Southern Jewish Memories

Already 38 years in print, Eli N. Evans’s The Provincials: A Personal History of Jews in the South has garnered high praise by the late Israeli statesman and author, Abba Eban, who wrote of Evans:

“the Jews of the South have found their poet laureate.”

Humbly identifying himself as “the grandson of a peddler,” Evans began his lecture at The National Museum of American Jewish History on October 16th by noting that being raised as a Southerner and a Jew were unique experiences that shaped his sense of self and of home.

In describing his boyhood in Durham, North Carolina, he said:

“I grew up like every other Southern boy — with a bicycle in the neighborhood and football, basketball, and picking honeysuckle in the spring.”

Jewish Arrival in the South

How Jews arrived in the South are recorded in diverse, colorful family lore, including an elderly man in a small town who confessed:

“The horse died.”

Evans’s grandfather told his grandson:

“I got off the train when the money ran out.”

Historical happenstance and geography played a role, too, including King Charles II’s appointment of Lord Anthony Ashley-Cooper to rule over the Carolinas. Lord Ashley invited his friend and advisor, the British philosopher (and physician) John Locke to draft a constitution for the colony.

From the beginning, Jews were free to:

• Worship
• Trade
• Own land
• Serve in the militia
• Leave property to their heirs
• Vote

This made Charleston the first community in the modern world to grant Jews that right.

Another reason was based on the important discovery of thermal navigation, which:

“enabled them to cross the Atlantic and when the ship reached the Gulf Stream, to sail right down to the growing port of Charleston.”

Jewish Life After the American Revolution

Jews thrived in the Southern states after the American Revolution. George Washington’s devotion to religious tolerance as a natural right stemmed from the writings of Locke.

Evans noted that Jews worked for the good of their communities because:

“they believed that the better the community was for everyone, the better it was for Jews.”

In 1800, there were more Jews — 500 strong — living in Charleston, South Carolina, than anywhere else in the United States, even more than the 400 Jews living in New York City.

They were deeply involved in Southern society. In 1840, when dedicating a Reform temple, a rabbi proclaimed:

“this city is our Jerusalem; this land our Palestine, and this temple is our Temple and we shall defend it.”

But others were deeply Zionistic. Evans’ grandmother founded the first Hadassah chapter in the South in the early 1900s, and his mother served on the national board for 40 years, traveling the South to raise money for the new State of Israel.

Peddlers and Community Relations

Like many Jews in the South, including the Neiman-Marcus family, Evans’s grandfather had his origins as a peddler.

Evans interviewed the black writer and poet Alice Walker, who recalled that her grandmother called a Jewish peddler:

“the rolling storeman.”

Southern blacks and Jews were often on friendly terms. One Jewish peddler even stored his kosher dishes with his black customers until he returned the next season.

“Peddling succeeded as a start-up job for new immigrants in Europe as it did in the South and across America,”

said Evans.

His family took pride in being openly Jewish, living by the motto:

“People will judge all Jews by the few Jews they meet.”

So, in the South:

“they had to be extra nice, extra friendly to their neighbors, and upstanding in their business dealings.”

Jewish Public Life in the South

Evans’s father served as mayor of Durham for 12 years from 1951 to 1962. In his campaign material, he listed his philanthropic work for Jewish causes, including his 10 years as statewide chairman of the United Jewish Appeal and as president of his synagogue.

Why?

He told his son:

“people down here respect church work.”

Evans related the story of one Jewish owner of a furniture shop who sold items on credit to sharecroppers, who would pay him at the end of a harvest season.

One year, a customer showed up on Yom Kippur to make his payment, and when the storekeeper refused to take the money offered him — deferring until the next spring — the story of his religious devotion spread across town, touting him as:

“a holy man.”

Evans said:

“he credited that event as enabling him and his family to develop loyal and trusting customers and eventually, one of the most successful furniture businesses in the state.”

Another story involved a Jewish storekeeper who treated his black customers respectfully — hiring black clerks, allowing customers to try on clothes, and buy on credit. During the civil rights movement, he was upset when his store was picketed.

His wife interrupted him:

“but how would you have felt to have been the only business in town not picketed?”

