Stained Glass

Flora Cassen is the Lavine Family Director of the Brandeis Center for Jewish Studies and the Director of the Sarnat Center for the Study of Anti-Jewishness at Brandeis University. She is also a Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute.

"This is a powerful and compelling book that speaks to our time but also offers a longer-term historical perspective that is often lacking in contemporary discussions of antisemitism in the present. Deeply moving, I look forward to seeing it in the world." - Laura Levitt, author of The Objects that Remain and American Jewish Loss after the Holocaust  "Stained Glass is my favorite kind of book: one I have a really hard time describing. What do you call a memoir that is also art history, a book about antisemitism that is also about Jewish pride, a scholarly history as concise as a sonnet? I don’t know, but it’s worth reading, now." - Mark Oppenheimer, author of Squirrel Hill: The Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting and the Soul of a Neighborhood and Judy Blume: A Life  "Moving between Europe and America, personal memory and historical scholarship, Flora Cassen probes antisemitism, Holocaust memory, Jewish belonging, and the renewed sense of isolation that followed October 7. Written with remarkable economy and intellectual honesty, Stained Glass is a quiet masterpiece." - Daniel B. Schwartz, author of Ghetto: The History of a Word

• Foreword by Yossi Klein HaleviPreface: A Jew-Free EuropeJonathas’ StoryWalking on HistoryCulture ShocksHistory Doesn’t Change – Only Our Interpretation DoesThe Dutch Synagogue in the Belgian ShtetlLearning from the PastIn the Shadow of the ShoahA History of Tears or Resilience?Medieval Anti-JudaismChrist-Killers Past and PresentThe Story That Never DiesThe Jewish Badge in Renaissance ItalyWake up, Flora!Getting Slapped by Both WingsTeaching about HateMonuments in the PresentAnti-Judaism in the WestTwo Women in AntwerpWhen Spain and Portugal Expelled Beatrice (1492 and 1497)Inquisition From Lisbon to AntwerpBeatrice’s StoryHidden Identities, Double SelvesPola’s AntwerpThe Belgian ExodusLife under Nazi OccupationA Wartime Marriage The Lemon on My Seder PlateLooking JewishCrossing the Pyrenees MountainsArrestedIn the CongoA New LifeBecoming ColonistsExile, Not HomeMeanwhile Back HomeFriendshipsThe Histories I CarryHolding the ContradictionsTell Me about MalaNo One Saw Him DieMala’s EscapeIn Mala’s Broken HouseA House Built on Shaky FoundationsMarching to the PastMaybe It’s Better to Forget?I Was 20 in 1945Everyone Learned the Lessons of the Holocaust Except… An Old Christian ReproachLike the Cross at AuschwitzThe Backlash YearsThe Price and Politics of MemoryPink, Fat, and Wealthy JewsJews and Money: An Old MythDon’t Touch our CarnivalThe Jewish Soccer TeamWho?Hannah and IreneTo Stay or Go?Why Not There?Jewish Women ProtestingIn My ClassroomDefinitions, Definitions…October SevenLonelinessA Verbal GhettoGazaZionist and Anti-WarCould I Come up with Better Words?Replacism and EliminationismThe Myth of Elimination as JusticeA Christian Transfer of GuiltA Replacist and an Eliminationist Meet in a BarWhich Past in Our FutureNot the Holocaust but the Middle AgesCourt JewsProtection or Rights?The Personal is PoliticalWhat I Learned from a Disappeared SuitcaseWho Stole the Carps?Acknowledgments