Only in America: The Story of American Jews - A Radio Documentary

ONLY IN AMERICA is an 8-part radio documentary on the history of American Jews, 1654-2000.

Including: Elie Weisel, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg John Lithgow, Jon Stewart, Mel Brooks, Jerry Stiller, Philip Roth, Zero Mostel and many others.

More than three hundred and fifty years ago, in September 1654, twenty - three impoverished Jews arrived by ship in New Amsterdam after having been expelled from Recife, Brazil. Adding insult to injury, Governor Peter Stuyvesant tried to expel them when they arrived. They refused to leave, successfully appealing Stuyvesant's order to the board of the Dutch West India Company. This was the less than auspicious beginning of the Jewish experience in America.

ONLY IN AMERICA, shows the progress of American Jews from this trickle of poor immigrants to today's thriving community of six million. ONLY IN AMERICA is organized around themes, historical periods and individuals that illustrate important aspects of American Jewish history.

The series shows that the story of American Jews is the story of all American immigrants: how they have changed America and how America has changed them. The title, ONLY IN AMERICA, reflects our belief in American exceptionalism - that the spectacular rise of American Jews over more than three centuries could only have happened here. Freedom, equality and opportunity, eventually transcending class and religion, are uniquely American. Nothing like it ever happened in Europe, even after the emancipation of the Jews in the 19th century. Gustav Mahler had to convert to Christianity to become Music Director of the Vienna Philharmonic. By comparison, Leonard Bernstein was openly Jewish when he became director of the New York Philharmonic.

After generations of hard work and struggle, most American Jews now enjoy prosperity and success. Today, Jews occupy high positions in government, the professions, academia, business, entertainment, sports, and the military. ONLY IN AMERICA is full of stories and personalities of Jewish women and men.

Along with the many high points, one program, No Dogs or Jews Allowed, includes some dark moments in American Jewish history: the lynching of Leo Frank, a Jewish businessman falsely accused of killing a gentile woman; General Ulysses Grant's Order #11, expelling Jews from the territory occupied by the Union armies under his command during the Civil War (immediately reversed by President Abraham Lincoln); and the virulent anti-Semitism that started in the 1880s and peaked in the 1930s and 40s, when most Jews fleeing Nazi persecution were denied American visas.

Non-Jewish listeners, almost all from immigrant backgrounds, can see aspects of their own history reflected in American Jewish history: the struggle for success and acceptance; the conflict between assimilating and maintaining one's religious and ethnic identity; and the fight against discrimination (Irish, Poles, Italians, Latinos and Asians have a similar story). The program examines the major question affecting American Jewish life today - assimilation and intermarriage.