According to one well-known Jewish author set to appear in Baltimore, antisemitism is as American as apple pie.

Pamela Nadell is an accomplished Jewish historian and author who, on Oct. 13, is giving three speeches in the Baltimore area: one with The Associated, one to students at Towson University and one for community leaders in Baltimore.

Her newest book, “Antisemitism, an American Tradition,” makes the case that various forms of hatred of Jews have existed in this nation since before it even declared independence.

“I would say that antisemitism threads across the history of the colonies and then what becomes the United States. It’s not an anomaly. It has waxed and waned over different periods, but it’s never disappeared,” she said.

Nadell said the first English settlers in what would become the United States harbored antisemitic points of view that shaped how early Jews in the New World were treated.

“The colonists who came to America carried rucksacks, but they also carried ideas from traditional Christianity and its ideas about the Jews as Christ killers, who should be treated in a certain way,” Nadell said.

Nadell distinguishes between three different eras of hatred toward Jews in America: “classic Christian anti-Judaism,”

“antisemitism,” and “anti-Zionism.” She notes the former of the three is where tropes like the blood libel come from, the second is where Jews began to be seen as a distinct and problematic race and the latter is targeted at Jews who believe in the right to self-determination.

For many, the discussion around anti-Zionism centers around how to identify the line between it and antisemitism. For Nadell, the focus of the conversation is actually a bit different.

“It’s not a question of whether it crosses the line — it’s a question of what happens to Jews when they live in societies that denounce Zionism,” Nadell said.

Historical examples she cited include the Soviet Union, Algeria, Yemen, Egypt and Morocco. All of these nations, at one point, had thriving Jewish communities.

“They’re not there any longer. The Soviet Union outlawed antisemitism, but there was anti-zionism from the get-go, and ultimately, Jews were persecuted in the Soviet Union … ultimately, they emigrated,” she said.

Nadell said the correlation is clear: societies that take hard-line stances against the Jewish right to self-determination see their Jewish populations flee.

Nadell began to write her most recent book after the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh in 2018.

“I started asking people after Tree of Life, ‘Have you ever experienced antisemitism?’ and the stories poured out, in the period where nobody thought it existed in America,” Nadell said. “You would not believe the stories I heard.”

Nadell hopes her talks in Baltimore will help Jews and Jewish communal leaders learn more about what they can do to keep themselves and their community safe. While it’s a horrid reality, Nadell said attacks on Jews are coming from more angles than ever before.

“The first thing to know, which is really heartbreaking, is that we have to invest [in defense against] violent attacks. The big shift, I would say, since Oct. 7, is that not only have violent attacks come from [people like] the man who firebombed the synagogue in Jackson, Mississippi, they’ve not only come from the attacks of white nationalists like the white nationalist who murdered 11 people at Tree of Life Synagogue, but the violence is also coming from those who are calling Israel evil, like in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and the perpetrator of the attack on Temple Israel,” Nadell said.

For Jews in America today, the reality is that worshipping, gathering and simply existing is not as safe as it once was. Nadell hopes that her events, and her book, that are coming to Baltimore can help Jews here understand that reality and prepare for it better.

“I’m not saying anything people don’t know, but security is paramount, and it is really shocking that churches in America can have their doors open and announce that all can come and pray, and we need armed guards outside our synagogues,” she said.

aguckes@midatlanticmedia.com