View source for Jewish Roots in Southern Soil

{{Infobox book
| name           = Jewish Roots in Southern Soil: A New History
| image          = [[File:Jewish Roots in Southern Soil.jpg|200px|alt=Cover]]
| image_caption  = 
| author         = Marcie Ferris and Mark Greenberg, eds. 
| translator     = 
| country        = 
| language       = English
| series         = 
| publisher      = Brandeis University Press
| pub_date       = 2006
| pages          = 368
| isbn           = 1584655895
| oclc           = 
| congress       = 
}}
<p><em>Jewish Roots in Southern Soil: A New History</em>, edited by Marcie Ferris and Mark Greenberg, is a carefully curated selection of original essays from leaders in the field of Southern Jewish studies. Students in the University of North Carolina “Shalom Ya’ll” class sparked this particular anthology by requesting a single source for southern Jewish literature (xiii). <em>Jewish Roots in Southern Soil</em> responds to that call with a series of studies invoking questions of Jewish identity in the American South, summarized by Stephen Whitfield: how did Jews become southerners, and then how did they remain Jews? (318).</p>

<p>The field of southern Jewish studies is not old. Many historians argue whether there even exists a “southern Jewish identity” worthy of study (18). This question rose to the surface with Eli Evan’s groundbreaking work, <em>The Provincials: A Personal History of Jews in the South</em>, concurrently published in 1973 with <em>Jews in the South: Essays</em>, edited by Leonard Dinnerstein and Mary Palsson, and followed by the 1979 <em>Turn to the South: Essays on Southern Jewry</em>, edited by Nathan Kaganoff and Melvin Urofsky. These three works, born out of the 1960s call for research exploring American diversity, each challenged a new generation of scholars to fill this void of southern Jewish publications (1). This anthology’s strength lies in that it provides both a look back at the previous forty years of historiography and offers new insight into key themes of identity in southern Jewish life. </p>

<p>The anthology begins with a foreword by the aforementioned Judaic studies giant Eli Evans and a survey of southern Jewish history by the anthology’s editors. The first eight chapters chronologically follow the southern Jewish experience from colonial times through the civil rights era, then switches to more thematic studies for the final four essays, utilizing evidence from literature, foodways, material culture, and demographic shifts to explore gender, race relations, and economics in southern Jewish life (19). <em>Jewish Roots in Southern Soil</em> closes with a retrospective and forward-facing essay on southern Jewish studies by Stephen Whitfield, Max Richter Chair in American Civilization at Brandeis University, and a well-crafted bibliography provided by Eric Goldstein and Marni Davis. </p>

<p>Several overarching themes appear in many, if not all, the essays in <em>Jewish Roots in Southern Soil</em>: how southern Jewish identity is distinct from the broader American Jewish experience; the role of acculturation and the desire to be seen as “southern whites”; and how the definition of what it means to be Jewish undulated beneath the surface of everyday life for southern Jews. And whether chronological or thematic, the essays highlight relationships and interactions; they depict how southern Jews related with non-Jews, with other southern Jews, and with their personal self, often presented through intimate examples that argue “identity [is] shaped by encounters” (3). </p>

<p>The essayists themselves are indicative of the evolving state of southern Jewish studies, as their respective academic roles reflect a historical emphasis and a dedication to fostering public interest in southern Jewish life. The contributors include professors of Jewish studies at Hebrew Union College and Emory University; a curator for the Jewish Heritage Collection; a social historian from the University of Sussex in Brighton, England; and the director of Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life. </p>

<p>Mark I. Greenberg authors the first chapter on the Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jews in eighteenth-century Savannah, Georgia, delineating the diversity and tension between Jews of various backgrounds. Greenberg uses individual stories to trace both common grounds and distinctions between the German-Jewish Ashkenazis and the Sephardim from Portugal and Spain, ultimately arguing the differences between Jewish populations diminished by the 1820s as intermarriage, economic ties, and the Revolution strengthened Jewish community consciousness (40). This review of Jewish life in Savannah dovetails nicely into Emily Bingham’s multigenerational exposition of the Mordecai family’s experience, used to illustrate assimilation and Jewish identity in throughout the rural South (47). Intermarriage, geographic movement, intermittent cultural isolation, and the Civil War and Second Great Awakening are exhibited as informing southern Jewish identity beyond religious practice. And Emily Bingham’s inclusion of Rachel and Emma Mordecai in her case study again creates a smooth transition to the exploration of domesticity through Jewish women’s literature in the antebellum period by Jennifer A. Stollman. Using published poetry, shared journals, and short stories, Stollman argues that southern Jewish women used the written word to perpetuate a “return to Judaism and traditional practices” while fending off anti-Semitic threats and the pressure of the Second Great Awakening through emphasizing domestic ideals and patriotism (81). </p>

<p>New York University Professor Hasia Diner takes a different tone with her assertions that the southern Jewish experience is not as distinct as some historians argue, but instead fits into the fluid nature of Jewish migration through the tradition of peddling (87). Using “anecdotal gleanings,” Diner weaves together a compelling argument for the global nature of the profession often overlooked by historians (87-88). Diner’s research also brings up themes common to the other essays, including interactions with non-Jews, the attempts to create Jewish community despite scattered populations, and the emphasis on “whiteness” (102). </p>

