Jewish Life In North Carolina

Transcription

1 Jewish Life In North Carolina

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction; Collaborating Institutions 1 Down Home for Broadcast and Education 2 Down Home in North Carolina s Museums 4 Lessons for Our Children 7 A Volume for Keepsake and Reference; the Archive 8 Advisory Boards 9 Timeline 10 Naming and Partnership Opportunities 11 About the Jewish Heritage Foundation of North Carolina 12

3 A story waiting to be told... For more than three centuries North Carolina has welcomed Jews with hospitality and opportunity. And Jews, often escaping poverty and persecution, have brought their energy and talents to their new homelands. As peddlers in the countryside, storekeepers in small towns, and industrialists in emerging cities, Jews helped create the prosperity that has made North Carolina a leader of the New South. Committed to faith, family, and community, Jews have endowed hospitals, educated our youth, and led the struggle for racial and social justice. Yet, despite their remarkable contributions to our state, the Jewish story remains little known and largely untold. Down Home: Jewish Life in North Carolina, a multimedia project of the Jewish Heritage Foundation of North Carolina, will tell this compelling story in: a national broadcast quality documentary film, an educational video and teaching guide for the state s 1.5 million public school students; a museum exhibition which will travel to all of the state s major metropolitan areas; and an engaging, well-researched book with full-color illustration. Fragments of North Carolina s Jewish history can be found on the shelves of libraries, museums, and archives. But the stories that make this history come alive remain forgotten in attics and closets, and waiting in the memories of community elders. As letters and photographs fade, as parents and grandparents pass away, and as smalltown synagogues close and their records disappear, this heritage may be lost forever. Down Home will preserve this history and chronicle its compelling story in a personal way. It will tell how an immigrant people became Southern while retaining its distinctive character and its traditional faith. Down Home will address many audiences young and old, Jews and non-jews, natives and newcomers, city residents and country folk. For new Americans especially, the North Carolina Jewish story can be a living example of a people reaching for their dreams, creating their own opportunities, and contributing to their communities for the common good. Collaborating Institutions North Carolina Museum of History * North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources North Carolina Humanities Council Department of Judaic Studies, Duke University Carolina Center for Jewish Studies, UNC - Chapel Hill Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University University of North Carolina at Asheville University of North Carolina Press Levine Museum of the New South Charlotte Jewish Historical Society Greensboro Historical Museum Cape Fear Museum Down Home exhibit venue * Down Home film premiere venue Down Home development partner and exhibit opening venue 1

4 Down Home for broadcast and education The Down Home documentary opens a window on the richly diverse lives of North Carolina s Jews. As a broadcast film and educational resource, it promises to preserve and share these stories with many viewers and be available for years to come in schools, libraries and historical, cultural, and religious organizations statewide and nationally. Tar Heel Jews have played a valuable role in the emergence of modern North Carolina. From peddling scarce goods along dusty rural roads after the Civil War to running small town stores on dozens of Main Streets, from science and academics to organic farming Jews have often been the harbingers of change. Our stories will embrace the worlds of education and work, of justice, faith and family and we might even learn how to cook a pecan noodle pudding! We ll hear again the wisdom of Harry Golden as he talks with Lincoln biographer Carl Sandburg about the values that Jews share with their fellow Southerners. With Steve Leder, we ll drive around Wilson in his pickup, as we explore the wider impact of Jewish enterprise on the economic life of small-town North Carolina. We ll see how Matza Rising farmers help connect Jewish values with the environment, and we ll get that cooking lesson in the kitchen with historian Marcie Cohen Ferris. We ll meet philanthropists such as the Cone and Blumenthal families, who have endowed public institutions as a way of giving back to the communities where they have been able to achieve such remarkable success. And no film on Jewish Tarheelia can be complete without a visit to the Southern Catskills, the lively North Carolina camps and summer lodges that became an integral part of Jewish social and cultural life. e Down Home documentary and educational toolkit will portray the diversity of southern Jewish culture, tradition, and lifestyle slices of life that we hope will inform, surprise, and help build bridges of understanding between the Jewish communities of North Carolina and their neighbors. The educational video Selected elements from the documentary will form the core of a Down Home educational video created for elementary and middle school students. is will be accompanied by a teachers guide created specifically for use in the People of North Carolina social studies course required in the curriculum of all public schools. More than 350,000 fourth and eighth grade students attend these classes each year, but no teaching materials have been available to explain Jewish life in North Carolina and the role that Jews have played in the state s development. e Down Home educational component will remedy this situation in an engaging and positive presentation designed by respected educational consultants. Dr. Steven Channing brings to Down Home a wide range of experience as an historian, author and filmmaker. He taught at the Universities of Kentucky, Stanford, Duke and as a Fulbright lecturer in Italy and was a research fellow at Johns Hopkins University. His publications include the Allen Nevins Prize winning study Crisis of Fear - Secession in South Carolina and The Confederate Ordeal for Time-Life s Civil War series. Broadcast productions included And Still I Rise: Maya Angelou, The Fulbright Experience, America s 400th Anniversary, narrated by Andy Griffith, and Alamance, a regional Emmy winner. In 2005, Channing s February One a documentary about the historic first civil rights lunch counter sit-in premiered on a national PBS broadcast. 2

