48 hours of nonfiction authors and books every weekend. television for serious readers. reminder that this weekends full schedule is available on ourwebsite, booktv.org . booktv attends numerous book fairs and festivals throughout the year. recently, we were at the national press club book fair in washington. we spoke with "the new york times", jonathan weisman about anti-semitism. >> in your view, what does it mean to be jewish in america during the trump era? >> hassan of pittsburgh this weekend.we are in an era of rising intolerance, rising hatred and of course, i do not lay it all at the feet of the president of the united states. but i do think that this is a moment where marginalized groups, not just jews, but

muslims, immigrants, latinos, african-americans are facing more bigotry and need to address it forthrightly and unite. just to stand for what the united states stands for. which is, inclusive tolerance. >> when did you start thinking about this book? after donald trump got elected or before? >> it all started really in 2016 when i am an editor at the new york times. and i had in may 2016, i just did what i often do. i had read a column by robert kagan, a scholar at the brookings institution. it was called, this is how fascism comes to america. i took a little piece of it, i put it out on twitter, since it out to the world and got a little note back from @cybertrump and it said hello

weisman. >> like the cover of the book. >> like the cover of the book. i didn't know what it was -- and then, an onslaught of anti-semitic hate came my way. first on twitter, migrated a little to facebook. in my emails, on my voicemail. and as it turned out, the three parentheses around my name meant, sending a signal to followers of the alt-right to go attack this guy. i was not the only jewish journalist that got this. they were carried a few. the anti-defamation league kept a tally and i was number five on the top 10 list. kind of middling i guess.

but it thrust me into this role that i really never thought i would play. which is to bring to light, rising hatred in our society. >> how did that change your life when that happened? i mean, if you getting this onslaught on social media, did you feel threatened? >> you know, of course when you are getting death threats all the time, you can't help but feel a little bit threatened. but i did not want to get -- you know, cyber nazis, i didn't want them to get to me. people said did you buy a gun? did you contact the authorities? and i did not. but it did bring me first of all, closer to my own judaism. i was not particularly religious, was a particularly jewish identifying at the time. it also just made me feel

like look, we have to speak out. and this is not a partisan thing.it is not about democrat or republican. standing up for tolerance and for things like the first amendment, the right to assemble, the right to practice your religion. these should not be partisan issues. these are american issues and i think that we all need to stand up. >> is becoming more intense in your view, mr. weisman? >> is hard to say because it was an intense time but in the wake of the terrible tragedy in pittsburgh, there is a lot of attention on anti-semitism in particular but more generally, on this alt-right, far right hatred. and so yeah, it is a very

intense moment. >> help me to understand this because a lot of the time, the conservatives on the right tend to support israel, they tend to be supportive of jewish causes. is that correct? >> well, look.i draw a distinction between being supportive of israel, especially being supportive of the israeli government. and being supportive of american jews and judaism. these are not the same thing. we have geopolitical interest with israel. israel has geopolitical interest of washington. this is not a question of whether donald trump supports jews on his supports the netanyahu government. that is just, it is not the same thing. i would say that supporting tolerance, supporting freedom and supporting acceptance is a problem right now in america.

that is very separate from the question of whether or not the government in washington supports the government in jerusalem. >> jonathan weisman, says the book came out or maybe during the writing of it, did you have any conversations with these people who were doing this to you? >> had conversations all along with them. we exchanged information but you know, they're not particularly open to reasonable debate. they have their views, they have their worldview and their worldview is firmly that we are in the middle of this period of white genocide and white genocide is being orchestrated by jews. when you're talking about white genocide, when you're talking about this jewish conspiracy, is a little difficult to have a reasonable conversation with them. >> the book is called "semitism" being jewish and american the age of trump. the author, new york times, jonathan weisman.>> thank you

for having me on. >> keep an eye out for more interviews. you can watch that and our other programs in their entirety on booktv.org. type the authors name in the search bar at the top of the page. here are some of the current best-selling nonfiction books. according to amazon. topping the list is becoming, former first lady michelle obama 's memoir. after that, it's a collection of late columnist charles krauthammer essays and speech -- then it is tara westover memoir educated about growing up in the idaho mountains and her introduction to formal education at age 17. wrapping up the look at some of

the best-selling nonfiction books according to amazon is a look at human history, sapiens. some of these authors have appeared on booktv and he can watch them online at booktv.org. >> all right. are you guys good? perfect. okay. welcome everyone to cramer's. please welcome joining joshua hunt as well as kevin of kramer books. they're here to discuss the book by joshua hunt, "the university of nike". american higher education. -- what it means for the public institutions