Kugels and Collards: Sunday Brunch Book talk with Rachel Gordin Barnett and Lyssa Kligman Harvey

Kugels and Collards: Sunday Brunch Book talk with Rachel Gordin Barnett and Lyssa Kligman Harvey

Arnold Hall, 96 Wentworth Street
Charleston, SC 29424 United States
+ Google Map

Explore South Carolina’s Jewish history through the lens of food and memory. Kugels and Collards is a lively collection of South Carolina Jewish family and community stories and special family recipes. Where people go, so goes their food.

Join us for a conversation with Rachel Gordin Barnett and Lyssa Kligman Harvey about their work on this project. 

This hybrid event will take place in the Jewish Studies Center, Arnold Hall (Room 100) and via Zoom.
Brunch will be served beginning at 9:00 a.m. The event will begin at 10:00 a.m.
Copies of the book will be available for purchase after the event.

Find out more »
04 February 2024
Sunday Brunch Book talk with Dr. Ayelet Brinn about Gender and the Making of the American Yiddish Press

Sunday Brunch Book talk with Dr. Ayelet Brinn about Gender and the Making of the American Yiddish Press

Arnold Hall, 96 Wentworth Street
Charleston, SC 29424 United States
+ Google Map

Between the 1880s and 1920s, Yiddish-language newspapers rose from obscurity to become successful institutions integral to American Jewish life. During this period, Yiddish-speaking immigrants came to view newspapers as indispensable parts of their daily lives. For many Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, acclimating to America became inextricably intertwined with becoming a devoted reader of the Yiddish periodical press, as the newspapers and their staffs became a fusion of friends, religious and political authorities, tour guides, matchmakers, and social welfare agencies. 
This hybrid event will take place in the Jewish Studies Center, Arnold Hall (Room 100) and via Zoom.  
Brunch will be served beginning at 9:00 a.m. The program will begin at 10:00 a.m. 
Copies of the book will be available for purchase after the event.

Find out more »
21 January 2024
Lushington Lost and Found: Charleston’s Quaker Commander Comes Home

Lushington Lost and Found: Charleston’s Quaker Commander Comes Home

Arnold Hall, 96 Wentworth Street
Charleston, SC 29424 United States
+ Google Map
Free

In 1936, the Gibbes Museum held “An Exhibition of Miniatures Owned in South Carolina and Miniatures of South Carolinians Owned Elsewhere.” One of those on exhibit was a two-sided miniature featuring Richard and Charity Lushington which was “Lent by the Misses Oemler, Savannah, GA.” For nearly a century, the Lushingtons remained in Savannah unknown to those who held them, but now they have returned home to Charleston.

Join George H. McDaniel, historian at SC Battleground Preservation Trust, and Ashley Walters, director of the Pearlstein/Lipov Center for the Study of Southern Jewish Culture, as they discuss the significance of Richard Lushington to Charleston’s history, his connection to Jewish history through his unique militia unit, and the world of Revolutionary Charles Town which brought them all together. 

This hybrid event will take place in the Jewish Studies Center, Arnold Hall (Room 100) and via Zoom. Brunch will be served beginning at 9:00 a.m.

Find out more »
05 November 2023
A Conversation with Author Daniel Wolff

A Conversation with Author Daniel Wolff

Arnold Hall, 96 Wentworth Street
Charleston, SC 29424 United States
+ Google Map
Free

Join us for a conversation with author Daniel Wolff about his latest book, How to Become an Immigrant, an odyssey from pre-Civil War Charleston to post-World War II Minneapolis through Jewish immigrants’ eyes.

Location: in-person and over Zoom

Doors open for brunch at 9 a.m.

Find out more »
10 September 2023
S.L Wisenberg’s The Wandering Womb Book Launch

S.L Wisenberg’s The Wandering Womb Book Launch

Arnold Hall, 96 Wentworth Street
Charleston, SC 29424 United States
+ Google Map

Even as a fourth-generation Jewish Texan, S.L. Wisenberg always felt the ghost of Europe dogging her steps, making her feel uneasy in her body and in the world.