5 Down Home documentary themes Jews have been integral to North Carolina s emergence as a progressive New South society. The documentary will consist of interviews, suggestive re-enactment and narration an interweaving of carefully-selected stories and storytellers, locations, and celebrations. e story of Jews in this state is the story of North Carolina itself. Jewish energy in search of opportunity and advancement entered an initially very rural and substantially impoverished region. But North Carolina emerged as the leading New South state in its industry and its often progressive leadership, and Tar Heel Jews have genuinely contributed to that growth and change. e Jewish presence has made itself felt in small towns and growing cities, encouraging ties with centers elsewhere in the country and abroad, helping to bring NC into the wider world. Making a successful new life in this welcoming state, Jews have found sanction to preserve their multicultural identities, and have responded in kind with significant contributions to economy, education, culture, and health care. is shared journey is the heart of our story. Part One will relate stories showing Jewish mobility and NC economic transformation. We will illustrate the journey of North Carolina s Jews: from earlier migrations (especially in the era of the New South) and more recent times, with the development of the Sunbelt and the journey across different sectors of Jewish economic life peddlers, merchants, industrialists, and professionals. Part Two will concern Jewish life in NC: how heritage wasn t, and yet is maintained; what has been lost or changed. is component will be a story of contraries and contradictions: Jews remained distinct; they adapted and assimilated; they lost some aspects Down Home film crews are already visiting some fascinating Tar Heel Jews, such as Jerry Levin of Charlotte, whose father founded the Lebo s enterprise of dance and Western wear. of their heritage; they created new ways of maintaining community. Interviews will focus both on how heritage is threatened, and how it is maintained through institutional and social structures such as community worship, social connections, the mating game, and centers for Jewish heritage study. Part ree will focus on other domains of public life, such as political and social reform; civil rights; philanthropy; medicine; and scholarship from past to present, highlighting the interplay of interaction between Jews and North Carolina. is section will present stories of Jews in North Carolina public life, including interviews with present-day progressives, philanthropists, and scholars. It will also present material about the linking of North Carolina Jews to Israel and the world. 3

6 Down Home in North Carolina s Museums The Down Home exhibition takes an experiential, values-oriented approach in telling the narrative of Jewish life in North Carolina. Jews were instrumental in leading North Carolina into the New South. Their biblical traditions emphasized values of work, community, religion, family, and education that harmonized with those of the Southern peoples among whom they found homes. The exhibition s center, Who We Are: A North Carolina Story, orients visitors by presenting an historical overview of Jewish immigration and acculturation. The surrounding modules, How We Lived: New Lives in the New South, create environments that allow visitors to experience how Jews realized their values in everyday life. Who We Are: A North Carolina Story At the center of the exhibition is a chronology of Jewish settlement in North Carolina that shows how Jews, through a process of struggle and negotiation, became a Southern people while preserving their ethnic and religious traditions. Panels, graphics, and artifacts illustrate the character of the community, the Jews role in building a New South, and their acculturation into Southerners. Large portraits of North Carolina Jews such as a colonial Jew, a Civil War soldier, an East European immigrant family, a Miss North Carolina, a basketball player draw visitors into the exhibition space. How We Lived: New Lives in the New South Modules based on the Jewish values of religion, family, community, education, and work present environments that encourage visitors to re-live the experience of being Jewish in North Carolina. Keeping the Faith features a reconstructed synagogue sanctuary with an ark and Torah from a synagogue in Winston-Salem. Minding the Store recreates an authentic dry-goods store, stocked with vintage merchandise and artifacts from family stores in Whittakers, Lincolnton, and Greensboro. Family Comes First centers around a table from Mount Airy, set for a Sabbath dinner as it was nearly a century ago. A Commitment to Community demonstrates how North Carolina s Jews have contributed to the health, educational, and civic resources of the state. A Love of Learning focuses on the intellectual and cultural accomplishments of Tar Heel Jews within a reconstruction of Harry Golden s study, with his own desk and typewriter. Darcie Fohrman, designer of the Down Home museum exhibition is one of the most sought-after figures in the field of exhibit planning and design. Among her list of distinguished credits are Daniel s Story: Remember the Children at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, and the awardwinning Courage: The Carolina Story that Changed America for the Levine Museum of the New South. Her company, Darcie Fohrman Associates, is located in Monterey, CA. 4

