A Tribe Apart: Jews of the American South

[Modem Butterfly]

I saw a documentary the other night, "Shalom Y'All" about the experience of southern Jews. I've lived in Atlanta for over ten years now, and have known a number of Jews with roots here. Their experience is distinct from what we commonly consider the southern experience. I thought this article was interesting though the source is quite conservative.

http://www.jewishpress.com/news_article.asp?article=4991

They are not the Jews of bagels and lox brunches with the Sunday New York Times. They do not necessarily get the humor of a Woody Allen movie and are as likely to salivate over a dinner of fried chicken, collard greens, sweet potato pie and iced tea as they are to crave a repast of matzoh-ball soup, pastrami on rye, side knish and glass of Dr. Brown`s.

They are the Jews of the American South, fundamentally different from their Northern cousins, and not simply because, historically, they assimilated more quickly and intermarried more frequently.

If the South, as Wilber J. Cash puts it in his classic The Mind of the South, is “part of America and yet set apart most definitely from America, a nation within a nation,” then Southern Jews likewise are part of American Jewry but distinct, a people within a people.

Southern Jews have had a disproportionate effect on the history of their region. “Though Jews never comprised more than 1 percent of the South`s population,” writes Louis Schmier in the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, “few phases of the Southern experience and few places in the South escaped their influence.”

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Saw it too. Very interesting. Especially the part about their "blending

in" because the South was not accepting of their differences, and yet they still had their influence.
Kind of sad to see all the old Temples being used for factories and such now that there were no more Jewish populations left to make use of them as temples anymore since they had been so totally assimilated.

[Modem Butterfly]

5. It is sad

Especially since Jews were a big part of the Civil Rights movement.

[whistle]

2. Interesting....

[Nevernose]

3. It's a major theme in Kinky Friedman's books and songs

As you may have guessed from the sig pic, I'm a big fan.

[Modem Butterfly]

4. I've heard of Kinky Friedman, but I'm not overly familiar with him...

Tell me more.

[Nevernose]

6. Wrote a bunch of Jewish themed C/W songs in the early 70s

And a bunch of regular ones as well. I know it sounds silly, and some of them were, but they were also pretty good. He was on the B-List of the emerging outlaw country movement (think Willy Nelson and Johnny Cash) in the early 70s. "Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys" was the name of his band, and that name and songs like "Let Saigons Be Bygones" fairly sums up the nature of his wit.

I had the opportunity to meet him at a book signing a few years ago, and when asked why he hadn't made any music in 25 years, his only reply was "I don't know." I learned about him through his books, though. He's written over a dozen novels (and a couple of guide books), all murder mysteries and most taking place in New York -- the adventures of a Jewish cowboy from Texas in New York. A few of them have taken place in his hometown of Kerrville (the residents of which he refers to as "Kerrverts") and are based loosely on his real life. Still lives in a trailer on the summer camp his parents own, with pictures of Gandhi and Hank Williams Sr. on the wall.

He and a partner operate a no-kill animal shelter, too, and sell some wickedly good homemade salsa in support of it. He ran for sheriff a few years back, and narrowly lost (some of his neighbors apparently didn't like being called "Kerrverts"), writes a few columns, and is currently running for governor of Texas with the slogan: KINKY FOR GOVERNOR: WHY THE HELL NOT?

He's also the only person, to my knowledge, to have successfully used the word "Australopithecean" in a song.

[Danmel]

7. Kinky says "I'm a Jew. I Know how to Delegate!"

And we all know they're not making Jews like Jesus anymore!

I saw that documentary too. We actually have Jewish relatives in Columbia, SC. They keep a pretty low profile- none of the kids married Jews though so I guess all the Jewish relatives will become bible belts. Personally as a Jew I can't think of too many places I'd want to live in less than Columbia.

[Modem Butterfly]

9. My boss is from Columbia

She says the same thing.

I thought the Creux de Jeux in New Orleans was cool, and the Klezmar Dixieland band was fascinating. Also, I've lived in Atlanta for more than a decade, and at one point even worked for a company with an employee population that was 90% Jewish, and had no idea you could get kosher meals at the Varsity.

[DoYouEverWonder]

16. I'm sorry I missed it

Will it be on again?

I recently found out that my husband's great-grandmother was from a very well to do Jewish family from New Orleans. Her brother was a well known jeweler who then moved to Little Rock and literally made a name for himself there. My family and I would love to know more about these folks.

[enigmatic]

8. "Sold American" is a classic

I've played it many, many times on my station; his mystery books are hysterical to read, too..

[Nevernose]

10. The new CD release apparently has some video footage

The new release of the "Sold American" album allegedly has some video footage, but, alas, my CD collection was stolen before I had the chance to check out the videos on that disc.

[Gothmog]

12. Kinky is running for Gov.

Kinky is a musician and author. One of my favorite Kinky songs is "They Don't make Jews like Jesus Anymore" about a Jew getting into a bar fight because he did not turn the other cheek. Kinky was the NOW pig of the year for a song about "biskets in the oven and buns in bed" that was pure satire but was taken wrongly by the NOW.

Kinky is running on the platform of leave no lesbian behind and for the dewussification of Texas. My wife is going to a Kinky event tonight.

[BrklynLiberal]

13. He was interviewed in that documentary on PBS.

[coffeenap]

11. Shalom Y'all was a book first. It is sitting on my piano--it belonged to

my recently passed mother. She grew up in a town of 700 in Arkansas, an hour away from Memphis. She told stories galore--none of which included anything Yiddish, lox-ish, or any other modern stereotype-ish stuff.

[BrklynLiberal]

14. "Driving Miss Daisy" was about a Southern Jewish family in Atlanta I think

New Orleans was, and may still be a center of Sephardic Jews.

http://www.tourosynagogue.com/item.php?category=5&id=48

[Jacobin]

15. Judah P. Benjamin

was a character from the south of old I recall

[susu369]

17. Abraham Mordecai - fascinating character

he was a Revolutionary War veteran and lived with the Creek Indians in the frontier Southeastern United States. Don't have my notes with me but I believe he had an ear cut off as punishment for sleeping (or trying to) with a married Creek Indian woman. I do know he was quite a character.