The Pearlstine/Lipov Center for Southern Jewish Culture held its first public event, a discussion of “Jews in the Freedom Summer” with Bruce Watson, author of this year’s College Reads! selection, Freedom Summer: The Savage Season That Made Mississippi Burn and Made America a Democracy.
A s a historian I don’t have to predict the future, just the past – an easier task, though scholars don’t always get that right either. Whatever my limitations as a seer, I know enough to tell that the grim tidings in the Jewish and the general press about Jewish life in the South are misplaced.
"At one historic time, Charleston was the nation's hub of Jewish life and religious freedom, giving rise to a rich Jewish heritage that endures today. Jewish history here has roots so deep, especially for a smallish Southern city, that one of its oldest families is donating $1.5 million to create a center for Southern Jewish culture at the College of Charleston."
