Toronto, ON – March 12, 2026 – In the heart of Brussels, visitors step into a magnificent cathedral where soaring stained-glass windows quietly depict medieval accusations against Jewish communities. In Stained
Glass: A Reflective History of Antisemitism (University of Toronto Press, New Jewish Press imprint, March 24, 2026), historian Flora Cassen examines images like these—found in churches and cathedrals across Europe— to explore how such beautiful, everyday monuments continue to shape who is imagined as fully European and who remains on the margins.
Blending memoir and history, Cassen traces a sweeping arc from medieval narratives of Jews and sacrilege to the Spanish purity of blood laws, Nazi-occupied Belgium, and the challenges facing Jewish communities in Europe today. Her grandmother’s escape from Antwerp, wartime exile in the Belgian Congo, and her own childhood in closely protected schools anchor a story about belonging, vulnerability, and what it takes to feel at home. In its final chapters, the book also reflects on how recent events have raised questions about Jewish life and belonging in the United States.
Stained Glass illuminates how:
- Medieval church art and legends cast Jews as enduring outsiders and enemies of Christ
- Religious anti-Judaism evolved into racial antisemitism and modern conspiracy theories
- Postwar “Never Again” rhetoric masks a persistent reluctance to see violence against Jews as a European problem, not an “imported” conflict
- The events of October 7 and their aftermath have intensified debates about antisemitism, Jewish belonging, and the place of Jewish communities in Europe and the United States
In his foreword, American-Israeli author and journalist Yossi Klein Halevi calls the book “a farewell letter to Europe” and a warning about a continent that never fully faced its Jewish past, and now fails to protect its Jewish present.
Accessible and urgent, Stained Glass is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand why antisemitism resurfaces in new forms—including policymakers and educators—and what it means for Jewish communities to make a home in places where the walls still echo older stories.