With wit, verve, blood, scars, and a solid dose of self-deprecation, Wisenberg wanders across the expanse of continents and combs through history books and family records in her search for home and meaning. Her travels take her from Selma, Alabama, where her Eastern European Jewish ancestors once settled, to Vienna, where she tours Freud's home and figures out what women really want, and she visits Auschwitz, which—disappointingly— leaves no emotional mark. The Wandering Womb: Essays in Search of Home will arrive in bookstores March 31, 2023. Her book won the  2022 Juniper Prize in nonfiction from University of Massachusetts Press.

Join us for a conversation with S.L. Wisenberg about her new book. This hybrid event will take place in the Jewish Studies Center, Arnold Hall (Room 100) and via Zoom. Brunch will be served beginning at 9:00 a.m.

Find out more »
02 April 2023
Private Lives/Public Archives: The Papers of Frances Mazo Butwin

Private Lives/Public Archives: The Papers of Frances Mazo Butwin

Arnold Hall, 96 Wentworth Street
Charleston, SC 29424 United States
+ Google Map

Dr. Joe Butwin studied English Literature at the University of Minnesota, taught History and Literature at Harvard and recently retired after 50 years of teaching English and Jewish Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle. The return of his mother’s papers to Charleston brings emotional satisfaction and at the same time requires reflection on the relation of privacy (letters, diaries!) and publicity and in this case, given his training, on the relation (once again) of History and Literature. He hopes that his example will encourage others to think through the process with or without a similar bundle of paper waiting in the attic.

This hybrid event will take place in the Jewish Studies Center, Arnold Hall (Room 100) and via Zoom. Brunch will be served beginning at 9:00 a.m.

Find out more »
22 January 2023
46th Annual Southern Jewish Historical Society Conference: Southern Jews and the Atlantic World

46th Annual Southern Jewish Historical Society Conference: Southern Jews and the Atlantic World

College of Charleston, 175 Calhoun St
Charleston, South Carolina
+ Google Map

Planning is complete for the 46th annual SJHS conference, which […]

Find out more »
21 October 2022
Creole Israel: Abraham Philip Samson and the Formation of the Caribbean Jewish Rootsman

Creole Israel: Abraham Philip Samson and the Formation of the Caribbean Jewish Rootsman

Arnold Hall, 96 Wentworth Street
Charleston, SC 29424 United States
+ Google Map

Professor Eli Rosenblatt will talk about the work of Abraham Philip Samson (1872-1958)—the relatively unknown Surinamese Jewish activist, writer, and pharmacist—as a lens on the complex position of Jews in late 19th and early 20th-century Suriname, a Caribbean country on the northeastern coast of South America ruled by the Netherlands until 1975. Since much excellent recent scholarship has focused on Surinamese Jewish culture in the era of slavery, this talk will discuss how Samson, a Surinamese Jewish descendant of both free Jews and enslaved people, inherited and represented the legacies of that era in political, ethical, and theological contexts.

Find out more »
20 October 2022
Charleston Jewish Filmfest Presents: “The Levys of Monticello” followed by a Zoom conversation with producer/director Steve Pressman

Charleston Jewish Filmfest Presents: “The Levys of Monticello” followed by a Zoom conversation with producer/director Steve Pressman

Arnold Hall, 96 Wentworth Street
Charleston, SC 29424 United States
+ Google Map

When Thomas Jefferson died in 1826, he left behind a mountain of personal debt, which forced his heirs to sell his beloved Monticello home and all of its possessions. The Levys of Monticello is a documentary film that tells the little-known story of the Levy family, which owned and carefully preserved Monticello for nearly a century – far longer than Jefferson or his descendants. The remarkable story of the Levy family also intersects with the rise of antisemitism that runs throughout the course of American history.

