Over the course of many centuries in Europe, Jews were cast as the ultimate Other, both religiously (Christian/Jew) and later “racially” (Aryan/Jew). But what happened when Jews emigrated to the United States, where the White/Black dichotomy predominates? When and why did the majority of American Jews come to be considered “white”—and how is this complicated by the fact that both Blacks and Jews are still the primary targets of “white supremacists”?

Back in Europe, anti-Semitism persists: but following three centuries of colonialism and a half-century of post-colonialism, a White/People of Color dichotomy has become prevalent. How is European “whiteness” different from that in the United States—and who constitute People of Color in contemporary Europe?

A recording of the conversation at the Thomas Mann House will premier on May 27 at 10 a.m. (PT) on our YouTube channel!

Mohamed Amjahid was born as the son of so-called guest workers in Frankfurt am Main in 1988. He studied political science in Berlin and Cairo. After completing his master's degree Amjahid worked for several big German newspapers. Amjahid is a political journalist, book author and moderator. He was an editor at ZEITmagazin and was awarded among others the Alexander Rhomberg Prize and the Henri Nannen Prize. He received wide attention for his bestsellers Among Whites and Whitewash. Amjahid is a 2022 Fellow at the Thomas Mann House in Los Angeles.

Peter Jelavich is author and Professor of History at the Johns Hopkins University. He specializes in the cultural and intellectual history of Europe since the Enlightenment, with emphasis on Germany. His areas of interest include the interaction of elite and popular culture; the history of mass culture and the media; and the application of cultural and social theories to historical study. He is the author of Munich and Theatrical Modernism: Politics, Playwriting, and Performance, 1890-1914 (1985), Berlin Cabaret (1993), and Berlin Alexanderplatz: Radio, Film, and the Death of Weimar Culture (2006). He currently is writing a book on censorship of the arts in Germany from 1890 to the present.