicans, who have all of two Jews in their caucus , deliver lectures on Jewish history to university leaders. “I want you to kneel down and touch the stone which paved the grounds of Auschwitz,” the Oregon Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer declared at a hearing in May, urging a visit to D.C.’s Holocaust museum. “I want you to peer over the countless shoes of murdered Jews.” She gave no indication of knowing that one of the leaders she was addressing had been a victim of antisemitism or that another was the descendant of Holocaust survivors.

It’s no accident that non-Jews talk about Jews as if we aren’t there. According to the historian David Nirenberg , talking about the Jews—not actual Jews but Jews in the abstract—is how Gentiles make sense of their world, from the largest questions of existence to the smallest questions of economics. Nirenberg’s focus is “anti-Judaism,” how negative ideas about Jews are woven into canons of Western thought. But as I learned that summer in Tennessee, and as we’re seeing today, concern can be as revealing as contempt. Often the two go hand in hand.

Consider the Antisemitism Awareness Act , which the House of Representatives recently passed by a vote of 320–91. The act purports to be a response to rising antisemitism in the United States. Yet the murder of Jews, synagogue shootings, and cries of “Jews will not replace us” are clearly not what the bill is designed to address. Nearly half of Republicans believe in the “great replacement theory,” after all, and their leader draws from the same well .

The bill will instead outfit the federal government with a new definition of antisemitism that would shield Israel from criticism and turn campus activism on behalf of Palestinians into acts of illegal discrimination. (Seven of the definition’s eleven examples of antisemitism involve opposition to the State of Israel.) Right-wingers who vocally oppose the bill—Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz , Tucker Carlson , and Charlie Kirk—have little problem with its Zionist agenda. They just worry that it will implicate those who believe the Jews are Christ killers.

The G.O.P. is not the only party whose solicitude for the Jews betrays an underlying unease. President Biden has said repeatedly that without Israel no Jew in the world is safe. It sounds like a statement of solidarity, but it’s really a confession of bankruptcy, a disavowal of the democratic state’s obligation to protect its citizens equally. As Biden told a group of Jewish leaders in 2014, nine months before Trump announced his Presidential campaign, “You understand in your bones that no matter how hospitable, no matter how consequential, no matter how engaged, no matter how deeply involved you are in the United States . . . there is really only one absolute guarantee, and that’s the State of Israel.” I’ve lived most of my life in the United States; three of my four grandparents were born here. If the President of my country—a liberal and a Democrat, no less—is saying that my government can’t protect me, where am I supposed to go? I’m Jewish, not Israeli.

Some Jews might feel cheered by Republican crusades against antisemitism or Democratic affirmations of Israel. But there is a long history to these special provisions and professions of concern. Repeating patterns from the ancient and medieval world—and abandoning the innovations pioneered by Jews in the United States—they are bad for democracy. And bad for the Jews.

Contrary to popular myth, the history of Jews and Gentiles is not one of unremitting hostility or eternal antisemitism. It is a chronicle of oscillation, Hannah Arendt argued , a cycle of “special discrimination” and “special favor,” with sovereigns bestowing—then revoking—power and privilege upon the Jews. Jewish leaders, lacking sovereignty of their own, eager to defend their brethren from twitchy neighbors, made themselves indispensable, providing resources to Popes and emperors, lords and kings. They used their favored status to create autonomous communities for their people. Despite their success, or perhaps because of it, they never erased the fine line that separates persecution from protection.

Texts sacred and secular tell the story. A seldom discussed chapter in Genesis lets slip that long before the Israelites were enslaved by Pharaoh, Joseph was ensconced in Pharaoh’s court. As Pharaoh’s right-hand man, Joseph compelled Egypt’s farmers to sell their land for food during a famine, effectively rendering them serfs of the state. Not long after, Exodus opens with a report that “there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.” This new king turned the Egyptians against the Israelites.

After the Greeks conquered Egypt, the Jews of Alexandria were largely denied citizenship in the Hellenic empire. They still managed to curry favor with rulers, which placed them above native Egyptians in the social hierarchy. Centuries later, after the Romans took over, the new regime continued this tradition, adding the envy of the Greeks to the hatred of the Egyptians, stirring up a riotous stew.

Christianity, the child of Judaism, introduced a dangerously Oedipal ingredient to the mix. Despite Christian teaching that the Jews were responsible for Christ’s death, Augustine explained that the Jews should be treated as a people of witness, suitable for preservation rather than punishment. Alive, they testified to the truth of the Hebrew Bible, the Gospels’ predecessor. Dispersed and miserable, they proved the peril of refusing Christ. It was the obligation of Christian rulers to look after the Jews, Augustine claimed , to maintain them “separate in their observance and unlike the rest of the world.”

