The Southern Shmooze
January 2023
A New Year, A New Exhibition
God, Goats, and Pickup Trucks
Clockwise from upper left: Bulldogging, Visions of the He-Goat, Torah Procession, Herdsmen are we, both we and thy fathers.
Maurice Schmidt's Visions of Texas
We're excited to announce that a new special exhibition featuring the works of Texan and Jewish artist Maurice Schmidt will open at the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience on January 26, 2023, and will run through May 31, 2023.

Titled “God, Goats and Pickup Trucks: Maurice Schmidt’s Visions of Texas,” the exhibition features 23 artworks, including paintings, sketches, prints and sculpture, colorfully depicting scenes both rural and religious, created over Schmidt’s long career. A centerpiece of the exhibition will be the painting, “Herdsmen are we, both we and thy fathers,” a large oil on canvas work that is being donated to MSJE by Schmidt.

Schmidt was born into a Jewish family in 1936 and grew up in New Braunfels, Texas. He studied art at the University of Texas at Austin and at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and taught in the Art Department at Texas A&M University for over forty years. His work has been shown throughout the US and internationally, including in an exhibition in Tel Aviv. 

Schmidt's work, often illustrating pastoral, workaday scenes such as cows grazing in fields and farmhands transporting livestock, is always in reference to the divine. “There are holy spaces between the soil and the tractor above (where the crops will grow), between trees and their shade,” the artist has said, noting that, “Art that would praise God must touch the human heart.”

The museum will present several public programs and art activities while this exhibition is on view, including a special Member Preview event. More info to come - stay tuned!
Collection Highlight
One Mann's little brown jug
We were so pleased when Chip and Diane Mann recently donated this fabulous whiskey jug to the Museum. It's from Max Mann's Saloon, which was located first in rough-and-tumble Mississippi River landing town of Bayou Sara, Louisiana, and after 1893 in nearby St. Francisville, which was less prone to river flooding. At various times in his career, Mann (1867-1934) ran a men's clothing store, dealt in seafood, and even sold potatoes.

At his Bayou Sara saloon, Max was the sole agent in the area for Five Feathers Whiskey, a brand from Edwin Schiele & Company of St. Louis that Mann was importing from up the Mississippi River. He also sold Harper Rye, the brand made famous by German Jewish immigrant distiller Isaac Wolfe Bernheim, in Louisville, KY.

Chip has enjoyed researching his family's history in Louisiana and collecting reminders, both photographic and physical, of his Southern Jewish heritage. Through diligent searching, he has acquired three Max Mann whiskey jugs, one each to be passed down to his two children, and the third to be held in trust in our ever-growing collection.
St. Francisville Democrat, Oct 19, 1901
St. Francisville Democrat, May 22, 1920
St. Francisville Democrat, May 30, 1896
UPCOMING PROGRAM
The Little Book of King Cake: Story Time & Cake Decorating
Carnival season is upon us (as of Jan. 6), so let's make King Cake... but let's make it Jewish! At this family-friendly event, we’ll enjoy a reading of The Little Book of King Cake with author Matt Haines, then decorate mini King Cake Challahs in Mardi Gras-colored icing, along with renowned local baker Serena Deutch. This program is perfect for kids 3-8, but all are welcome!

Date: Sunday, January 22
Time: 3:00-4:00pm at the Museum

Click below for more details on cost and how to reserve your spot!
Calling All Middle School Students
2023 MSJE Student Writing Contest
We had so much fun deciding what to put into our new museum, but it wasn’t easy. MSJE covers thirteen Southern states and more than 300 years of history. We had to make some hard choices about what stories and objects to include and what to leave out. You only have so much room, so you have to choose how and why to tell your story. Well, now it’s your turn.

This year's writing prompt:
If you were building a Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience, which 3 things would you put in it?
The contest is open to all students grades 5–8 in or from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. You don’t have to be Jewish to submit an essay!

Awards:
First Place, $500
Second Place, $250
Third Place, $150

Winners will be notified by mid-April. Winning essays will be posted on the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience’s website. For full contest guidelines, click below.
Free Field Trips in 2023!
Tell every teacher you know
We are proud to announce that First Horizon Bank is generously sponsoring all 2023 field trips for local students! MSJE will be able to welcome local schools for a free interactive field trip, and each student will receive a ticket to come back with their family. A big thank you to First Horizon for ensuring that local students can learn about the unique and remarkable history of Southern Jews and encouraging new understanding and appreciation for identity, diversity, and acceptance.  

