Winner, 75th National Jewish Book Award in American Jewish Studies
Introductory remarks by Brandeis University President Arthur Levine.
In observance of International Women's Day, HBI is honored to host Pamela S. Nadell, PhD, author of Antisemitism, an American Tradition (W.W. Norton, 2025), as the 2026 Diane Markowicz Memorial Lecture on Gender and Human Rights guest speaker.
American Jews imagine the U.S. to be a haven from antisemitism. In her powerful new book, historian Pamela Nadell details that antisemitism has always been a feature of American Jewish life, from 1654 when Peter Stuyvesant turned Jews away from the new colony to the current post-October 7th campus protest movement. Nadell argues that ubiquitous and systematic forms of antisemitism are connected and dangerous, warning that when ignored, antisemitism continues to lead to violence. Her lecture will explore this history and offer a way forward, with a particular focus on Jewish women's experiences in the women’s movement and wider society.
Professor Nadell holds the Patrick Clendenen Chair in Women’s and Gender History at American University. She is the author of nine books, including America’s Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today which won the 2019 National Jewish Book Award’s Everett Family Foundation “Book of the Year” and was translated into Hebrew.
The Diane Markowicz Memorial Lecture Series was created by Project on Gender, Culture, Religion and the Law founder Sylvia Neil and her husband Dan Fischel in memory of Sylvia’s late sister, Diane Markowicz, to honor her commitment to gender equality and social justice. Read more about the Markowicz Memorial Lecture Series.
