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More than 30 million Americans have Irish Ancestry, and many of us have ancestors who were affected by the Great Famine of 1845-1852. During this time, many relied on Ireland’s Poor Law Unions, which centered around a workhouse where people could labor to receive temporary relief from their poverty. 

Country houses are powerful symbols of national identity, evoking the glamorous world of the landowning aristocracy. Jewish country houses—properties that were owned, built, or renewed by Jews—tell a more complex story of prejudice and integration, difference and connection. Drawing on the first book to explore this history, Juliet Carey and Abigail Green will shed new light on the world of the Jewish country house.

Presented by Juliet Carey and Abigail Green

At the height of World War II, groups of young Irish Catholics rampaged through Boston's Jewish neighborhoods. Boston's Catholic Church said little, and the Jewish community responded with its own form of denial and willful ignorance, hoping to make the conflict go away. As part of her research into the American Catholic Church's role during the Holocaust, Leff examines the fears, forebodings, and rocky relationship of these two important groups in Boston's history.