If you are a teacher (or know a teacher!) who might be interested in bringing their students to MSJE for FREE this year, contact Lizzi Meister at lizzi@msje.org.
Jay Silverberg joins the MSJE Board
“MSJE is the link that holds our shared histories in the South, preserving our stories and offering new ones.”

MSJE is pleased to welcome Jay Silverberg of Reston, Virginia to our board of directors.

Jay traces his family’s arrival in the South to 1835, when his maternal great-great grandparents walked off ships in New Orleans that had carried them from France. Other ancestors began arriving from Germany in 1840, with families eventually settling in Natchez and the Feliciana Parishes. Jay was raised in Thibodaux, LA, where his father was publisher of the local newspaper. Before retiring, Jay’s professional career included editing for newspapers across the United States, and managing major corporate clients for public affairs agencies in San Francisco and Washington DC. He served as president of the Southern Jewish Historical Society (SJHS), and is currently serving as member of the Board of Trustees of the Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation in Reston, VA. Jay and his wife, Janet, moved to Virginia three years ago to be closer to their family.
Museum Store Item of the Month
Gifts from the Bourbon Rabbi
Chaim Litvin, rabbi, distiller, and entrepreneur, was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, where he still lives with his wife and their six children. His celebrated small batch bourbon is aged for 32 months before the wooden barrel is emptied and filled with fresh, local honey, which is itself then aged for eight weeks. The result: a syrupy, creamy bourbon-themed honey with notes of cinnamon, caramel and vanilla. Then the barrel is emptied again and turned into gorgeous mezuzah cases hand-painted by Rabbi Litvin's wife Fraidy.

Looking for a unique housewarming gift or something special for your own home? Save this month on the Bourbon Rabbi's honey and mezuzahs! Use code MSJE10 for 10% off Bourbon Rabbi products.
The Museum Store is dedicated by Harold Wainer in memory of George & Helen Wainer
and Harriet Wainer Kugler.
A New Year's Survey
In this New Year, I resolve to...
Exercise more
Eat a healthier diet
Limit my screen time
Visit MSJE (you don't have to click this–it's too obvious)
This Month in Southern Jewish History
LOUISIANA: January 8, 1905

Isidore Newman Manual Training School, in New Orleans, is formally dedicated. The dedication came one day after the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the city's Jewish Orphans Home. Named for its generous patron, the Newman School was established to provide the residents of the nearby orphanage with technical job training, but soon grew to be a nationally-recognized school of academic (and NFL quarterback) excellence.
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 the 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.
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.
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 his newest book, Kosher Soul.
KENTUCKY: January 21, 2021

Punk rock pioneer Richard Hell (born Richard Meyers in Lexington) releases 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?"
ALABAMA: January 24, 1889

The first services are held in the newly constructed Temple Emanu-El, in Birmingham. For its first few years, the congregation had met in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. In 1884 a plot of land was purchased at the corner of 5th Avenue and 17th Street. Five years later, the congregation celebrated the opening of their new temple, led by congregation president and lay rabbi Samuel Ullman.
Many Ways to Support the Museum
We have now raised $9.4 million toward our $10 million Capital Campaign goal. Your donation will help us reach that goal.
GIVE ONLINE
safely and easily at: www.msje.org/support

MAIL US A CHECK
to PO Box 15071, New Orleans, LA 70175

DONATE FROM YOUR IRA
required distribution
DESIGNATE MSJE
as a recipient of your Donor Advised Fund

DONATE STOCK
or other marketable securities

INCLUDE MSJE
in your estate planning (we can help)
Shalom. Make yourself at home.®
Know someone who likes to shmooze and would like to receive The Southern Shmooze? Share this sign-up link with them: msje.org/contact/. And they can enjoy past issues of our newsletter here: msje.org/newsletter-archive/.
Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience
818 Howard Avenue | New Orleans, LA 70113
msje.org | 504-384-2480
Banner images (l-r): Members of Congregation Beth Israel in Clarksdale, MS, c.1910. Collection of Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience; Blue Star campers, North Carolina, 2016. Courtesy of Blue Star Camps.