That Pride of Race and Character: The Roots of Jewish Benevolence in the Jim Crow South

Acknowledgments

>> vii Acknowledgments Over the years of researching and writing this book, I have incurred many debts and benefited from the tremendous generosity of friends, family, mentors, and colleagues. First and foremost, I want to thank Kathi Kern and Karla Goldman for their unambivalent benevolence, for inspiring this project, for fostering my interest in American Jewish cultural history, and for helping train my eye on the multifaceted South. Thanks to Pat Cooper, for her resolute insistence that this project would one day become a book and her confidence in my ability to see it through. In the early stages of the project, I also benefited from the wisdom of my doctoral committee members: Joan Callahan, Francie Chassen-Lopez, Fon Gordon, and Gordon Hutner. When I first began my exploration of southern Jewish history, I landed most fortuitously in the then-nascent Ida Pearle & Joseph Cuba Archives at the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum of Atlanta, where I benefited from the exceptional generosity and support of the professional staff. I offer my sincere gratitude to Sandy Berman, archivist , friend, and expert in Jewish Atlanta, who supported this project from start to finish. Mickey Harvey and Maureen MacLaughlin helped me sort through the Archives’ treasure trove of case files and images. Both of the Breman Museum’s executive directors whose tenure coincided with my research, Jane Leavey and Aaron Berger, provided steady support and encouragement. Sincere thanks to Lara Dorfman, executive director of the Jewish Educational Loan Fund, and the board members who trusted me with the Atlanta Hebrew Orphans Home’s confidential case files and their largely untold history. Early research for this book received funding from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation and from the Jacob Rader Marcus American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati. Many thanks to Kevin Profitt and the other viii > ix Morgan, Eve Nagler, Afsaneh Najmabadi, Amy Parker, Ann Pellegrini, John Plotz, Anne Swedberg, and Aubry Threlkeld. I am grateful to Bradley Craig and Edward Michael Dussom for their excellent research assistance and encouragement. Thanks to the fantastic editorial staff at New York University Press. I thank Jennifer Hammer, my editor, for her enthusiasm about the project and for shepherding me through the process so gracefully and efficiently. I am grateful to the three anonymous readers who offered exceptionally generous notes and suggestions. Their comments have significantly enriched the quality of this book, and I hope that I may someday thank them in person. Thanks to managing editor Dorothea Halliday and editorial assistant Constance Grady for their guidance and infinite patience and to Nicholas Taylor for performing the allimportant and challenging task of copyediting. I am fortunate to have had the steadfast support of family members and friends, who never tired (or at least never appeared to have tired) of discussing my project. Personal thanks to my Aunt Caroline (Light) Triplett and my Uncle Robert Berlin—each representing different sides of my family tree—who shared their fascination with genealogy and fondness for old primary documents. I thank my father and stepmother, Henry and Angelica Light, for being exemplars of modern benevolence, and my brother, Andrew Light, and sister, Leslie Light, for their unfaltering provision of humor and perspective. I thank my mother, Sandy Berlin Light, for giving me an appreciation for the unconventional and for teaching me to pursue success in my own way. I dedicate this book to my family, to Jocelyn, Miriam, and Andrew Cubstead—for whom this project has been a lingering presence for as long as they can remember—and most importantly, to Matt, for over two decades of friendship, love, and laughter. This one’s for you. This page intentionally left blank ...