28th Annual Southern Jewish Historical Society Conference Memphis, Tennessee 
October 30, 2003 - November 2, 2003
at the Park Vista Memphis, affiliate of the Hilton Hotels

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CONFERENCE INFORMATION
Registration
Speaker Bios

CONFERENCE HOTEL INFORMATION
Park Vista Memphis


Memphis Attractions

Memphis Visitors and Convention Bureau

 

AGENDA & PROGRAM

Thursday, October 30
6:30 P.M. SJHS Board Meeting & Dinner

Friday, October 31
8:30--10:15 Bus Tour of Memphis conducted by Perre Magnus, foremost Memphis historian
10:30--11:15 Tour National Civil Rights Museum, with emphasis of Jewish involvement in Civil Rights movement
11:30--12:30 "An Orthodox Oasis in the South"
Moderator: Dr. David Patterson, Director, U of Memphis Bornblum Judaic Studies Program
Panelists:
12:45--1:30 Marie and B. Lowenstein Foundation Lunch at the Center for Southern Folklore featuring Corky's Bar-B-Que and many old southern recipes. Visit Southern Folklore Museum
1:45--2:45 Tour Marilyn and Jack Belz Museum of Judaica
3:00-4:00  Tour "Jewish" Memphis (from the Pinch to the Pyramid and other modern structures) conducted by Judy Peiser, Director, Center for Southern
Folklore
4:00 Return to Hotel
5:30--7:00 Temple Israel Sisterhood and Brotherhood Shabbat dinner.
Welcome by Rabbi Micah Greenstein, Senior Rabbi of Temple Israel, Memphis 
7:15 Services with Rabbi Greenstein sermon:
"Why History Matters"

After Services Oneg Shabbat sponsored by the Temple Israel Sisterhood and Brotherhood and conducted tours of the Temple Israel museum.

 

Saturday, November 1
8:00--8:30 Services to be conducted by Dr. Bruce Beeber, past president SJHS
8:45--10:15  "Shalom Y'All: The Jewish Community of Memphis---Mid-South Jews and Medical Issues"
Moderator: Harry K. Danziger, Rabbi Emeritus, Temple Israel, Memphis, TN
Panelists:

  • Patricia LaPointe, Curator, Memphis & Shelby County Room, Memphis/Shelby County Public Library. Past secretary SJHS, "Memphis's Jewish Medical Community and early Memphis Jewish settlers."

  • Cornelia Wilhelm, University of Munich, Department of Jewish History & Culture. Author and teacher, Wilhelm is writing a history of B'Nai Brith and is the author of the book, Nazi Folkdom Politics in the USA, 1933-1945. "Yellow Fever Diary."

10:30--11:45 "Say it with Food: A Culinary Tour of the Jewish South"
Moderator: Cathy Kahn, Immediate Past President SJHS
Panelists:
  • Marcie Cohen Ferris. Visiting professor in American Studies at the University of North Carolina.  Ferris received her Ph.D. from George Washington (2003), and is currently writing a book based on her dissertation.
  • Joan Nathan. Author of eight cookbooks, including most recently The Foods of Israel Today Nathan is the recipient of numerous awards and honors for her print and broadcast achievements.
12:00--2:00  Lunch Featuring Special Recipes by Joan Nathan
Gumenick Lecturer, "Cues, Blues, and Jews: Southern Music and Southern Jews"
Moderator: Stephen Whitfield, Whitfield has written and taught about the life and culture of American Jews. He is the author of "Voices of Jacob, Hands of Esau:  Jews in American Life and Thought." Whitfield is a professor of American Studies at Brandeis University.
Panelists:
  • David Less. Writer, producer, and researcher based in Memphis. Less has published in Rolling Stone, Down Beat, and Blues Revue. He is former president of the Blues Foundation.
  • David Loebel. Director and conductor of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Loebel's commitment to American composers has been recognized by three ASCAP awards for adventuresome programming of contemporary music.
  • Daniel S. Mariaschin. Executive vice-president of B'nai B'rith International and director of B'nai B'rith's Center for Public Policy. Mariaschin is the author of " Elvis and the Jews of Memphis."
2:15--3:30  "Parallel Lives: Growing up Jewish and Black in Mississippi"
Moderator: Stuart Rockoff. Director, History Department, Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life.
Panelists:
  • Clifton L. Taulbert. Widely acclaimed for his memoirs, Taulbert has written in depth about the South, has spoken at The Library of Congress, and has been a visiting professor at Harvard University's Principal's Center.
  • Gene Dattel. Author of well regarded critique of Japanese financial institutions, "The Sun that Never Rose."
3:45--5:15 "What Drives Miss Daisy?"
Moderator: Phyllis Leffler, professor on the Judaic Studies Faculty at the University of Virginia has written about the "forgotten women at the University of Virginia."
Panelists:
  • Mark Greenberg. Director, University of Southern Florida, Florida Studies Center, Greenberg is writing a book on the Jews of Savannah. "A Life of Meaning: Southern Jewish Women in the Nineteenth Century."
  • Jennifer Ann Stollman. On the faculty of the University of Mississippi, Stollman has written and taught about Jewish women in the antebellum and Civil War South.
    "Delta Jewish Women in the 20th Century."
7:00--7:45  Memphis Jewish Federation Cocktail Hour at Beth Shalom Synagogue Klezmer Music Concert and Tour of Stained Glass Windows.
8:00  Memphis Jewish Federation Banquet at Baron Hirsch Synagogue. The 3 Cantors will perform before the program. 
"Personal Reflections on the Southern Jewish Experience" 
William R. Ferris, Senior Associate Director, Center for the Study of American South, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Former Chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities.

 

Sunday, November 2
8:00--8:45 Breakfast meeting: local Jewish Historical Societies, chaired by Sherry Zander.
9:00--9:45 SJHS Business Meeting
10:00--12:00 Meet the Authors
Moderator: Dr. Mark Bauman: Author and Editor

Panelists:

  • Emily Bingham, "Mordecai: An Early American Family."  Bingham uses family and gender, religion and ethnicity, class and culture to weave together a story of 19th Century America and of an American Jewish family. An influential advocate of traditional Judaism, Jacob Mordecai founded an important school
    in Warrenton, Virginia, and a clan that struggled with acculturation in America and in the South.

  • Harriet Keyserling, "Against the Tide: One Woman's Political Struggle." Keyserling, a former South Carolina legislator, grew up in a New York Jewish family and was transplanted through marriage to Beaufort, South Carolina. Her memoir is the story of her transformation as a woman, as a Jew, and as a fighter for culture and social causes. Hers, like Rapoport's, is an unfinished journey on the road to positive change.

  • Bernard Rapoport, "Being Rapoport: Capitalist with a Conscience." Rapoport's memoir is the story of a second-generation immigrant in Texas who yearns to be an academic but who learns business through family-owned jewelry stores Rapoport himself is legendary among Texans for his influence on state and national Democratic politics and for his commitment to philanthropy.

  • Dr. Eric Goldstein will present The Book Prize of the Southern Jewish Historical Society which is awarded every four years for the book that makes the most significant contribution to the field of Jewish history of the American South.

12:15--2:00 Bornblum Institute of Judaic Studies Luncheon
"With a Southern Accent: The Contributions of Southern Jews to Jewish Publishing in America"
Ellen Frankel, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of the Jewish Publication Society
2:00 P.M. Close of Convention

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