About the Program
Jonathan Sarna, chief historian of the National Museum of American Jewish History, recounts General Ulysses S. Grant's order to expel the Jewish population in his commanding territory on December 17, 1862. The order, quickly rebuked by President Abraham Lincoln, would trouble Grant in the years following the Civil War and into his 1869 presidential campaign. Mr. Sarna recalls the initial reaction of the approximately 150,000 Jews who then lived in the United States and Grant's later apology and appointment of several Jews to positions in his administration. Jonathan Sarna speaks at the New York Historical Society in New York City.