American Jews went from a cautious, politically invisible minority to one of the most influential political communities in the country, and this four-part series traces the surprising—and often dramatic—story of that transformation. On January 8, Reluctant Citizens explores Jewish political neutrality in colonial America and the early republic, including fears of standing out, backlash, and accusations of dual loyalty, alongside the emergence of the first Jewish voters, litigants, and officeholders; on January 15, Union, Reconstruction & the Gilded Age (1840–1914) examines Jewish combatants and chaplains in the Civil War, General Grant’s Order No. 11 and its aftermath, and the growth of Jewish advocacy amid civil-rights and immigration debates; on January 22, From Eugene V. Debs to Lyndon Johnson follows the rise of Jewish progressive politics shaped by immigrant experience, labor activism, the New Deal coalition, and Jewish leadership in law, civil rights, and national political organizations; and on January 29, A House Divided surveys Jewish politics since the 1960s—realignment, Israel and social issues, the emergence of a growing Republican wing, generational divides and identity politics, and what 2026 might reveal about the next era of Jewish American political life.