IRH Fellow:
Jonathan Z.S. Pollack, 2009-2010 Madison Area Technical College Fellow
Synopsis:
In Wisconsin, The New Home of the Jew, Jonathan Z. S. Pollack describes the daily lives, contributions, and challenges of Jewish students, faculty, staff, and alumni at UW–Madison. The early establishment of student Zionist groups, Hillel, and fraternities and sororities at UW set examples for campuses nationwide. In the decades that followed, Madison’s Jewish faculty included a remarkable constellation of internationally renowned scholars. As Pollack shows, however, this is also a story of fluctuating reactions to the Jewish presence and recurring anti-Semitism on the part of the administration, local residents, and state government. Amid periods of acceptance and embrace, discrimination and exclusion, Jews with a stake in the University invested in their community and left a lasting imprint on UW and beyond. Full text available here.