Opening Doors: The Unlikely Alliance Between the Irish and the Jews in America (St. Martin’s Press, 2024)
Hasia R. Diner (Photo: Shayne Leslie Figueroa)
Opening Doors: The Unlikely Alliance Between the Irish and the Jews in America
St. Martin’s Press, 2024
About the book
Popular belief holds that the various ethnic groups that immigrated to the United States at the turn of the 20th century regarded one another with open hostility, fiercely competing for limited resources and even coming to blows in the crowded neighborhoods of major cities. Hasia R. Diner tells a different story, drawing from a deep well of historical sources to show how Irish and Jewish Americans became steadfast allies in classrooms, picket lines, and political machines, helping one another to become key power players in shaping America’s future.
This event is presented in partnership with Seaside Jewish Community.
About the author
Hasia R. Diner is professor emeritus of American Jewish History and former chair of the Irish Studies program at New York University. One of her previous books, We Remember with Reverence and Love: American Jews and the Myth of Silence after the Holocaust, 1945-1962, won the National Jewish Book Award.
Purchase the book
Please help support local independent bookstores by purchasing this book at Browseabout Books, official bookseller of the History Book Festival. Online sources and digital versions are tempting; however, supporting local brick and mortar shops helps to preserve our vibrant main streets. Drop by Browseabout, order books online, or call the store at 302-226-2665. You also may purchase a copy at biblion in Lewes.
About the Festival
The History Book Festival is the first and only book festival in the United States devoted exclusively to history. With the help of our presenting funding partners — Delaware Humanities, National Endowment for the Humanities, and The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices | PenFed Realty — as well as our program and community partners, volunteers, and donors, the 2024 History Book Festival will be full of great discussions with authors of newly published narrative nonfiction and historical fiction. Our Keynote event is presented by Sally Mott Freeman and John K. Freeman, and our Closing event is presented by Griswold Home Care for Sussex and Kent Counties. Saturday’s Spirited Discussion, our gathering for attendees and presenters to celebrate and discuss their day, is presented by Dogfish Head Beer & Benevolence.
Special thanks to our program partners for their continuing support: the Lewes Public Library for event promotion and venue; Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach, official bookseller of the History Book Festival; Lewes Chamber of Commerce for event promotion, and the Cape Gazette and Delmarva Public Media, our media partners.
Additional thanks to our community partners: CAMP Rehoboth, Historic Lewes Farmers Market, Lewes Historical Society, Rehoboth Art League, Rehoboth Beach Film Society, Seaside Jewish Community, and Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice (SDARJ).