On today’s show, we will be speaking with Professor Laurel Leff about her recent book, Well Worth Saving: American Universities’ Life-and-Death Decisions of Refugees from Nazi Europe which explores how American Universities made decisions about which scholars fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe were worth saving and those who they left to die.

About Our Guest

Laurel Leff is a Professor of Journalism at Northeastern University. She was formerly a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and The Miami Herald and an editor with American Lawyer Media Inc. and The Hartford Courant. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in news writing, media law, and nonfiction writing. Leff is also the associate director of Northeastern’s Jewish Studies Program in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities. She teaches a course on America and the Holocaust.

Her book, Well Worth Saving: American Universities’ Life-and-Death Decisions on Refugees from Nazi Europe (Yale University Press, 2019) was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. Her previous book, Buried by The Times: The Holocaust and America’s Most Important Newspaper (Cambridge University Press, 2005) was selected as the best media history book by the American Journalism Historians Association and the best history book by ForeWard Magazine. Professor Leff has spoken frequently on aspects of America and the Holocaust at historical societies, museums, synagogues, associations, and universities.