7 Minding the Store A peddler s cart and dry goods store with original fixtures help tell the story of how early Jewish settlers made a living and at the same time created new economic links for North Carolina. Keeping the Faith is interpretation of a small town synagogue will acquaint visitors with a Sefer Torah and other ritual objects. e large drawing depicts the first synagogue in North Carolina, Temple of Israel in Wilmington, still an active congregation today. 5

8 Who We Are Banners depict important individuals and periods in Jewish settlement in North Carolina, orienting the visitor in time and leading to the thematic modules. Minding the Store Commitment to Community Keeping the Faith Family Comes First A Love of Learning Banners Flexible Exhibit Design A modular design concept allows exhibit elements to be rearranged to accommodate the varying spaces of the five Down Home venues.. 6

9 Lessons for our children A major goal of Down Home is to build bridges of understanding between peoples and to foster appreciation for the value of diversity. To further this mission, we are devoting special attention to reaching children. e North Carolina Department of Public Instruction focuses on the diverse peoples of North Carolina in its fourth and eighth grade social studies curricula. ere are currently no materials available to the schools describing the Jewish presence in North Carolina, although Jews were among the state s earliest immigrants and have made notable contributions to its economy and to the public welfare of the communities in which they settled. A video for our schools To address this need, Down Home includes a special educational videotape, with content drawn from the longer-length documentary. VideoDialog, the company led by our film producer, Dr. Steve Channing, has produced many materials for the educational system, and in collaboration with a panel of experts, will develop a teacher s guide to accompany the video. Young people at our museum exhibit In its travels to five North Carolina museums (Charlotte, Raleigh, Asheville, Wilmington, and Greensboro), we expect more than 750,000, and perhaps as many as one million visitors to the Down Home museum exhibit over its two-year travel schedule. Gertrude Weil, born in Goldsboro in 1879, was a pioneer for civil rights and women s suffrage. As the poster child for Down Home, her life exemplifies many of the values central to our educational efforts. According to NC museum professionals, one third to one half of the visitors to the state s historical museums are school-age children. Typically they accompany their families, school or church groups, and other community organizations. As a result a half-million young people may see the Down Home museum exhibition, much of which is designed with young audiences in mind. A message of tolerance Down Home will enhance understanding of the diverse heritage of North Carolina s citizens by challenging stereotypes, casting in a new light the richness and complexity of the state s ethnic history and sensitizing students and adults alike to the consequences of prejudice. 7

10 A volume for keepsake and reference In the Down Home book, which will be published simultaneous with the opening of the museum exhibit, 300 years of North Carolina Jewish voices will speak for themselves. Richly illustrated and attractively formatted, this volume will sit with equal comfort on the coffee table and the scholar s shelf. It will be authoritative in its scholarship but accessible to general audiences. e emphasis will be on social history. Leonard Rogoff, Ph.D., JHFNC s historian and research director, will serve as editor and chief writer. He has laid the research groundwork in his extensive publications on Southern and North Carolina Jewry, including articles on the state s synagogue history, rabbinic responses to civil rights, and racial anti-semitism. Editor of e Rambler, the newsletter of the Southern Jewish Historical Society, Leonard recently contributed entries on North Carolina for the forthcoming revision of the Encyclopedia Judaica. His awardwinning book, Homelands: Southern Jewish Identity in Durham and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was critically praised for its readability, scholarship, and human interest. Leonard Rogoff, Ph.D. has written and lectured extensively on the Jewish South with a focus on North Carolina. His essays have appeared in publications such as American Jewish History, Southern Jewish History, The Quiet Voices: Southern Rabbis and Black Civil Rights, Jewish- American History and Culture: An Encyclopedia, Handbook to North Carolina History (forthcoming), and The Companion to Southern Literature. He currently edits The Rambler, newsletter of the Southern Jewish Historical Society. e distinguished editorial board for the Down Home publication includes Sydney Nathans, Associate Professor of History, Duke University (retired), and co-editor of e Way We Lived in North Carolina series; Eric Meyers, Bernice and Morton Lerner Professor, Department of Religion and founding director of the Judaic Studies Program at Duke University; Tom Rankin, Director, Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University; and Jonathan Sarna, Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis University. Creation of a permanent archive When completed, the research material for Down Home will comprise the most extensive body of historical records about the Jews of North Carolina. e JHFNC will create a permanent home for this archive, e North Carolina Jewish Collection at the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, where it will be professionally preserved and made available to scholars of both the South and American Jewish history. e JHFNC is also working with a consortium of university libraries from across the state including Duke University, UNC-Asheville, UNC-Chapel Hill, and UNC-Charlotte that hold Jewish North Carolina collections. We intend to create a master guide that will be an invaluable resource for those interested in Jewish or Southern heritage. ese collections can be digitized, adapted for the World Wide Web, and linked to other important historical collections. 8

