Commentary: American Jews a century ago faced upheaval, bigotry and division — all familiar today
The last month has been profoundly disorienting for American Jews, as we have absorbed the horrific Hamas massacre and subsequent Israeli counterstrikes. This terrible war has surfaced deep divisions within the Jewish community, with some supporting a cease-fire or expressing solidarity with Palestinian civilians and others calling for unwavering backing for the Israeli government.
Yet many of us are experiencing the same jarring feeling that our traumatic past is not so distant, that dormant bigotries have been reawakened and that the Jewish people have again arrived at a moment of profound upheaval.
More than a century ago, American Jews believed they were on the cusp of a new era, that they had finally found sanctuary in a world that for millennia had
