Dr. Max Modiano Daniel, Public Historian and Director of the Jewish Heritage Collection at the College of Charleston will give a talk on his latest research, which explores how North African Jews shaped 19th-century American Jewish history and challenged racial and political norms in the antebellum South. Doors will open for brunch at 9:00 AM. 

Dr. Adam Jortner (Auburn University) will talk about his new book, A Promised Land: Jewish Patriots, the American Revolution, and the Birth of Religious Freedom. This talk dismantles the enduring myth that America was founded primarily as a Christian nation, instead highlighting the diverse religious and cultural forces that shaped its origins. By widening the scope of the American Revolution to include Jewish patriots and other overlooked figures, it uncovers how Judaism played a central role in defining both the new nation and its evolving concept of citizenship. Doors will open for brunch at 9:00 AM.