That Pride of Race and Character : The Roots of Jewish Benevolence in the Jim Crow South / Caroline E. Light.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Light, Caroline E., Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jewish way of life.

Kindness.

Charity.

Benevolence.

Jews--Southern States--Politics and government--20th century.

Jews.

Jews--Southern States--Social life and customs--20th century.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (289 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : New York University Press, [2014]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

“Ithas ever been the boast of the Jewish people, that they support their own poor,”declared Kentucky attorney Benjamin Franklin Jonas in 1856. “Their reasons arepartly founded in religious necessity, and partly in that pride of race andcharacter which has supported them through so many ages of trial andvicissitude.” In That Pride of Race andCharacter, Caroline E. Light examines the American Jewish tradition ofbenevolence and charity and explores its southern roots.Light provides a critical analysis ofbenevolence as it was inflected by regional ideals of race and gender, showinghow a southern Jewish benevolent empire emerged in response to the combinedpressures of post-Civil War devastation and the simultaneous influx of easternEuropean immigration. In an effort to combat the voices of anti-Semitism andnativism, established Jewish leaders developed a sophisticated and cutting-edgenetwork of charities in the South to ensure that Jews took care of thoseconsidered “their own” while also proving themselves to be exemplary whitecitizens. Drawing from confidential case files and institutional records fromvarious southern Jewish charities, the book relates how southern Jewish leadersand their immigrant clients negotiated the complexities of “fitting in” in aplace and time of significant socio-political turbulence. Ultimately, thesouthern Jewish call to benevolence bore the particular imprint of the region’sracial mores and left behind a rich legacy.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction. Loving kindness and cultural citizenship in the Jewish south

1. “to the Hebrews the world is indebted”: the southern roots of American Jewish benevolence

2. “For the honor of the Jewish people”: gender, race, and immigration

3. “Virtue, rectitude and loyalty to our faith”: Jewish orphans and the politics of southern cultural capital

4. “A very delicate problem”: the plight of the southern agunah

5. “None of my own people”: subsidizing Jewish motherhood in the depression-era south

6. Sex, race, and consumption: southern sephardim and the politics of benevolence

Conclusion. Loving kindness and its legacies

Notes

Selected bibliography

Index

About the author

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-271) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Jul 2020)

ISBN:

1-4798-5954-0

OCLC:

880877996