Find out more »
22 September 2022
Sunday Brunch: Bienvenidos a Miami: How Latinx Jews Remake the Jewish Mainstream

Sunday Brunch: Bienvenidos a Miami: How Latinx Jews Remake the Jewish Mainstream

Arnold Hall, 96 Wentworth Street
Charleston, SC 29424 United States
+ Google Map

Almost three quarters (72%) of the population in Miami-Dade county is of Latinx/Hispanic origin. Spanish of various accents can be heard in supermarkets, schools and synagogues. Latin American immigrants from Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico down to the Southern Cone have been fleeing social and economic upheaval for decades. Miami, with its close proximity to Latin America, widely spoken Spanish and commercial and job opportunities is an obvious destination for both Jewish and non-Jewish Latin American/Latinx immigrants. Miami has the largest influx of Jewish immigrants from Latin America, immigrants who have entered the community at a pivotal point when existing congregations, schools and Jewish community centers have been losing members. In this talk, Limonic will discuss how Latin American Jews, with their strong commitment to communal ties and institutions, have invigorated existing communities while forging new identities as panethnic Latinx Jews.

Find out more »
18 September 2022
Russia’s War in Ukraine: A Conversation with Dr. Amber Nickell

Russia’s War in Ukraine: A Conversation with Dr. Amber Nickell

Please join Professors Chad Gibbs and Ashley Walters for a discussion on Russia’s war in Ukraine with Dr. Amber Nickell of Fort Hays State University.

Find out more »
01 September 2022
Sunday Brunch: “‘Love Letters of a Socialist: Jack London, Sinclair Lewis, and the Strunsky Sisters”

Sunday Brunch: “‘Love Letters of a Socialist: Jack London, Sinclair Lewis, and the Strunsky Sisters”

Arnold Hall, 96 Wentworth Street
Charleston, SC 29424 United States
+ Google Map

CofC professor Ashley Walters will talk about her current book project over brunch. She will tell a story of revolution and romance between two East European-born Jewish sisters named Anna and Rose Strunsky—young and captivating writers dedicated to the socialist revolution—and an impressive cast of well-known American authors, including Jack London, William English Walling, Arthur Bullard, and Sinclair Lewis.

Find out more »
28 August 2022
Hate Across Borders: German and American Neo-Nazis from the 1970s to Charlottesville

Hate Across Borders: German and American Neo-Nazis from the 1970s to Charlottesville

Arnold Hall, 96 Wentworth Street
Charleston, SC 29424 United States
+ Google Map

The in-person event will take place in the Jewish Studies Center, Arnold Hall (Room 100) and via Zoom. Registration Link

Find out more »
21 March 2022
“They Ain’t Ready for Me”: A Conversation with Rabbi Tamar Manasseh and Filmmaker Brad Rothschild

“They Ain’t Ready for Me”: A Conversation with Rabbi Tamar Manasseh and Filmmaker Brad Rothschild

In the midst of renewed attention to gun violence in America, Rabbi Tamar Manasseh and filmmaker Brad Rothschild discuss their moving documentary “They Ain’t Ready for Me.” This film tells the story of Rabbi Manasseh's fight against senseless killings on the South Side of Chicago. For years,  she has sat on a street corner barbecuing, playing music and bringing games for kids to play with. Manasseh and the organization she founded, Mothers and Men Against Senseless Killings (MASK) are proving that something can be done and that the situation is not hopeless. With just her presence on the block, she is making forgotten members of the neighborhood believe that there are people who care whether they live or die.

Manasseh's unique background and upbringing give her a perspective that few people can claim. Both “authentically Jewish and authentically Black”, she brings an understanding of both communities, even as she struggles for acceptance in the Jewish world. Join us for a conversation with Manasseh and Rothschild about the challenges and motivations of this fearless community leader as she works to prevent more people from being killed by gun violence.

See the trailer here.

