Past Events

When Thomas Jefferson died in 1826, he left behind a mountain of personal debt, which forced his heirs to sell his beloved Monticello home and all of its possessions. The Levys of Monticello is a documentary film that tells the little-known story of the Levy family, which owned and carefully preserved Monticello for nearly a century – far longer than Jefferson or his descendants. The remarkable story of the Levy family also intersects with the rise of antisemitism that runs throughout the course of American history.

Professor Eli Rosenblatt will talk about the work of Abraham Philip Samson (1872-1958)—the relatively unknown Surinamese Jewish activist, writer, and pharmacist—as a lens on the complex position of Jews in late 19th and early 20th-century Suriname, a Caribbean country on the northeastern coast of South America ruled by the Netherlands until 1975. Since much excellent recent scholarship has focused on Surinamese Jewish culture in the era of slavery, this talk will discuss how Samson, a Surinamese Jewish descendant of both free Jews and enslaved people, inherited and represented the legacies of that era in political, ethical, and theological contexts.

Planning is complete for the 46th annual SJHS conference, which [...]

Dr. Joe Butwin studied English Literature at the University of Minnesota, taught History and Literature at Harvard and recently retired after 50 years of teaching English and Jewish Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle. The return of his mother’s papers to Charleston brings emotional satisfaction and at the same time requires reflection on the relation of privacy (letters, diaries!) and publicity and in this case, given his training, on the relation (once again) of History and Literature. He hopes that his example will encourage others to think through the process with or without a similar bundle of paper waiting in the attic.
This hybrid event will take place in the Jewish Studies Center, Arnold Hall (Room 100) and via Zoom. Brunch will be served beginning at 9:00 a.m.

Even as a fourth-generation Jewish Texan, S.L. Wisenberg always felt the ghost of Europe dogging her steps, making her feel uneasy in her body and in the world.
With wit, verve, blood, scars, and a solid dose of self-deprecation, Wisenberg wanders across the expanse of continents and combs through history books and family records in her search for home and meaning. Her travels take her from Selma, Alabama, where her Eastern European Jewish ancestors once settled, to Vienna, where she tours Freud's home and figures out what women really want, and she visits Auschwitz, which—disappointingly— leaves no emotional mark. The Wandering Womb: Essays in Search of Home will arrive in bookstores March 31, 2023. Her book won the  2022 Juniper Prize in nonfiction from University of Massachusetts Press.
Join us for a conversation with S.L. Wisenberg about her new book. This hybrid event will take place in the Jewish Studies Center, Arnold Hall (Room 100) and via Zoom. Brunch will be served beginning at 9:00 a.m.

Join us for a conversation with author Daniel Wolff about his latest book, How to Become an Immigrant, an odyssey from pre-Civil War Charleston to post-World War II Minneapolis through Jewish immigrants’ eyes. Location: in-person and over Zoom Doors open for brunch at 9 a.m.

In 1936, the Gibbes Museum held “An Exhibition of Miniatures Owned in South Carolina and Miniatures of South Carolinians Owned Elsewhere.” One of those on exhibit was a two-sided miniature featuring Richard and Charity Lushington which was “Lent by the Misses Oemler, Savannah, GA.” For nearly a century, the Lushingtons remained in Savannah unknown to those who held them, but now they have returned home to Charleston. Join George H. McDaniel, historian at SC Battleground Preservation Trust, and Ashley Walters, director of the Pearlstein/Lipov Center for the Study of Southern Jewish Culture, as they discuss the significance of Richard Lushington to Charleston’s history, his connection to Jewish history through his unique militia unit, and the world of Revolutionary Charles Town which brought them all together.  This hybrid event will take place in the Jewish Studies Center, Arnold Hall (Room 100) and via Zoom. Brunch will be served beginning at 9:00 a.m.

Between the 1880s and 1920s, Yiddish-language newspapers rose from obscurity to become successful institutions integral to American Jewish life. During this period, Yiddish-speaking immigrants came to view newspapers as indispensable parts of their daily lives. For many Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, acclimating to America became inextricably intertwined with becoming a devoted reader of the Yiddish periodical press, as the newspapers and their staffs became a fusion of friends, religious and political authorities, tour guides, matchmakers, and social welfare agencies. 
This hybrid event will take place in the Jewish Studies Center, Arnold Hall (Room 100) and via Zoom.  
Brunch will be served beginning at 9:00 a.m. The program will begin at 10:00 a.m. 
Copies of the book will be available for purchase after the event.

Explore South Carolina’s Jewish history through the lens of food and memory. Kugels and Collards is a lively collection of South Carolina Jewish family and community stories and special family recipes. Where people go, so goes their food.
Join us for a conversation with Rachel Gordin Barnett and Lyssa Kligman Harvey about their work on this project. 
This hybrid event will take place in the Jewish Studies Center, Arnold Hall (Room 100) and via Zoom.
Brunch will be served beginning at 9:00 a.m. The event will begin at 10:00 a.m.
Copies of the book will be available for purchase after the event.

Join us for a Sunday Brunch conversation about the interconnected history of the Jewish communities in Kałuszyn, Poland and Charleston, South Carolina. Professors Chad Gibbs and Ashley Walters will talk about their ongoing research into the history of Kałuszyn, Jewish chain migration from Kałuszyn to Charleston, and the destruction of Kałuszyn during World War II.
This hybrid event will take place in the Jewish Studies Center, Arnold Hall (Room 100) and Zoom. Brunch will be served beginning at 9:00 AM.

Mahjong: A Chinese Game and the Making of Modern American Culture illustrates how the spaces between tiles and the moments between games have fostered distinct social cultures in the United States. This mass-produced game crossed the Pacific, creating waves of popularity over the twentieth century. Annelise Heinz narrates the history of this game to show how it has created a variety of meanings, among them American modernity, Chinese American heritage, and Jewish American women's culture.
As it traveled from China to the United States and caught on with Hollywood starlets, high society, middle-class housewives, and immigrants alike, mahjong became a quintessentially American game.
Heinz also reveals the ways in which women leveraged a game to gain access to respectable leisure. The result was the forging of friendships that lasted decades and the creation of organizations that raised funds for the war effort and philanthropy. No other game has signified both belonging and standing apart in American culture.

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.