11 Project Advisors and Contributing Historians Advisory Board Prof. Joyce Antler, Samuel Lane Professor of American Jewish History and Culture, Brandeis University Emily Bingham, U.S. History and Women s Studies, University of Louisville; author of Mordecai: An Early American Family Elizabeth Buford, Director, NC Museum of History, Raleigh, NC Robert Cone, J.D., Director, Tuggle, Duggins & Mescham PA; President, Greensboro Bar Association Jeffrey Crow, Ph.D., Deputy Secretary, NC Offi ce of Archives and History Eli Evans, J.D., Chair, Advisory Board, Carolina Center for Jewish Studies, UNC-Chapel Hill; past president, Charles H. Revson Foundation; author of e Provincials and other works of Southern Jewish history Prof. Marcie Cohen Ferris, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Curriculum in American Studies, Associate Director, Carolina Center for Jewish Studies, UNC-Chapel Hill Prof. Joel L. Fleishman, Professor of Law and Public Policy Sciences, Duke Law School; Director, Samuel and Ronnie Heyman Center for Ethics, Public Policy, and the Professions Hon. Stanley Fox, distinguished former North Carolina State Representative, Oxford, NC Rabbi John Friedman, Judea Reform Congregation, Durham Prof. David Goldfield, Robert Lee Bailey Professor of History, UNC-Charlotte Daniel Gottlieb, Deputy Director, Museum Planning & Design, NC Museum of Art Macy Hart, President, Institute of Southern Jewish Life Prof. Jonathan Hess, Director, Carolina Center for Jewish Studies, UNC-Chapel Hill Prof. Jodi Magness, Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism, Department of Religious Studies, UNC-Chapel Hill Prof. Eric Meyers, Bernice and Morton Lerner Professor of Judaic Studies; Director of the Graduate Program in Religion, Duke University Tom Rankin, Ph.D., Executive Director, Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University Marshall Rauch, J.D., distinguished former North Carolina State Senator Dale Rosengarten, Ph.D., Curator, College of Charleston s Jewish Heritage Collection and of the exhibition A Portion of the People: ree Hundred Years of Southern Jewish Life Prof. Jonathan Sarna, Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis University; Chairman, Academic Advisory Council, Celebrate 350 Jan Schochet, Independent historian and folklorist, Asheville, NC Emily Zimmern, Executive Director, Levine Museum of the New South Planning Board Prof. Yaakov Ariel, Associate Professor, Dept. of Religious Studies, UNC-Chapel Hill Prof. Mark Bauman, Professor of History, Atlanta Metropolitan College Prof. Richard Chess, Associate Professor of Literature and Language; Director, Center for Jewish Studies, UNC-Asheville Prof. David Crowe, Professor of History, Elon University, Greensboro Prof. Monika Fleming, Chair, English Department, Edgecombe Community College, Tarboro Harlan Gradin, Ph.D., Asst. Director, North Carolina Humanities Council Prof. Dana Greene, Department of Sociology and Social Work, Appalachian State University, Boone Marcia Horowitz, Historian; Chair, Down Home Triad Oral History Committee Prof. Sarah Malino, Professor of History, Guilford College, Greensboro Prof. James Martin, Chair, Department of Government, History, and Justice, Campbell University, Buies Creek Prof. Sydney Nathans, Associate Professor, Department of History, Duke University Linda Scher, NC Commission on the Holocaust Prof. John David Smith, Charles H. Stone Distinguished Professor of American History, UNC-Charlotte Beverly Tetterton-Opheim, Archivist, Temple Israel, Wilmington; Special Collections Librarian, New Hanover Public Librarian Prof. David Zonderman. Associate Head, Department of Public History, NCSU 9