By providing a theological gloss on an old idea, Augustine put Jews in the crosshairs of Christian politics. At moments of calm, they received privileges and charters granting them levels of autonomy, access, and security that not all groups enjoyed. In thirteenth-century Poland, the historian David Myers writes , Christians could even be fined if they “failed to heed the cries of Jews in the middle of the night.” At moments of change, they were targets of persecution and slaughter. Either way, their fortunes were tied to that of the sovereign, who could be accused of granting the Jews too much protection or not enough.

That left Jewish leaders forever scanning the horizon for trouble—usually from the sovereign or the Gentiles surrounding them, and sometimes from their own people, who were suspicious of their contacts outside the community. As they came to play the role of the “court Jew,” advising the rulers of the medieval era and financing the treasuries of early modern states, they accumulated power and incurred resentment. But with the consolidation of modern nation-states, which claimed to speak for peoples rather than through kings, the hard-won lessons of Jewish élite politics grew increasingly obsolete. Across the Atlantic, a new, more democratic, model beckoned.

Not a single Jew signed the Declaration of Independence or deliberated at the Constitutional Convention. That probably had more to do with numbers—they were a mere twenty-five hundred of 2.5 million people—than with animus. For long before America’s revolutionaries affixed their names to the ideals of freedom, equality, and republican governance, Jews in America had been learning the arts of democracy.

Throughout the eighteenth century, Jews petitioned colonial governments for the democratic rights of membership and participation, responding to leaders like Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island, who saw the polity as “a receptacle for people of several Sorts and Opinions.” They built a coalition with the Huguenots of South Carolina to demand their rights. Even before the Revolution, they secured the right, with Quakers, to affirm their allegiance to the government without taking an oath of Christian faith. After the Revolution, they were primed to convert that victory into the right to hold government office. They avowed no special virtues, disavowed no special vices, invoked no high connections. They simply stood by the Constitution, which prohibits religious tests for federal office, and their service to the revolutionary cause.

In Europe, emancipation was often conditioned on cleaving the citizen from the Jew. “The Jews should be refused everything as a nation,” one delegate to the French National Assembly declared, “but granted everything as individuals.” Many American Jews sought to avoid that separation. Instead of abandoning Judaism or relegating it to the private sphere, they designed their institutions in the image of the democracy they were helping to build. As the historian Hasia Diner has shown , synagogues wrote their own constitutions, with democratic procedures, a bill of rights, and provisions for amendment. Government officials were invited to address congregations rather than negotiate with individual élites. Where Jews in modern Europe worked with states to anoint one body to represent them all, continuing the medieval tradition of a single interceding voice between sovereign and Jewry, Jews in America created a multiplicity of organizations, some more democratic than others, none with the power or authority to speak for the whole.

The climax of this distinctively modern approach to Jewish politics came not in defense of the Jews but in support of the New Deal and the Black Freedom struggle. This may seem paradoxical, instances of Jewish do-gooders acting on behalf of others. The protagonists saw things differently. As the Jewish Community Relations Council of Cincinnati declared in 1963, “The society in which Jews are most secure, is itself secure, only to the extent that citizens of all races and creeds enjoy full equality.” This was the opposite of the lesson that Jews had learned across the European millennia.

Although struggles for reform in the United States could provoke antisemitic backlashes, American Jews understood that only in a full and complete democracy could they live full and complete lives. After decades of splitting their votes between Democrats and Republicans, more than ninety per cent of Jewish voters cast their ballots for Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1944. Orthodox and Reform Jews alike united to welcome the Brown decision, declaring integration, in the words of one Jewish leader, “a veritable fulfillment of our own Jewish purpose and our American dream of destiny.”

In recent years, it’s become fashionable to argue that democracy cannot withstand antisemitism. At moments of intense polarization or economic insecurity, anxious voters look for scapegoats—immigrants, Blacks, Jews—and racist demagogues to get rid of them. In keeping with this waning faith in democracy, influential Jews have reverted to the European model. Instead of organizing or joining democratic movements to fight racism, defend immigration, and build social democracy, Jewish leaders and donors supplicate sovereigns or would-be sovereigns who are antisemitic , or aligned with antisemitism , yet promise special protection for the Jews at home or in Israel. The result is a curious coalition of Jew-lovers and Jew-haters, reminding us that, as Arendt wrote, “society always reacted first to a strong antisemitic movement with marked preference for Jews.”

