The Newton Free Library and Historic Newton present the next installment of the Newton History Series on Thursday, February 13 at 7pm. Historian Hasia Diner will discuss the topic of her most recent book, Opening Doors: The Unlikely Alliance Between the Irish and the Jews in America.

Contrary to prevailing wisdom, a productive alliance blossomed in American cities from the late nineteenth century into the 1930s, bringing Jewish and Irish Americans into each other's orbit. In crucial places, like the labor movement, the political machine and the public schools, Irish Americans, well settled and indeed entrenched, helped Jewish immigrants, more recent arrivals to the United States, to achieve integration into American society. Copies of Opening Doors will be available for purchase and signing courtesy of Newtonville Books.