This program is presented by the SFSU Department of Jewish Studies as part of the Fall 2020 Lectures in Jewish Studies and co-sponsored by the Jewish Community Library. Click here to register (a free Zoom account is required).

This presentation will explore a new understanding of American Jewish participation in the modern civil rights movement. Starting in the South, Marc Dollinger will examine how and why southern Jews took differing approaches to racial justice work, then turn to the North, to find some surprising similarities between the regions. What inspired Jewish participation in social justice causes? What possibilities and limits did it create? Dr. Dollinger will introduce new ways of thinking about this complex history.

Dr. Marc Dollinger holds the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies and Social Responsibility at San Francisco State University. He is the author of four scholarly books in American Jewish history, most recently Black Power, Jewish Politics: Reinventing The Alliance in the 1960s. Dollinger’s next project traces his own experience fighting campus antisemitism at both right-leaning and left-leaning universities. He sits on the California advisory committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights, was named Volunteer of the Year by the San Francisco-based Jewish Community Federation, and was awarded the JCRC’s Courageous Leader award. Just for fun, Professor Dollinger helped actress Helen Hunt learn about her Jewish roots on the prime-time NBC show Who Do You Think You Are?