Dixie Diaspora: An Anthology of Southern Jewish History (review)

“Connoisseurs of the complications of ethnicity,” writes Brandeis Professor Stephen J. Whitfield in his 1988 article “The Braided Identity of Southern Jewry,” one of sixteen well-chosen articles by Mark K. Bauman, editor of Dixie Diaspora: An Anthology of Southern Jewish History, “can find much to meditate upon in the experience of Southern Jewry.” Similarly, historical connoisseurs of American Jewish history, Southern Jewish history as well as numerous other fields of American history in general will “find much to meditate upon” in this collection of recent, critical historical scholarship by one of the senior and most distinguished scholars of Southern Jewish history. “This anthology,” the editor maintains, “is designed to expose different audiences to the subfield and particularly to the scholarship of the last twenty-five years, and to encourage the integration of southern Jewish history into American, southern, religious, ethnic and Jewish history.” At least in this case, the “design” of the anthology has succeeded both in highlighting the major themes of southern Jewish history and in showcasing many of the new methodological and historiographical approaches employed by contemporary critical scholars.

“Selection,” Bauman further explains, “was based on methodological innovation, how well articles opened discussion of key themes, and how well they complemented one another.” Moreover, the editor notes that “rather than chronology, the articles are organized topically to provide a clearer understanding of contemporary debates and questions.” Five topics in all are used as major rubrics for Dixie Diaspora, including I. Jews and Judaism; II. Small-Town Jewish Life; III. Business and Governance; IV. Interaction; and V. Identity. With respect to chronology, Dixie Diaspora includes articles from the Colonial period to the present

A brief “Introduction” to the entire book as well as “Introductions” to each of the anthology’s five sections provide helpful conceptual frameworks for the book’s readers. An excellent “Bibliographical Essay” offers a virtual tour of the secondary literature of the southern Jewish experience. The book’s only flaw is the absence of a topical index which would have increased its utility as a general research tool.

In addition to articles by Bauman and Whitfield, articles by Leonard R. Rogoff (“The Racial Place of the Southern Jew”), Deborah R. Weiner (“Appalachian Jewish Women”), Lee Shai Weissbach (“East European Jews in the South”), and Gary P. Zola (“Southern Rabbis”) are representative of the book’s depth and scope. Atlanta, Charleston, New Orleans, Savannah, and Texas also receive special attention. Consistent with many geographical definitions of the southern Jewish experience, the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC and southern Florida are excluded from the book’s sweep of topics and places. While Elliot Ashkenazi’s “Jewish Commercial Interests Between North and South” explores inter-regional connections, a look at the ties between southern Jews and other Caribbean-basin Jewish communities would have added an international dimension to the book and pointed to yet another dimension of the Southern Jewish experience.

The anthology’s title, Dixie Diaspora, is taken from Ira M. Sheskin’s article on “The ‘Loss’ of the Small Southern Jewish Community,” an article which originally appeared in Southeastern Geographer in May 2000. Although principally focusing on the demographics of small-town southern Jewish life, it was chosen by the work’s editor to reinforce and play on the widely held view that southern Jewish history unfortunately “remains an exotic aside to many, and its study more peripheral than integrated.” More broadly, Dixie Diaspora successfully raises important questions about regionalism in the American Jewish experience.

The fact of the matter is that much of American Jewish history is still written from a “national” perspective. While broad “national” historical trends as well as “national” cultures and actual national Jewish organizations inform part of the American Jewish experience, the regional and local remain central to Jewish life in the United States. Indeed, it is possible that the “national” experience is as much a weave of different regional experience as it is a venue [End...