Jews in the American South

[Tanuki]

I ran across this when I clicked on an unrelated link in another thread. It looks like an interesting itinerary, and the weather should be wonderful in March:
http://go.forward.com/jews-in-the-american-south/

[Mosby]

1. have never been in the american south

But I have read about the Jewish community there, I would love to visit some of the old, historical shuls.

A small part of my dad's family lived in high point NC, they used to come for pesach and their accents cracked me up. The accent even came through when they were davening in Hebrew, lol.

[Tanuki]

2. Well, come on down for the annual kosher barbecue contest and festival in Memphis!

http://www.jta.org/2011/09/20/news-opinion/united-states/kosher-bbq-competition-is-a-hit-among-jews-and-some-muslims-too

[Behind the Aegis]

3. As a Jew from the American South...

...I can say we are all over the place but usually few in numbers with a few exceptions, Atlanta, Charleston, Raleigh, DC, New Orleans, and, of course, Florida....yes, Florida! I have lived in all those places, except Charleston, but I went there on a regular basis. There are other populations throughout the South, but they are usually spotty and VERY closed off to outsiders.

I don't think many people realize that Jews have been in the US since the beginning, and the South was no different. The Jews of the South had some really serious issues, especially when it came to slavery. Most were against it, but there were a few who were all about the slavery. It also put Jews in an awkward position to abolitionists, especially in the South because we too were a targeted population; not to the degree of African-Americans, but anti-Semitism was rife in the South...still is.

New Orleans has a very vibrant Jewish population, with three synagogues, which shocked the shit out me when I moved there. There is also a small Holocaust memorial on the seawalk near the Aquarium of the Americas on the skirts of the French Quarter.

[Tanuki]

4. Are you familiar with Judah Benjamin, the Attorney General of the Confederacy?

Prior to that, he was a U.S. Senator from Louisiana.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judah_P._Benjamin

--------------------------------------

Charleston is also rich in Jewish history:
By 1800 there were about 2,000 Jews in South Carolina (overwhelmingly Sephardic and settled in Charleston), which was more than in any other U.S. state at that time [3], and more than any other town, city, or place in North America.[1] Charleston remained the unofficial capital of North American Jewry until about 1830 [4], when the increasing number of Ashkenazi German Jews emigrating to America largely settled in New Orleans, Richmond, Savannah, Baltimore, and the north-east (particularly in Boston, New York City and Philadelphia). Their numbers, added to by the later immigration of Ashkenazi Jews from eastern Europe to the Northeast and Midwest industrial cities, far surpassed the mostly Sephardic Jewish community in Charleston.

South Carolina was the first place in America to elect a Jew to public office: Francis Salvador, elected in 1774 and 1775 to the Provincial Congress, in 1776 died in action as the first Jewish American killed in the Revolution. The state was also the birthplace of Reform Judaism in the Americas.[2]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Charleston,_South_Carolina