ABOUT THE CENTER
The College of Charleston’s Center for Southern Jewish Culture seeks to broaden public knowledge and inspire conversations about the southern Jewish experience.
Generously funded by the Pearlstine/Lipov family in 2014, it brings together the resources of the College’s Jewish Studies Program, Addlestone Library’s Jewish Heritage Collection, and The Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina.
The College of Charleston’s Center for Southern Jewish Culture hosts a wide array of speakers, films, and other events.
Our Charleston Research Fellowship Program supports works of scholarship, public history, and artistic production.
We partner with other organizations to help the public discover the rich history and culture of the Jewish South.
UPCOMING EVENTS
In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, the political landscape of the American South transformed drastically. Local offices previously dominated by the slave-owning planter elite now sat a racially, ethnically, and economically diverse pool of politicians. Among this new cohort of officeholders were scores of Jewish immigrants, over fifty of whom served as mayors of southern towns between 1870 and 1900. In an era often defined by political turbulence and race-based electoral violence, these local Jewish politicians became some of the unsung leaders of southern towns.
NEWS AND NOTES
Farah Art Griffin: Holocaust of Our Beloved
I am immensely grateful to have received the Charleston Research Fellowship from the Pearlstine/Lipov Center [...]
Ben Bascom: Researching the life and writings of Charlotte Myers (1802–1891)
I recently visited the College of Charleston’s special collections through a generous fellowship from the [...]
Synagogues of the South
Six years in the making, Synagogues of the South: Architecture and Jewish Identity is now [...]
Mapping Jewish Charleston 2020
The 2020 page of Mapping Jewish Charleston brings the story of Jewish life in the [...]