Find out more »
30 November 2021
“Once We Were Slaves: The Extraordinary Journey of a Multiracial Jewish Family” – A Conversation with Dr. Laura Arnold Leibman

“Once We Were Slaves: The Extraordinary Journey of a Multiracial Jewish Family” – A Conversation with Dr. Laura Arnold Leibman

Join Dr. Laura Arnold Leibman (Reed College) to discuss her most recent book, "Once We Were Slaves: The Extraordinary Journey of a Multiracial Jewish Family.” Dr. Leibman  follows Blanche Moses, a descendant of one of the most prominent Jewish families since the American Revolution, as she researches her family history. During the course of her investigation, Moses discovers her grandmother and great-uncle were not always the wealthy, free, white Sephardic Jews she believed, but were born as poor Christian slaves in Barbados. "Once We Were Slaves" brings to life the largely forgotten population of mixed African and Jewish ancestry and illuminates the fluidity of race, as well as the role of religion in determining racial identities in early nineteenth-century America.

Find out more »
21 October 2021
“The Soul of Judaism: Jews of African Descent in America”
– A Conversation with Dr. Bruce D. Haynes 

“The Soul of Judaism: Jews of African Descent in America”
– A Conversation with Dr. Bruce D. Haynes 

Join University of California, Davis Professor Bruce D. Haynes for a look into the diverse origins of Jews of African descent in the United States. Dr. Haynes’s most recent book explores the full diversity of Black Jews, including bi-racial Jews of both matrilineal and patrilineal descent; adoptees; black converts to Judaism; and Black Hebrews and Israelites, who trace their Jewish roots to Africa. In doing so, he challenges the dominant western paradigm of Jews as white and of European descent, and offers insights into how Black Jewish individuals strive to assert their dual identities and find acceptance within their respective communities.

Find out more »
06 April 2021
Shared Legacies

Shared Legacies

Film: Shared Legacies revisits the coalition and friendship between the Jewish and African-American communities during the1960s Civil Rights Movement. Pivotal events come alive through a treasure trove of archival materials narrated by eyewitnesses, activists, and leaders of the movement.

Find out more »
09 March 2021
My Vanishing Country: A Memoir by Bakari Sellers

My Vanishing Country: A Memoir by Bakari Sellers

Please join us for a book talk with former state congressman, CNN political analyst, and author Bakari Sellers. Seller’s recent memoir, My Vanishing Country (2020), tells a story of two generations. He traces his father’s rise to become a civil rights hero, as well as his own childhood growing up in Denmark, South Carolina. In his book, he addresses the plight of the South's dwindling rural, black working-class, many of whom can trace their ancestry back seven generations. My Vanishing Country: A Memoir is Seller’s first book and has received critical acclaim. 

Find out more »
11 February 2021
Taking it to the Streets: Map Making in the Digital Era

Taking it to the Streets: Map Making in the Digital Era

Join historian Marni Davis (Georgia State University) and author Harlan Greene (College of Charleston) as they discuss their digital map making projects in Atlanta, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina. These modern digital maps reveal the hidden histories of the cities they chart.

Find out more »
19 January 2021
Charleston Jewish Bookfest Presents: Wandering Dixie, Dispatches from the Lost Jewish South, by Sue Eisenfeld

Charleston Jewish Bookfest Presents: Wandering Dixie, Dispatches from the Lost Jewish South, by Sue Eisenfeld

In Wandering Dixie: Dispatches from the Lost Jewish South, Sue Eisenfeld uncovers how the history of Jewish southerners converges with her personal story and the region's conflicted present. Join the author and moderators Dale Rosengarten and Rachel Barnett as they discuss the unexpected ways that race, religion, and hidden histories intertwine.

Registration link here.

Facebook link here.

Find out more »
03 December 2020
Revisiting Southern Jewish History 2020

Revisiting Southern Jewish History 2020

Award-winning scholar Dr. Shari Rabin, formerly assistant professor in the College of Charleston’s Jewish Studies Program and Director of the Pearlstine/Lipov Center for Southern Jewish Culture, returns for a discussion about southern history with Dr. Adam Domby, Assistant Professor of History, in light of current events.

Registration link here.

Facebook link here.

Find out more »
23 November 2020
Body and Soul: An American Bridge, the Black-Jewish History of an American Song

Body and Soul: An American Bridge, the Black-Jewish History of an American Song

SC United States
+ Google Map

The Charleston Jewish Filmfest, the Arts Management Program at the College of Charleston, and the Pearlstine/Lipov Center for Southern Jewish Culture present

A FREE film screening and discussion of the acclaimed jazz documentary Body and Soul: An American Bridge, the Black-Jewish History of an American Song

BODY AND SOUL will be available for screening between Monday, October 12 and Thursday, October 15, 2020.