<p>The next two chapters, authored respectively by Robert N. Rosen and anthology editor Eric L. Goldstein, finally focus upon a growing theme that danced on the outskirts of the preceding chapters: southern Jewish identity in race relations and politics. In the first essay on Jewish Confederates, Rosen outlines how southern Jewish identity was firmly rooted in an embrace of southern mores, including slavery (110-111). This Jewish acceptance of southern traditions was reciprocated through placement in political positions, including the famous appointment of Confederate Secretary of State Judah Benjamin, Lieutenant Governor Henry Hyams, and Speaker Edwin Moise of the Louisiana House of Representatives. But latent anti-Semitism also drove southern allegiances, including the desire of Jews to prove they were militarily effective and patriotically loyal (115). Similarly, in focusing on the 1890s-1910s, Eric Goldstein’s essay explores tension between assimilation desires of established southern Jews and the influx of less acculturated eastern European Jews during the “radical racism” of the Jim Crow era (136). Goldstein effectively uses examples of southern white perspectives, such as those of writer Thomas Dixon; the segregationist rules of the Temple in Atlanta; and the trial of Leo Frank to exhibit Jewish rejection of comparisons with African Americans. These rejections, motivated by fear of exclusion and persecution by those of the “southern white” status and the 1890s economic depression, are echoed throughout the anthology. </p>

<p>The essays then return to intra-Judaic relations with a review of the rise of southern Reform Judaism by Gary P. Zola, who uses the progression of synagogues in Charleston, Richmond, and Savannah to track the gradual movement toward Reform, arguing social forces such as proving patriotism, a limited Jewish population, and desire to provide similar religious experiences as Christians all converged to mark the more liturgically liberal Reform movement as the primary southern Jewish preference. The chronological portion of the anthology closes with Clive Webb’s essay on African American-Jewish relations during the twentieth century. Building on the strong base provided by the preceding essays, Webb’s often-sobering review of the difference between northern and southern Jewish responses to the civil rights movement underscores the distinct identity of southern Jews. The desire to be perceived primarily as white, compounded by years of regional anti-Semitism, erupted with the <em>Brown v. Board of Education</em> in 1954. Using neutral (or occasionally pro-segregationist) responses from the Jewish community, offset occasionally by rabbis and women who spoke out against segregation, Webb’s essay clearly expresses the notion that southern Jews embraced regional values to promote their “southernness,” motivated primarily out of fear of anti-Semitic reprisal from their neighbors (197). </p>

<p>The thematic portion of the anthology begins with a literature and film review by Eliza McGraw. Memoirs, films, and plays by both Jewish and non-Jewish artists express that “southern Jewishness is its own identity, not merely a quirky subset of southerness or Jewishness” (210). Of special note is McGraw’s effective exploration of the “exoticism” of southern Judaism in her review of Alfred Uhry’s <em>Driving Miss Daisy</em>. The thematic review moves on to an essay interpreting southern Jewish culinary experiences by book editor and University of North Carolina Assistant Professor Marcie C. Ferris. Exploring the complexities of oral transmission, kosher rules, recipes, and relations with African American cooks, Ferris communicates the uniquely southern Jewish experience through a riveting tale of fried matzoh balls and barbeque brisket. Less appetizing but just as eye-opening, Dale Rosegarten then presents a picture of domestic southern Jewish life through material culture collected for an exhibition presented by the College of Charleston’s Jewish Heritage Collection. Quilts, candlesticks, and personal diaries create insight and content for “poorly documented stories” of women’s domestic life (257). </p>

<p>Stuart Rockoff presents an exceptionally well-researched essay on the shifting demographics of the Jewish South, noting that while the American South is experiencing an urban Jewish population boom, the rural vestiges of small-town Jewish life are slowly blinking out of existence. The demographic shifts - only 7% of Atlanta’s Jewish, northern-suburb population are Atlanta-born! (292) - calls into question whether the supposedly distinct southern Jewish community will retain its “southern” qualities – a retention Rockoff tentatively responds to with doubt (300). Rockoff’s essay is an excellent segue into the closing chapter of the anthology. Stephen J. Whitfield presents a strong review of the historiography of southern Jewish life, noting a paradigmic shift from “how Jews became southern” into, as Rockoff intimated, “how some of them remained or became Jews” (318). While touching on points from the previous essays, Whitfield widens the discussion further, questioning the role of Florida in the southern narrative, a role that understandably befuddles both academic and causal observe alike, before closing the essay with the perspective that “while the particularity of a mercantile and village way of life is dying, southern Jewry itself is not” (326). </p>

<p>With such an effectively timed publication (as Eli Evans notes in his foreward, the publication coincides with the 350th anniversary of Jews in the America) that answers the call for original research compiled in a singular source, it is challenging to find areas of improvement in <em>Jewish Roots in Southern Soil</em>. Echoing Eli Evans’ suggestion, additional information on the interactions between African American churches and Jewish communities would be highly effective, especially given the amount of much-needed discourse dedicated to race relations (xii). Another opportunity for expansion is in relation to the 1913 trial and 1915 lynching of Leo Frank. This historic event is listed in six of the 13 chapters, including the introduction; given its interdisciplinary and long-ranging impact on southern Jewish experience, a chapter dedicated to this story would not have been out of place. </p>

<p><em>Jewish Roots in Southern Soil</em> is intimate, complex, and fluid. It gracefully crafts the question of southern Jewish identity, exhibiting how this perception is emically and etically buffeted by social, religious, economic, and political forces. These essays create a necessary stepping stone in the burgeoning field of southern Jewish studies, drawing its strength from the retrospective look at where both the field and Jewish community have come and a glimpse into where it might now turn. Already referenced in several articles and publications since its initial run in 2006, including Kimberly Hartnett’s <em>Carolina Israelite</em>, <em>Jewish Roots in Southern Soil</em> is an essential work in any southern Jewish historian’s library. </p>