The Southern Jewish Historical Society will hold its Thirty-fifth Annual Conference in Chapel Hill October 22-24, 2010. All are invited to attend a gathering that promises to be both sociable and stimulating.

The Conference begins on Friday with a bus tour to the North Carolina Museum of History to see the blockbuster exhibition, “Down Home: Jewish Life in North Carolina,” produced by the Jewish Heritage Foundation of North Carolina. We’ll proceed to the new Judaic Art Gallery of the North Carolina Museum of Art, where we’ll enjoy a luncheon co-sponsored by leaders of the Friends of the Judaic Art Gallery. The afternoon will end with a visit to Duke’s Freeman Center, where Prof. Eric Meyers will speak on Jewish studies and a panel of alumni and students will discuss Jewish campus life then and now. That evening, after Shabbat dinner, we’ll join services at Durham’s Judea Reform, where we’ll hear Rabbi Laura Leiber, a native of Fayetteville, Arkansas and now a professor of religion at Duke.

Saturday’s program will be held at UNC Hillel. After an early service, we’ll hear a panel focusing on Jews during the Civil War and Reconstruction, including the role of Jews who provided uniforms for both the North and South. UNC Religion Professor will speak on Christian-Jewish relations after the Civil War to World War I. Following luncheon, Prof. Stephen Whitfield of Brandeis will speak on the “The American South and the Shadow of Nazism.” A panel will follow on how southerners confronted Nazism and racial prejudice during and after the war. We’ll retreat to UNC Wilson Library for a reception and to see a display of Jewish holdings from the Southern Historical Collection, a recent SJHS grant recipient. The evening will feature a showing of the documentary film, “Down Home: Jewish Life in North Carolina,” followed by a panel discussion with the filmmakers.

Sunday morning, again at Hillel, features one of the Conference’s most popular panels, Meet the Authors, where writers will discuss their books on the southern-Jewish experience. Books will be available for purchase and signing. We’ll conclude with a panel on Jewish Community Relations, chaired by Prof. Lee Shai Weissbach of the University of Louisville. The communities include Asheville and Nashville, as well as a fascinating look at Arab and Jewish women storekeepers in Kentucky.

Eli Evans, author of The Provincials: A Personal History of Jews in the South, will serve as Honorary Chair. Conference co-chairs are Marcie Ferris, a UNC professor and author of Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South, and Leonard Rogoff, current SJHS President and author of Down Home: Jewish Life in North Carolina. A local Host Committee offers southern hospitality in this picturesque college town. Conference headquarters will be at the historic Carolina Inn. Ask for the Southern Jewish Historical Society rate at www.carolinainn.com or 919.933.2001. Cosponsoring organizations include the Jewish Heritage Foundation of North Carolina, UNC’s Carolina Center for Jewish Studies, and the Center for Jewish Studies at Duke University.

Since its founding in 1976, the SJHS has pioneered research and presentations on the southern-Jewish experience. A blend of scholars and interested lay people, the SJHS publishes a popular newsletter, The Rambler, and an academic journal. The Society endows archives, publications, exhibitions, and research scholarships on southern-Jewish experience. For more information about the Society, visit www.jewishsouth.org.

The Carolina Inn

Built in 1924 by John Sprunt Hill, a UNC alumnus who was a prominent lawyer and banker, The Carolina Inn was built “to provide for the special wants and comforts” of alumni and visitors. In 1935 Hunt donated the Inn to the University with the stipulation that its profits go the University library, especially its North Carolina Collection.

Designed by architect Arthur C. Nash in the “Southern Colonial style,” the Inn features broad two-story porticos. Its architectural inspirations were Mount Vernon and the Richlands plantation of Louisiana. The Carolina Inn, with its antique furnishings, gracious appointments, and architectural details, maintains the feel of a residential estate rather than a commercial hotel. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the National Trust’s Historic Hotels of America. Its Carolina Crossroads Restaurant rates four and five stars.

For reservations, visit www.carolinainn.com or call 1-800-962-8519 and ask for the Southern Jewish Historical Society rate, which is $164 (plus sales tax, but as a university-sponsored event, no occupancy tax). For those seeking roommates, you may post requests to historian@jhfnc.org.