DISCUSSION of the film and the history of jazz in Charleston with Dr. Karen Chandler and Charlton Singleton takes place on Thursday, October 15, 2020 at 7:00 p.m.

Find out more »
15 October 2020
“Touched with Fire: Morris B. Abram and the Battle against Racial and Religious Discrimination” – A Sunday ‘Bring-your-own’ Bagels Brunch with author David E. Lowe

“Touched with Fire: Morris B. Abram and the Battle against Racial and Religious Discrimination” – A Sunday ‘Bring-your-own’ Bagels Brunch with author David E. Lowe

SC United States
+ Google Map

Morris B. Abram (1918–2000) emerged from humble origins in a rural South Georgia town to become one of the leading civil rights lawyers in the United States during the 1950s. While unmasking the Ku Klux Klan and serving as a key intermediary for the release of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. from prison on the eve of the 1960 presidential election, Abram carried out a successful fourteen-year battle to end the discriminatory voting system in his home state which had entrenched racial segregation. The result was the historic “one person, one vote” ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1963.

Find out more »

13 September 2020
Pursuing Justice: Fighting Hate with the Law

Pursuing Justice: Fighting Hate with the Law

SC United States
+ Google Map

We regret to announce that “Pursuing Justice” has been canceled, along with all other College events in the next few weeks, due to precautions related to the coronavirus. We hope to reschedule at a later date.

The “Unite the Right” rally and hateful attacks that struck Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017, served as a wakeup call for many Americans about dangers posed by the rise of white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and affiliated hate groups. Former Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer and Amy Spitalnick, Director of Integrity First America, will discuss the aftermath of that attack and suggest strategies for combating violence based on racism, sexism, and antisemitism.

Find out more »
02 April 2020
Southern Circuits: Intersections of Race, Religion, and Ethnicity on the Nineteenth-Century Stage

Southern Circuits: Intersections of Race, Religion, and Ethnicity on the Nineteenth-Century Stage

SC United States
+ Google Map

Photo: Owens’ Academy of Music, Charleston, SC.
From “Memories of the Professional and Social Life of John E. Owens,” by his wife.

Professor Nathans’ Sunday brunch talk has been CANCELED due to current travel restrictions related to the coronavirus. The program may be rescheduled at a later date.

Charleston was a hub of theatrical activity from the colonial period until the early 20th century, as well as a significant site for Jewish and African American cultural encounters. Heather S. Nathans, chair of Tufts University’s Department of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies, will explore the ways Jews were depicted on southern stages.

Find out more »
22 March 2020
Capable of Arguing: Southern Jewish Women and Suffrage

Capable of Arguing: Southern Jewish Women and Suffrage

Arnold Hall, 96 Wentworth Street
Charleston, SC 29424 United States
+ Google Map

Southern Jewish women often played leading roles in local and state efforts to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment, whose centennial we celebrate in 2020. They were both Southern Ladies and New Women, fitting in to their societies as they challenged the southern conservative consensus. Women's vote impacted their lives not only in civil society but also in the synagogue. 

Our presenter, Leonard Rogoff, holds a doctorate from the University of North Carolina, where he directed the English Writing Laboratory.

Find out more »
17 November 2019
My Food Is My Flag: A Conversation about Jewish, African American, and Southern Foodways

My Food Is My Flag: A Conversation about Jewish, African American, and Southern Foodways

Simons Recital Hall, 54 St. Philip Street
Charleston, SC 29401 United States
+ Google Map

While food may seem simple, what people eat is shaped […]

Find out more »
09 April 2019
American Jewish Women’s History: From Colonial Times to Today

American Jewish Women’s History: From Colonial Times to Today

Arnold Hall, 96 Wentworth Street
Charleston, SC 29424 United States
+ Google Map

In this groundbreaking history, Pamela Nadell asks what does it […]

