The 1924 Johnson-Reed Immigration Act marked the beginning of a dark chapter in our nation’s immigration history. The N.Y. Times headline declared: AMERICA OF THE MELTING POT COMES TO END.
The story of how we reached that point is littered with xenophobia, fear of the Other, the Ku Klux Klan, the so-called science of eugenics and the need, as stated by President Coolidge, that America must remain American. After Johnson-Reed passed it ended a historic migration of Jews to the United States & created restrictions that would keep out many Jewish refugees when the Nazis rose to power a decade later.
How did the change in immigration law impact the ability of Jews to enter the U.S.? How did the U.S. State Department acquire an outsized role in denying immigrants generally, and Jews in particular, legal entry into the United States? Please join us as we explore these historically fascinating and significant questions.
Jerry Rishe earned a B.A. degree in Political Science from CSUN where he was an award-winning speaker in intercollegiate forensic competition and later received a J.D. from Whittier Law School. He worked as in-house counsel at First Charter Financial Corporation (holding company for American Savings), the J.G. Boswell Company (the largest privately owned cotton grower in the world), and Saint John’s Hospital and Health Center in Santa Monica.
In the public sector and for the last 16 years of his legal career he was a trial attorney with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (later the Department of Homeland Security) where he prosecuted those charged with violations of the Immigration and Nationality Act in Immigration Court, defended his Service and Department against charges in employment matters and was honored by being named Employee of the Year in an Agency of over 16,000 employees whose offices are located around the country and across the globe.
Jerry is now enjoying retirement as a docent at the Autry Museum of the American West in Griffith Park, participating in SAGE, a life-long learning organization for retirees, traveling, and his family.
The story of how we reached that point is littered with xenophobia, fear of the Other, the Ku Klux Klan, the so-called science of eugenics and the need, as stated by President Coolidge, that America must remain American. After Johnson-Reed passed it ended a historic migration of Jews to the United States & created restrictions that would keep out many Jewish refugees when the Nazis rose to power a decade later.
How did the change in immigration law impact the ability of Jews to enter the U.S.? How did the U.S. State Department acquire an outsized role in denying immigrants generally, and Jews in particular, legal entry into the United States? Please join us as we explore these historically fascinating and significant questions.
Jerry Rishe earned a B.A. degree in Political Science from CSUN where he was an award-winning speaker in intercollegiate forensic competition and later received a J.D. from Whittier Law School. He worked as in-house counsel at First Charter Financial Corporation (holding company for American Savings), the J.G. Boswell Company (the largest privately owned cotton grower in the world), and Saint John’s Hospital and Health Center in Santa Monica.
In the public sector and for the last 16 years of his legal career he was a trial attorney with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (later the Department of Homeland Security) where he prosecuted those charged with violations of the Immigration and Nationality Act in Immigration Court, defended his Service and Department against charges in employment matters and was honored by being named Employee of the Year in an Agency of over 16,000 employees whose offices are located around the country and across the globe.
Jerry is now enjoying retirement as a docent at the Autry Museum of the American West in Griffith Park, participating in SAGE, a life-long learning organization for retirees, traveling, and his family.
The handout
| US Immigration History |
The recorded presentation
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