These wide-ranging essays reveal the various roles played by southern rabbis in the struggle for black civil rights since Reconstruction
The study of black-Jewish relations has become a hotbed of controversy, especially with regard to the role played by Jewish leaders during the Civil Rights movement. Did these leaders play a pivotal role, or did many of them, especially in the South, succumb to societal pressure and strive to be accepted rather than risk being persecuted? If some of these leaders did choose a quieter path, were their reasons valid? And were their methods successful?
The contributors in this volume explore the motivations and subsequent behavior of rabbis in a variety of southern environments both before and during the civil rights struggle. Their research demonstrates that most southern rabbis indeed faced pressures not experienced in the North and felt the need to balance these countervailing forces to achieve their moral imperative.
Individually, each essay offers a glimpse into both the private and public difficulties these rabbis faced in their struggle to achieve good. Collectively, the essays provide an unparalleled picture of Jewish leadership during the civil rights era.
PrefaceIntroductionBaumanMark K.GenesisRabbi Max Heller, Zionism, and the “Negro Question”: New Orleans, 1891–1911MaloneBobbie S.Morris Newfield, Alabama, and Blacks, 1895–1940CowettMarkA Plea for Tolerance: Fineshriber in MemphisKalinBerkleyThe Heyday“Hamans” and “Torquemadas”: Southern and Northern Jewish Responses to the Civil Rights Movement, 1945–1965DollingerMarcCivil and Social Rights Efforts of Arkansas JewryLeMasterCarolyn GrayRabbi Sidney Wolf: Harmonizing in TexasWeinerHollace AvaRabbi David Jacobson and the Integration of San AntonioPreussKarlThe Prophetic Voice: Rabbi James A. WaxLaPointePatricia M.Rabbi Grafman and Birmingham's Civil Rights EraBarrTerryDivided Together: Jews and African Americans in Durham, North CarolinaRogoffLeonardBig Struggle in a Small Town: Charles Mantinband of Hattiesburg, MississippiWebbCliveWhat Price Amos? Perry Nussbaum's Career in Jackson, MississippiZolaGary PhillipMemoirsJacob M. Rothschild: His Legacy Twenty Years AfterBlumbergJanice RothschildThe Year They Closed the Schools: The Norfolk StorySternMalcolmA Personal MemoirBermanMyronAfterword“Then and Now”: Southern Rabbis and Civil RightsGreensteinMicah D.GreensteinHowardNotesContributorsIndex
Mark K. Bauman is retired Professor of History at Atlanta Metropolitan.
Berkley Kalin is also coeditor of Rivers of Change: Essays on Early Agriculture in Eastern North America.