Find out more »
31 March 2019
“The Quiet Voices”: Jews and the Civil Rights Movement

“The Quiet Voices”: Jews and the Civil Rights Movement

Arnold Hall, 96 Wentworth Street
Charleston, SC 29424 United States
+ Google Map

Part 3 of a mini-course offering an overview of the history of Jews in the southern United States from colonial times until the present. We will explore some of the key events of southern Jewish history, seeking to understand how Jews have confounded, complicated, and conformed to the region’s “peculiar” norms and categories. Presented by Dr. Shari Rabin, director of the Pearlstine/Lipov Center for Southern Jewish Culture. Free and open to the public.

Find out more »
11 March 2019
“A Class of Citizens”: Jews and the Civil War

“A Class of Citizens”: Jews and the Civil War

Arnold Hall, 96 Wentworth Street
Charleston, SC 29424 United States
+ Google Map

Part 2 of a mini-course offering an overview of the history of Jews in the southern United States from colonial times until the present.

Find out more »
04 March 2019
“Jews Heathens and Infidels”: Southern Jewish Beginnings

“Jews Heathens and Infidels”: Southern Jewish Beginnings

Arnold Hall, 96 Wentworth Street
Charleston, SC 29424 United States
+ Google Map

Part 1 of a mini-course offering an overview of the history of Jews in the southern United States from colonial times until the present.

Find out more »
25 February 2019
Memory, Monuments, and Memorials: JHSSC Spring Meeting

Memory, Monuments, and Memorials: JHSSC Spring Meeting

SC United States
+ Google Map

Monuments, memorials, and historical memory have been much in the news over the last year.

Find out more »
28 April 2018
After Appomattox: Reconstruction and America’s Jews

After Appomattox: Reconstruction and America’s Jews

Addlestone Library – Room 227, 205 Calhoun St
Charleston, SC 29401 United States
+ Google Map

The end of the Civil War initiated a period of dramatic hope, disappointment, and transformation in the American South and the nation as a whole.

Find out more »
14 March 2018
“The Devil Was a Nullifier”: Religious and Political Crisis during the Nullification Revival, 1828-1835

“The Devil Was a Nullifier”: Religious and Political Crisis during the Nullification Revival, 1828-1835

Arnold Hall, 96 Wentworth Street
Charleston, SC 29424 United States
+ Google Map

Charleston Research Fellow Brian Neumann, currently a PhD candidate in history at the University of Virginia, will present on his research about the Nullification Crisis, in which South Carolina tried to void federal tariffs.

Find out more »
12 March 2018
A Yankee’s Journey Through the Jewish South – A Travel Writer’s On-the-Ground Exploration of History

A Yankee’s Journey Through the Jewish South – A Travel Writer’s On-the-Ground Exploration of History

Arnold Hall, 96 Wentworth Street
Charleston, SC 29424 United States
+ Google Map

Charleston Research Fellow and journalist Sue Eisenfeld will talk about the process of writing and researching her next book, Postcards From Dixie: A Yankee’s Journey.

Find out more »
21 January 2018
Frontier Jews and Black Catholics: New Books in American Religion

Frontier Jews and Black Catholics: New Books in American Religion

Arnold Hall, 96 Wentworth Street
Charleston, SC 29424 United States
+ Google Map

Over the last few decades, scholars have worked to expand the study of American religion beyond white Protestants, in the process engaging with questions of race, ethnicity, and migration.

Find out more »
18 January 2018
Southern Jewish Historical Society 2017 Conference

Southern Jewish Historical Society 2017 Conference

The 2017 conference of the Southern Jewish Historical Society will […]

Find out more »
03 November 2017
Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina Fall Meeting

Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina Fall Meeting

The fall meeting of the Jewish Historical Society of South […]

Find out more »
04 October 2017
Louis Brandeis: American Prophet

Louis Brandeis: American Prophet

Stern Center – Ballroom, 71 George St
Charleston, SC 29401 United States
+ Google Map

Jeffrey Rosen, president of the National Constitution Center and law […]

Find out more »
05 September 2017