The Jewish South : an American history / Shari Rabin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rabin, Shari, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jews--Southern States--History.

Jews.

Physical Description:

xvi, 278 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, 2025

Summary:

A panoramic history of the Jewish American South, from European colonization to today. In 1669, the Carolina colony issued the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, which offered freedom of worship to "Jews, heathens, and other dissenters," ushering in an era that would see Jews settle in cities and towns throughout what would become the Confederate States. The Jewish South tells their stories, and those of their descendants and coreligionists who followed, providing the first narrative history of southern Jews. Drawing on a wealth of original archival findings spanning three centuries, Shari Rabin sheds new light on the complicated decisions that southern Jews made--as individuals, families, and communities--to fit into a society built on Native land and enslaved labor and to maintain forms of Jewish difference, often through religious innovation and adaptation. She paints a richly textured and sometimes troubling portrait of the period, exploring how southern Jews have been targets of antisemitism and violence but also complicit in racial injustice. Rabin considers Jewish immigration and institution building, participation in the Civil War, the 1915 lynching of Leo Frank, and Jewish support for and resistance to the modern fight for Black civil rights. She examines shifting understandings of Jewishness, highlighting both the reality of religious diversity and the ongoing role of Christianity in defining the region. Recovering a neglected facet of the American experience, The Jewish South enables readers to see the South through the eyes of people with a distinctive religious heritage and a southern history older than the United States itself.

Contents:

Prologue

Part I: 1669-1840

Chapter 1: Jews, Heathens, and Other Dissenters

Chapter 2: House of God

Chapter 3: The Cause of His Country

Chapter 4: Blessings and Privileges

Chapter 5: Faith of Our Fathers

Part II: 1840-1878

Chapter 6: Peculiar Institutions

Chapter 7: Unhappy Contest

Chapter 8: Infernal Crusade

Chapter 9: Scattered Nation

Chapter 10: Holy Cause

Part III: 1878-1967

Chapter 11: Subtle Ostracism

Chapter 12: The Alien Hebrew

Chapter 13: No Peace

Chapter 14: Port and Dock

Chapter 15: Trembling Tribes

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

Notes

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780691208763

069120876X

OCLC:

1511555670