Dr. David Meola Releases New Book

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Posted on January 3, 2023

Joy Washington

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Dr. David Meola, Fanny and Bert Meisler Associate professor of History and Jewish
Studies and director of the Jewish Holocaust Studies Program at the University of South
Alabama has written a new book, “We Will Never Yield: Jews, the German Press, and
the Fight for Inclusion in the 1840s.”

One of Meola’s reasons for wanting to write this book was a yearning to learn more
about his own family history.

“During my writing process, I looked at the pan-German press, or those papers that had
cache and larger distribution,” Meola said. “I was prompted to research German-Jewish
history by the lack of knowledge about my own family. I wanted to know where I came
from and how our family made its way to New York.”

Meola, who’s also co-president of the Mobile Area Jewish Federation, was inspired 14
years ago to start writing this book from the work he had done on his dissertation during
his first-year doctoral seminar at the University of British Columbia.

“When I was looking for primary source-based projects, I stumbled upon an online
archive, Compact Memory,” he said.” Compact Memory hosts all the German-Jewish
periodicals. Once I completed my project for the seminar, I began asking questions
about how German Jews used local, non-Jewish newspapers. From that research, I
wrote my dissertation about those questions and how Jews used newspapers in the
Kingdom of Hannover and Grand Duchy of Baden from 1815 to 1848.”

Meola’s new book will be the first academic publication in English or in German that
shows how Jews advocated for their own freedom and integration in the German states
within the pages of German newspapers .

“This book is also the first study that looks at the fight over Jewish religious reform and
how these debates appeared in the local and pan-German press,” Meola explained. “The
fight for Jewish emancipation was never solely about who could help Jews achieve their
aims, but how they were agents in this situation and could also help influence public
opinion by participating in the local print media.”

He also said Jews at that time knew the power of public opinion could shape behavior
and produce their desired outcome.  Meola specializes in German and Jewish history
from the Enlightenment through the nineteenth century with a focus on public
expression and popular culture.  

Meola recently finished a year-long Presidential Leadership Fellowship in the USA
Office of Diversity and Community Engagement. He is the recipient of a Fulbright
Fellowship, and is a member of the Alabama Holocaust Commission.

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