To Bigotry No Sanction: Antisemitism in the United States

In 1790, President George Washington promised the Jewish community in Newport, R.I., that the new nation would give “to bigotry no sanction.” Yet throughout United States history, many groups, including Jews, have faced discrimination and hate. While Jews have found opportunity in America, antisemitism has remained, fueled by harmful myths that paint them as racially different or dangerously powerful. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as Jewish immigrants arrived in large numbers, antisemitic ideas spread through media and public events.

In this lesson from the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in partnership with the ADL, students explore the history of antisemitism in the United States, with a focus on the late 19th and 20th centuries. By analyzing primary sources, they will uncover how antisemitic ideas spread and finish by writing a renewed 21st century promise against bigotry.