12 A multi-year timeline Down Home is an ambitious, project for which planning began in e catalyst for its development was the JHFNC s first heritage exhibit, Migrations, which documented the history of Jewish settlement in eastern North Carolina. It ended its tour of six locations in 2001, travelling as far west as Greensboro. Its success motivated the JHFNC to undertake a statewide project to document and share the story of all Jewish life throughout the state. e four major elements of Down Home will be produced in stages. We plan to premiere the film at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh in 2007 and to circulate the educational video soon afterward. e museum exhibit will debut at the Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte (which is partnering with the JHFNC in this endeavor) in mid-2008, simultaneous with the publication of the book. e exhibition will tour the state s historical museums through the following two years. It is envisioned that Down Home will be installed at a permanent venue at the end of its travel schedule. e budget for the Down Home project is $1.25 million. The Levine Museum of the New South has partnered with the JHFNC to produce thedown Home exhibit, which is scheduled to debut there in mid Research and planning Milestone 1 - $400,000 Film production Educational video production Milestone 2 - $750,000 Film release and distribution Exhibit concept and design Milestone 3 - $1,000,000 Exhibit construction Book authoring Milestone 4 - $1,250,000 Book production Exhibit opens and tours 10

13 Naming and Partnership Opportunities Entire project. All elements will bear an appropriate statement of credit, to be determined by agreement between the donor and the Jewish Heritage Foundation of North Carolina. $500,000 Museum exhibit. is exhibit will tour at least five historical museums throughout North Carolina and be seen by as many as one million people. Signage, promotional materials, and the exhibit catalog will bear appropriate credits. $250,000 Documentary film.to be aired numerous times on public television outlets throughout the state and nationally. It will also be circulated to libraries, universities, historical associations and similar institutions. $200,000 Down Home book. is fullcolor, authoritatively researched volume will be available at the museum exhibits and through other appropriate distribution channels. Copies of the book will also reach educational, cultural, and civic organizations throughout the state and nationally. e University of North Carolina Press has expressed strong interest in publishing this volume $150,000 Educational video. is edited version of the full-length documentary will be distributed to all North Carolina public schools for use in its People of North Carolina required diversity curriculum. $100,000 Teaching guide. Created by respected North Carolina educational consultants, the guide will accompany the educational video. $50,000 Exhibit modules. Any of six modules within the Down Home museum exhibit. $50,000 Exhibition brochure. Distributed to all visitors at each of the Down Home five venues. $25,000 Oral history project. Named by Elizabeth Gervais-Gruen. $10,000 Partnerships for Interactive Modules A gift of $50,000 will make it possible for the museum exhibition to include an interactive module allowing visitors to select and listen to audio recordings from the Down Home and other North Carolina Jewish oral history archives. A gift of $50,000 will make it possible for the museum exhibition to include an interactive module allowing visitors to select and watch video clips drawn from the Down Home and other North Carolina Jewish film archives. A gift of $25,000 will make it possible for the museum exhibition to include an interactive module allowing visitors to record their own stories of Jewish Life in North Carolina. Banner Sponsorships At the center of the Down Home exhibition is a chronology of Jewish settlement in North Carolina. Suspended eight-foot banners will draw visitors into the exhibition and illustrate the diverse origins and remarkable accomplishments of Jews in the Tar Heel state. A gift of $5,000 will sponsor an individual banner. For a list of current availabilities, please contact Development Director, Roberta Morris at roberta@jhfnc.org 11

14 About the JHFNC Since 1996, the JHFNC has served as a custodian and presenter of North Carolina Jewish culture and history. rough its Chapel Hill offices and the Rosenzweig Gallery in Durham, the JHFNC maintains an endowed Judaica collection and creates original Judaic, historical, and artistic exhibitions and programs that it seeks to share throughout the state. e JHFNC has been active in preserving ritual objects from inactive synagogues and redistributing them to newly formed congregations. We also support the preservation of historical synagogues and cemeteries. e Jewish Heritage Foundation of North Carolina is a (501)(c)(3) organization. Contributions to the Down Home campaign are fully tax deductible. We are funded by individual and corporate donors, charitable foundations, synagogues, and local Jewish federations A menorah from the permanent collection of the Rosenzweig Gallery. Celebrating oro histo cultureure the ry, & religion of the Jewish people of Board of Directors Henry A. Greene, President Durham Franklin Block Wilmington Rose Boyarsky Chapel Hill Donna Chmura Durham Stanley Fox Oxford Elizabeth Gervais-Gruen Chapel Hill Stanley Greenspon Charlotte Susan Leeb Chapel Hill Jerry Levin Charlotte Sidney Levinson Hillsborough Lee Mehler Durham Eric Meyers Durham Muriel Offerman Cary Sara Lee e Saperstein Greensboro Staff Leonard Rogoff Historian Roberta Morris Development Director Financial information about this organization and a copy of its license are available from the NC State Solicitation Licensing Branch at This license is not an endorsement by the State. North Carolina Jewish Heritage Foundation of North Carolina 1200 Mason Farm Road Chapel Hill, NC