Center for Jewish Southern Culture Blog
Civil Rights from Charleston to Birmingham
Author: Margaret Norman, Director of the Jewish Community Relations Council in BirminghamA 2015 piece published online in Time, days after the tragic shooting at Mother Emmanuel AME Church, opens: “Think of the Civil Rights Movement, and you’re unlikely to think of Charleston, SC.”[1] [...]
Farah Art Griffin: Holocaust of Our Beloved
I am immensely grateful to have received the Charleston Research Fellowship from the Pearlstine/Lipov Center for Southern Jewish Culture. During my research trip in Charleston, I was so genuinely touched by the encouragement, help, and kindness of Dale Rosengarten, Chad Gibbs, Ashley Walters, and [...]
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 Pearlstine/Lipov Center for Southern Jewish Culture to research the life and writings of Charlotte Myers (1802–1891), a Jewish woman who was infamously slandered by her Christian husband Rufus Griswold [...]
Synagogues of the South
Six years in the making, Synagogues of the South: Architecture and Jewish Identity is now online! Authored by architectural historian Samuel D. Gruber, the exhibition explores the lost history of synagogues in the American South through the lens of dozens of postcards from the [...]
Mapping Jewish Charleston 2020
The 2020 page of Mapping Jewish Charleston brings the story of Jewish life in the Lowcountry up to the present. From the Holocaust Memorial in Marion Square to Chabad’s Center for Jewish Life in Mt. Pleasant, the online exhibit surveys 24 sites of Jewish [...]
Taking it to the Streets: Map Making in the Digital Era
Join us on January 19, 2021 at 7:30 pm as historian Marni Davis (Georgia State University) and author Harlan Greene (College of Charleston) discuss their digital map making projects in Atlanta, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina. These modern digital maps reveal the hidden histories [...]
Mapping Jewish Charleston 2020 website has been launched!
Staff of the Pearlstine/Lipov Center for Southern Jewish Culture and the Jewish Heritage Collection (JHC) have been hard at work putting the finishing touches on the 2020 page of the Mapping Jewish Charleston website and are pleased to officially announce its launch. Hats off [...]
Revisiting Southern Jewish History 2020
Award-winning scholar Dr. Shari Rabin, formerly assistant professor in the College of Charleston’s Jewish Studies Program and Director of the Pearlstine/Lipov Center for Southern Jewish Culture, returns for a discussion about southern history with Dr. Adam Domby, Assistant Professor of History, in light of [...]
Body and Soul: An American Bridge, the Black-Jewish History of an American Song
The Charleston Jewish Filmfest, the Arts Management Program at the College of Charleston, and the Pearlstine/Lipov Center for Southern Jewish Culture present A FREE film screening and discussion of the acclaimed jazz documentary Body and Soul: An American Bridge, the Black-Jewish History of an [...]
“Touched with Fire: Morris B. Abram and the Battle against Racial and Religious Discrimination”
Morris B. Abram (1918–2000) emerged from humble origins in a rural South Georgia town to become one of the leading civil rights lawyers in the United States during the 1950s. While unmasking the Ku Klux Klan and serving as a key intermediary for the [...]
Pursuing Justice: Fighting Hate with the Law
We regret to announce that “Pursuing Justice” has been canceled, along with all other College events in the next few weeks, due to precautions related to the coronavirus. We hope to reschedule at a later date. The “Unite the Right” rally and hateful attacks [...]
Mapping Jewish Charleston
Though Charleston's Jewish history, dating back to the late 17th century, is becoming better known to academics, most people are unaware of the basic facts. How many know, for example, that 200 years ago Charleston boasted the largest Jewish population on the North American [...]