Jewish Life

Continuing the conversation sparked by his April 2024 cover story for The Atlantic, “The Golden Age of American Jews Is Ending,” Atlantic staff writer and bestselling author Franklin Foer will be joined by Yolanda Savage-Narva, the vice president of racial equity, diversity, and inclusion for the Union for Reform Judaism, and Dr. Pamela Nadell, Professor of History and Jewish Studies, Patrick Clendenen Chair in Women’s & Gender History, and Director of the Jewish Studies Program at American University, in a dialogue led by Sixth & I’s Senior Rabbi, Aaron Potek. 

Demonstrating how the latter part of the 20th century can be seen as a golden age for Jewish Americans, Foer’s Atlantic cover story explores how that era is giving way to a new age of conspiracy, reckless hyperbole, and political violence. With the rise of anti-Semitism on both the right and the left, this historically unprecedented period of safety and prosperity for Jewish Americans is threatened, demolishing a liberal order that was rooted in values of tolerance, fairness, meritocracy, and cosmopolitanism—a worldview that Jewish intellectuals helped forge during the last century. 

This event will draw from Foer’s reporting and the expertise and experiences of the panel for a robust understanding of this paramount issue.