2013 Southern Jewish Historical Society Annual Meeting
Birmingham, Alabama, November 1 - 3
Dan Puckett and Stuart Rockoff, Conference Program Co-Chairs
Schedule of Events
Thursday, October 31
6:00 pm Board of Trustees meeting
Friday, November 1
8:00 – 9:00 am Registration/Coffee
9:00 am: Tour of Jewish Birmingham
Noon: Lunch at 16th Street Baptist Church
1:00 pm: Tour of Birmingham Civil Rights Museum
2:30 pm: Roundtable Discussion: Jewish Participation in the Birmingham Civil Rights Struggle (at 16th Street Baptist Church)
Chair: Dan Puckett
Respondent: Julian Bond
5:40 pm: Services at Temple Emanu-El; Keynote Speaker Julian Bond
7:30 pm: Dinner and Q & A with Julian Bond
Saturday, November 2
Sessions will be held in Heritage Hall at the University of Alabama at Birmingham
8:00 – 9:00 am Registration/Coffee
9:00 – 10:30 am: Panel: Alabama’s Jewish Communities
Chair: Adam Mendelsohn
Robert Adler, “The Muscle Shoals Jewish Community.”
Susan Thomas, “Building Bridges in Turn-of-the-Century Mobile: The Life and Legacy of Leon Schwarz.”
Kaye Nail, “Birmingham Jewish Women and Social Reform: 1880-1980.”
10:30 – 10:45 am: break
10:45 – Noon: Panel: Building Classical Reform Judaism in the South
Chair: Ellen Umansky
Anton Heike, “Maurice Mayer: Charleston’s Revolutionary Rabbi, 1852–59.”
Samuel Gruber, “Classic Reform, Classical Synagogues and the American South.”
Noon – 1:00: Lunch
1:00 – 2:30: Panel: Jews and Southern Civil Rights
Chair: Bryan Stone
Raymond Mohl, “The AJC and the Community Relations Board in Dade County, Florida.”
Rosalind Benjet and Harriet Gross, “The Dallas Jewish Community during the Civil Rights Struggles.”
Dina Weinstein, “Melvin Meyer: A University of Alabama Student Journalist during the Civil Rights Struggle”
2:30: Break/Optional Tour of Samuel Ullman Museum
4:00: Bus leaves hotel for Birmingham Public Library
4:30 pm: Plenary: Mark K. Bauman, “Listening To the Quiet Voices: Allen Krause's Conversations with Southern Rabbis during the Civil Rights Era.”
Comments: Rabbi Irving Bloom
6:00: Reception featuring the Jewish collections of the Birmingham Public Library
Sunday, November 3
All sessions will be held at UAB
8:15 – 9:15 am General Membership Meeting/Breakfast
9:15 – 10:30: Panel: The Charleston Diaspora: A Web of Cosmopolitan Connections
Chair: Mark K. Bauman
Scott M. Langston, “Cincinnati Meets Charleston: The Moses and Jonas Families in Alabama.”
Hollace Ava Weiner, “The Re-enactor’s Rebel: Saving Pvt. Sampson from Obscurity.”
10:30 – 10:45: Break
10:45 – 12:30: Meet the Authors
Chair: Marni Davis
Authors:
Barbara G. Bonfield, Knesseth Israel, Over 123 Years of Orthodoxy (Birmingham, 2013)
Dan J. Puckett, In the Shadow of Hitler: Alabama’s Jews, the Second World War, and the Holocaust (University of Alabama Press, 2013).
Nicholas Kotz, The Harness Maker’s Dream: Nathan Kallison and the Rise of South Texas (Dallas: TCU Press, 2013).
12:30 pm Conference adjourns
Rooms have been reserved at the Doubletree Hotel – 808 South 20th Street. Call 1-800-222-8733 to reserve your room at the special rate of $119/night. Deadline for rooms is October 10.