A forgotten episode from the most polarizing moment in American history, compactly reconstructed by the historian Jonathan Sarna , suggests that democracy has more to offer us than special dispensations from the sovereign. On December 17, 1862, in the midst of the Civil War, General Ulysses S. Grant ordered the expulsion of all Jews living in his zone of command, which spanned parts of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky. “The most sweeping anti-Jewish regulation in all American history,” Grant’s order had the potential to affect thousands of Jewish men, women, and children in the region, many of them recent immigrants.

Jews had reasons to worry. Wars seldom go well for the Jews, and this one had stirred up all sorts of antisemitism, notably in the North. Jews held prominent positions in the Confederacy. Long identified with money and greed, they were associated in the northern mind with cotton speculators, gold smugglers, corruption, and illegal trade. Grant had his own demons when it came to the Jews, but, even if he hadn’t, he had a penchant for collective punishment. Expelling Jews as a wartime measure against smuggling—and that is what General Orders No. 11 was—was the least of it. Everything seemed primed for a repeat of expulsions past: from ancient Israel; from medieval England, France, and Spain; from cities and towns in Central and Eastern Europe; and now from the “Department of the Tennessee.”

But then that rarest thing in Jewish history happened: nothing. With a few exceptions, Grant’s order was hardly enforced. At least one commander initially defied it, claiming that “he was an officer of the army and not of a church.” As soon as President Lincoln learned of it, on January 3, 1863, he ordered it revoked, which Grant did three days later. “To condemn a class,” Lincoln said, “is, to say the least, to wrong the good with the bad. I do not like to hear a class or nationality condemned on account of a few sinners.”

Of course, a lot happened between December 17th and January 6th, but it belongs to the history of democratic action, rather than Jewish suffering. As soon as a Union captain tried to implement Grant’s order, in Paducah, Kentucky, the Jews mobilized. A group of Paducah locals sent an angry telegram to Lincoln. They went to the national press, which reported the story, and many newspapers editorialized against the order. Isaac Mayer Wise, one of America’s leading rabbis, reminded his fellow-citizens that the order was “everybody’s business,” not just the Jews’. As a final step, the Jews marched on Washington (really, they just travelled in small delegations to the capital). With the help of a sympathetic former congressman, they met with Lincoln, who assured them of his opposition to the order.

It’s no accident that Lincoln’s revocation of Grant’s order came two days after he issued the Emancipation Proclamation. The war turned the battle against slavery into a more general struggle for freedom and equality, which continued long after the fighting was done. In 1868, the Presidential election pitted the Republican Grant against the Democrat Horatio Seymour, whose running mate was a firm opponent of Black equality. Though Reconstruction and Black suffrage were the main issues on the ballot, Jews played an unprecedented role in the election. Anticipating a close result, particularly in battleground states in the Midwest, both parties courted the Jewish vote. Democrats reminded Jewish voters that Grant had shown his true colors with General Orders No. 11. They also warned that Jews would be replaced by Black freedmen, who were Christian. Countering these narrow appeals to Jewish particularity, Jewish Republicans pointed out that Grant had atoned for his order, and that his party’s belief that “all men of all races should be equal” made him “the best man for us Israelites.”

After Grant won, he aggressively pursued the twin causes of Black and Jewish equality, which he saw as the cornerstones of human rights. He stood fast against various efforts to make the United States a Christian nation, pushing for a constitutional amendment that would create free public schools with no teaching of religion. His eight years in office saw the building of many new and beautiful synagogues. Grant appointed more Jews to government office than any President before him. Simon Wolf—who declared a triple identity for himself as “German by birth, an Israelite by faith, and . . . a thorough American by adoption”—was named Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia. Affirming that “a Jew must not have any prejudice,” Wolf proclaimed to have appointed the first Black man to a clerkship in his office; that man was the son of Frederick Douglass. After James Garfield was elected President in 1880, he made Douglass Recorder of Deeds, a position continuously held by a Black person until 1952.

History seldom offers any lessons, but this one is clear. American Jews pioneered a new way of being Jewish and democratic. They did it in coalition with other subjugated groups. In the twentieth century, their lodestar was a multiracial egalitarian society. The fading of that vision is a symptom not of rising fascism or even increasing antisemitism but of regression—to an early, eerie, European way of doing things. It’s not good for democracy. And it’s never been good for the Jews. ♦

New Yorker Favorites

The hottest restaurant in France is an all-you-can-eat buffet .

How to die in good health .

Was Machiavelli misunderstood ?

A heat shield for the most important ice on Earth .

A major Black novelist made a remarkable début. Why did he disappear ?

Andy Warhol obsessively documented his life, but he also lied constantly, almost recreationally .

Sign up for our daily newsletter to receive the best stories from The New Yorker .

By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.