Austin Albanese is a historian and writer focused on Jewish memory, civic belonging, and interfaith life in America. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Jerusalem Post, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, among many other publications. He writes the Substack newsletter “Memory Is the Only Inheritance I Have.”
Aurora had no Jewish cemetery in 1871. After Marcus Levy’s death, residents refused to send him away — and set out to consecrate ground and raise a monument
For decades after its congregation faded, one of America’s oldest Jewish cemeteries endured — preserved by both Christians and Jews
Questions about how power changes the face of Judaism often go unacknowledged amid festivities
Long after his death, the grave of Rabbi Yechiel Meir Burgeman has become a site of prayer and hope
In Virginia, they cared for the graves of Jewish Confederate soldiers — turning burial, not ideology, into an act of obligation and memory
The history of Beth Israel is marked by violence, and by profound communal efforts at repair
Starting with the Revolution, writes a historian, Jews publicly rebutted wartime slander and asserted their place in the American story.
The holiday’s call to make Judaism visible raises an old question: What do people find when they choose us?