Jews and Christians in the South

Relations between Jews and Christians were complex because alongside anti-Semitism — including the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1860s — there was also philo-Semitism, a deep respect for Jews as the People of the Book.

Evans noted that evangelical Christians are the fastest-growing denomination in the South, now comprising 25% of all Christians.

“in town after town I speak in, I am told they are the best and most ardent supporters of Israel.”

Evans told the anecdote of a non-Jewish newspaper reporter in Alabama who said she wanted to hear him speak because:

“my mother sent me to Hebrew day school at age 10 because she wanted me to have the same education as Jesus.”

Assimilation and Southern Jewish Humor

Religious observance among Southern Jews was shaped by both assimilation and the pressure not to appear different from Gentile neighbors.

One Jewish mother in Mississippi recalled:

“we never eat ham on Friday nights.”

Other families remained strictly observant:

“like the one my wife came from,” he said, “ordered their kosher food each week from New Orleans.”

Another woman decorated her house extensively for Christmas but proudly insisted:

“I didn’t want to be the only dark house on the street but we never entered [our address] in the town’s Christmas competition.”

Evans shared what he considered one of the best examples of Southern Jewish humor.

A Jewish storekeeper named Goldberg was approached by Christian town leaders to show solidarity for Easter. On Easter morning, after church services, the entire town gathered in front of his store. A new sign was hidden beneath a parachute.

At the appointed moment, Goldberg revealed the sign:

“Christ Has Risen but Goldberg’s prices remain the same.”

Leo Frank and the Civil Rights Era

Evans spoke about the brutal lynching of Leo Frank in 1913 — the only American Jew ever lynched.

The case terrified Southern Jews. It was widely stated that:

“if a member of the German Jewish aristocracy could suffer such a terrible death, there was no hope for the newcomers from Eastern Europe.”

Fear spread throughout the South.

Yet when the Reform temple of Rabbi Jacob Rothschild was bombed in 1958, Christian communities rallied in support. Janice Rothschild later described the episode as:

“the bomb that healed.”

The sympathetic response of Atlanta’s churches helped inspire the city’s famous slogan:

“the City Too Busy to Hate.”

Holocaust Refugees and Israel

Many Southern Jewish families helped Jews fleeing the Holocaust.

Evans’s parents signed affidavits for more than 55 refugees, guaranteeing them jobs so they could obtain visas.

When Evans’s father died in 1997, the family received 750 letters, including one from a man who wrote that the senior Evans had lent him money to buy his first house.

Thus:

“not only saved my life but he gave me a life in America.”

Evans stated that Israeli nationhood fascinated Southern Christians, many of whom admired Moshe Dayan after the Six-Day War, comparing him to Confederate General “Stonewall” Jackson.

“They were playing out the metaphor of the Civil War,”

said Evans.

After 1948, Southern politicians such as Senator Richard Russell Jr. of Georgia and Congressman Mendel Rivers of Charleston supported arms shipments to Israel.

Politics and Demographics

Evans noted that many commentators predicted erosion in Jewish support for the Democratic Party, but George W. Bush received roughly the same Jewish support as his father — about 24%.

Polls showed that many Jews were concerned about the growing influence of the Christian right in the Republican Party, while most Jews had not shifted politically as far right as much of the rest of America.

He also quoted Julian Bond, former chairman of the NAACP:

“Jews and blacks have always voted on the same side in national elections and will continue to do so.”

Atlanta’s Jewish Future

Atlanta experienced dramatic Jewish population growth:

• Fewer than 16,500 Jews in 1970
• More than 120,000 Jews today

The city had six synagogues in 1970 and now has more than 38 religious institutions.

Many Jews moved from declining Southern small towns whose independent stores were displaced by Walmart and other mega-retailers. Others arrived from the North seeking job opportunities.

Evans predicted that Atlanta:

“is destined to become one of the great Jewish communities in this century,”

already surpassing Washington and approaching Boston in population.

Conclusion

What was it like growing up Jewish in the South?

Evans, who served for 25 years as President of the Charles H. Revson Foundation in New York City, answered:

“It is a lot like being Gentile in New York.”