Adam D. Mendel­sohn is Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor of His­to­ry and Direc­tor of the Kaplan Cen­tre for Jew­ish Stud­ies at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cape Town. He is the author of The Rag Race: How Jews Sewed Their Way to Suc­cess in Amer­i­ca and the British Empire and co-edi­tor of Jews and the Civ­il War: A Read­er and Transna­tion­al Tra­di­tions: New Per­spec­tives on Amer­i­can Jew­ish His­to­ry.