With our national reckoning on race, so many American Jews are reflecting on systemic racism and ways we may be able to help. Join us for a candid, and probably difficult, journey through American Jewish history as we explore historical documents about Jews and racism. We will think about what it means to “become American” and the ways that racism has played among and within the Jewish community.

Dr. Marc Dollinger holds the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies and Social Responsibility at San Francisco State University. Professor Dollinger is author of four scholarly books in American Jewish history His next project traces his own experience fighting campus anti-Semitism. He’s fascinated by this topic since Jews are both privileged and persecuted while they face rebuke from the political right and left. Dr. Dollinger is a past president of both the Jewish Community High School of the Bay and Brandeis Hillel Day School. Dr. Dollinger serves as academic vice president of Lehrhaus Judaica as well as trustee of URJ Camp Newman. He sits on the California advisory committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights, was named 2008 Volunteer of the Year by the SF Jewish Community Federation, and was awarded the San Francisco JCRC’s 2015 Courageous Leader award for his work against the BDS movement. Just for fun, Professor Dollinger helped actress Helen Hunt learn about her Jewish roots on the NBC program, “Who Do You Think You Are?"