James Loeffler — Exceptional Hatred: Antisemitism and the Fight over Free Speech in Modern America - with James Loeffler — at Conn Ave
On Tuesday evening, August 25, 2026, at 7:00 p.m., historian James Loeffler will discuss his new book, *Exceptional Hatred: Antisemitism and the Fight over Free Speech in Modern America*, at Politics and Prose’s Connecticut Avenue store. Loeffler, the Felix Posen Professor of Modern Jewish History at Johns Hopkins University, will be joined in conversation by Franklin Foer, a staff writer at *The Atlantic* and former editor of *The New Republic*.
In the book, Loeffler recovers a largely forgotten history of American antisemitism and its entanglement with free-speech law, moving from antisemitic riots in postwar Chicago through the 1970s neo-Nazi march in Skokie, Illinois, to the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. He connects those episodes to today’s polarized debates over campus speech, congressional hearings, immigration courts, and social media, asking whether some hatreds are more dangerous than others, whether tolerating hate speech is the price of free speech, and whether liberal democracy can use law to end hatred. He suggests that recovering this history might help protect difference without abandoning the principles of equality and freedom.
Loeffler is an award-winning historian whose writing has appeared in *The Atlantic*, *The New York Times*, *The Washington Post*, *The Wall Street Journal*, and *The New Republic*. He previously taught at the University of Virginia, served as a Dean’s Visiting Scholar at Georgetown University Law Center, and is currently a Kogod Senior Research Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. He is also the author of *Rooted Cosmopolitans: Jews and Human Rights in the Twentieth Century*. Foer is the author of several books, most recently *The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden’s White House and the Struggle for America’s Future*. The event is free with first come, first served seating, and a livestream will be available for those who cannot attend in person.
When: Tuesday, August 25, 2026, at 7:00 p.m.
Venue: Politics and Prose at 5015 Connecticut Avenue NW (the Conn Ave location), 5015 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC 20008.
Tickets: Free; seating is first come, first served.
Livestream: Available for those who cannot attend in person via the event page’s livestream link.
Lineup: James Loeffler in conversation with Franklin Foer.
Related book: *Exceptional Hatred: Antisemitism and the Fight over Free Speech in Modern America*, hardcover, $29.99, ISBN 9781250806079; available for preorder, with a publication date of August 25, 2026.
Accessibility: To request accommodations or ask about accessibility, email events@politics-prose.com, ideally one week before the event; organizers will make an effort to accommodate requests up until the event time.