In 1809, North Carolina lawmakers tried to stop Jacob Henry from taking his seat in the state legislature because he was Jewish. Many Americans believed that Jews like Henry couldn’t be moral citizens in a Protestant America, and this inspired them to donate vast sums of money in the early nineteenth century to religious societies dedicated to converting Jews into good Christian citizens.

Featuring: David Sehat, David Sorkin, and Susanna Linsley

Narrated by Mark Oppenheimer

Written by John Turner and Lincoln Mullen 

This series is made possible with support from the Henry Luce Foundation and the David Bruce Smith Foundation. 

Antisemitism, U.S.A. is a production of R2 Studios at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.