Jewish Americans & Political Participation: A Reference Handbook

This handbook addresses how the Jewish American community emerged from obscurity to play a role in behind-the-scenes power politics and finally appeared center stage.

• Provides an overview of Jewish Americans in office, including Leopold Morse, the first Jew elected to Congress, in 1876; a review of Jewish members of Congress in the postwar era; and the role of Jewish American women in Congress

• Contains excerpts from key legislation impacting Jewish political participation, including Ulysses S. Grant's 1862 directive to expel all Jews from the Kentucky–Tennessee–Mississippi region and the 1974 Jackson Amendment, which pressured the Soviet Union to permit the emigration of its Jewish citizens