The Southern Shmooze
January 2021
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"Experience" vs "History"
A Message from the Director
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As we enter 2021, we look forward to welcoming you into the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience in the coming months. As you can imagine, the question I get most frequently from friends and followers is: "Have you set an opening date yet?" Well, we haven't, but we're thiiiis close to choosing a spring date. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the "grand" part of our grand opening will probably have to wait until the fall, but with our doors open, you and the rest of the world will finally get to explore the Southern Jewish experience.
We call ourselves the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience and not the Museum of Southern Jewish History because we're not just about the past. Our story continues to evolve, surprise, and add new and wonderful meaning to our communities and our lives. The opening of our Museum is an important part of that dynamic experience. We celebrate and learn from our past, we immerse ourselves in our present, and we plan for, agonize about, and dream for our future.
On that note, and on behalf of our entire board and staff, I wish you a Happy and Healthy New Year! See you at the Museum in 2021!
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Kenneth Hoffman
Executive Director
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From the Collection: Bertha's Autograph Book |
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We love to play “Jewish Geography” – connecting families, friends, and colleagues throughout the American South and beyond. Our Museum collection confirms that this is hardly a new phenomenon; letters, newspaper articles, photographs, and family trees all display connections between diverse Southern Jewish communities. |
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One of our oldest family artifacts, an 1870s autograph book owned by Bertha Dalsheimer of New Orleans, gives us an excellent record of “Jewish Geography.” Autograph books were a central European trend that became popular in the United States in the mid-1800s as a way keep track of classmates and friends. Seventeen-year-old Bertha’s autograph book follows the style of the era, containing poems, drawings, puzzles, and well-wishes. |
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One of the most valuable aspects of this book is the constellation of Jewish and non-Jewish friends that it records: Ida Benedict, Aline Bloch, Samuel Weil, A.H. Gernsbacher, and Fannie Spearing are just a few of the friends who signed Bertha’s book. While we have little information about what happened to Bertha after her last entry in 1877, our collection files indicate that Bertha later married Nathan Isidore Schwartz, who became president of Touro Infirmary. |
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The autograph book was donated to the MSJE in 2000 by Bertha Dalsheimer’s relative, Peter Aron. If you have a similar family memento, we’d love to hear more about it! Email anna@msje.org.
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The word is out! If you haven't already seen the recent Associated Press coverage of the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience, you can read all about us here:
The story was picked up by USA Today, MSN, US News & World Report, The Washington Post, Yahoo! News, Smithsonian Magazine, Houston Chronicle, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Miami Herald, San Diego Union Tribune, and more than 200 other newspapers and media outlets so far, including in Canada, the UK, Israel, and Australia!
“This is a lesson on the American experience, what happens when strangers come to a strange land, where we work together to build communities… accept people that are different than ourselves.”
–Jay Tanenbaum, MSJE Chair
Here's the video portion of the story...
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A Southern Jew Boycotts Hitler's Olympics:
The Herman Neugass Story
Sunday, January 10, 2021, 7:00 Central
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In the mid-1930s, Tulane University's Herman Neugass was one of the fastest runners on earth. When a letter came from Avery Brundage, president of the US Olympic Committee, inviting him to try out for the 1936 Olympics, hosted in Adolf Hitler's Berlin, Herman had big choices to make.
Join us for a conversation with Richard Neugass, Herman's son, about one man's victories, defeats, and decisions made in the face of world events and personal conscience.
To participate in this Zoom program:
You can also watch it on Facebook Live or later on our YouTube channel.
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If you missed our latest program
The New Orleans Jewish Orphans' Home
A Conversation with Marlene Trestman
you can watch it here:
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If your congregation or community would like to learn more about the
Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience...
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Welcome to the Team:
Emma Herr, Director of Development
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We are thrilled to welcome Emma Herr to our Museum family, as our new Director of Development. As you know, building and sustaining a successful museum is the work of many hearts, hands, and of course, wallets.
Emma hails from New York City but, after 15 years in New Orleans, she considers the South her home. She earned both her BA and MBA from Tulane University. She joins MSJE after eight years in Tulane’s Office of Advancement, where she most recently served as Director of Development raising major gifts in Southern California. Her career in philanthropy began while serving with AmeriCorps VISTA. Emma sits on the board of Community Works of Louisiana and previously served as co-chair of Emerging Philanthropists of New Orleans.
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This Month in Southern Jewish History
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Henrietta Szold, founder of Hadassah and editor-in-chief at the Jewish Publication Society in Philadelphia, lectures in Houston to the Council of Jewish Women at the Concordia Club. An ardent Zionist, Szold told of the growing possibilities of a Jewish homeland in Israel now that the British had just captured Jerusalem from the Ottomans two weeks earlier. |
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ARKANSAS: January 16, 1916 |
Regina "Kappy" Kaplan takes the reins as administrator of the new Leo N. Levi Hospital in Hot Springs at the age of 29. Kaplan served in that position for 35 years and during that time opened the first nursing school in the South to admit males. She presided over the Arkansas Hospital Association and sat for many years on Temple Israel’s board of directors. |
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TENNESSEE: January 16, 1893 |
Newspaper publisher Adolph Ochs is presented with an award honoring his efforts to establish the Southern Associated Press. Ochs' immigrant parents had moved the family to Knoxville following the Civil War. At age 19, Ochs purchased The Chattanooga Times and became an influential publisher across the Southeast. In 1896 he purchased The New York Times, which is still run by members of his family five generations later.
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ALABAMA: January 18, 1877 |
Schmuel Zmurri is born in Kishinev, Bessarabia, part of the Russian Empire. After emigrating to Selma at age 14, Samuel Zemurray eventually made a fortune in the banana trade, becoming a potent economic and political force throughout Central America. An ardent Zionist and friend of Chaim Weizmann, Zemurray’s legacy lives on at Tulane University through his philanthropy. |
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VIRGINIA: January 20, 2017 |
Colonial Williamsburg names African American Jewish culinary historian Michael Twitty its first Revolutionary in Residence, a program that "hosts modern-day innovators to engage the nation with fresh perspectives that capture the spirit and relevance of its founding era." Twitty's 2017 book, The Cooking Gene, won the 2018 James Beard Foundation Book of the Year award. He explores the nexus between African American and Jewish culture and cuisine in what he calls Kosher Soul.
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KENTUCKY: January 21, 2021 |
Punk rock pioneer Richard Hell (born Richard Meyers in Lexington) will release a remastered version of "Destiny Street Remixed," his 1982 album with his band The Voidoids. Hell was born to a secular Jewish father and a Methodist mother. Famous as the inspiration for much of the early punk rock look and sound, Hell only recently started examining his Jewish identity. In his 2015 memoir, he asks, "Am I a Jew? What is a Jew?"
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YOUR SUPPORT = YOUR MUSEUM |
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GIVE ONLINE
MAIL A CHECK
to PO Box 15071, New Orleans, LA 70175
DONATE FROM YOUR IRA
required distribution
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DESIGNATE MSJE
as a recipient of your Donor Advised Fund
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or other marketable securities
INCLUDE MSJE
in your estate planning
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Shalom. Make yourself at home.®
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Banner images (l-r): Members of Congregation Beth Israel in Clarksdale, MS, c. 1910. Collection of the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience; Blue Star campers, North Carolina, 2016. Courtesy of Blue Star Camps.
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