The Southern Shmooze
August 2021
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Save the Dates!
A Weekend to Celebrate and Dedicate the Museum
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Join the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience on October 2nd & 3rd to celebrate the Museum and those who made it possible. We hope you’ll join us!
Special Events will include: Museum Tours, Saturday Jazz Brunch, Founding Donors Dinner, Sunday Family Fest, Mezuzah Affixing Ceremony to Officially Dedicate the Museum, and more! All museum tours and weekend activities require registration. Some activities are gratis, and some are at a fee. Please be aware that several events have limited capacity, so sign up early to avoid missing out.
Be on the lookout for our online registration page going live soon!
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For sponsorship opportunities, becoming a donor, or any questions regarding the Celebration Weekend, please contact
Emma Herr, Director of Development,
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From the Collection: Back to School |
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Here are a few artifacts from our collection to get you in the back-to-school spirit! |
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College of Williams & Mary Yearbook, 1947 |
Leslie Dresbold of Portsmouth, Virginia, attended the College of William & Mary. Leslie’s father, Joseph Dresbold, immigrated to America from Odessa in the early 1900s and became a cobbler and storeowner in Portsmouth. Leslie's sister, Roselyn Dresbold Silverman, who also attended William & Mary, went on to pass the Civil Service examination and worked in the Navy Department in Washington, D.C., during WWII.
Donated to the MSJE Permanent Collection by Marita Bowden in honor of the Dresbold-Silverman Family.
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Pi Tau Pi Fraternity Notebook, 1955 |
Pi Tau Pi was a national Jewish fraternity founded in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1909. Like other Jewish fraternities, Pi Tau Pi held annual conclaves across the country and had chapters in many Southern cities including Dallas, Chattanooga, Monroe, Norfolk, and Oklahoma City.
Do you recognize any of the names from the New Orleans’ Pi Tau Pi chapter page below?
Donated to the MSJE Permanent Collection by Carol Hart.
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Meet Our Summer Zucker Interns!
The Museum’s Charles D. Zucker Jewish Studies Internship Program provides opportunities for college and graduate students interested in gaining museum, non-profit, and Jewish community work experience.
Charles Zucker was a successful clothing salesman (not Jewish), who nonetheless had many Jewish friends and supported numerous Jewish causes in New Orleans, Dallas, and beyond. We are grateful to the trustees of the Charles D. Zucker Fund of the Jewish Endowment Foundation of Louisiana for their support and for carrying on his legacy of philanthropy.
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Hailey Mandel
Hailey graduated from Tulane University with a BA in Jewish Studies in May 2021. As a curatorial intern at the MSJE, Haleigh has been able to apply her academic background to research artifacts of Southern Jewish culture and consider how they fit into a larger narrative. Hailey is currently exploring her options for graduate programs and looking forward to a career in institutions such as museums, archives, or university presses.
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Jason Straight
Jason is currently completing his Master of Library Science at LSU as well as a Graduate Certificate in Archival Studies. Jason's coursework focuses on digital archives and user experience. He has a previous MA in American History from Tulane from 2017. After completing his degree this summer, Jason hopes to find a position in a cultural heritage institution that will allow him to explore innovative ways to improve access to archival resources.
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Eliana Chiovetta
Eliana is a senior at Tulane University majoring in International Relations and minoring in Art History. She plans to go to graduate school for a master's in Art History and hopes to work in museum education. She is honored to be the curatorial intern working on the accessibility guide that includes our full exhibition text and plans for supplement resources, like an audio guide, for those with hearing challenges for MSJE.
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Interested college students can contact the Museum at
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Calling all congregations, sisterhoods, brotherhoods, mah jongg groups, coffee klatches, church choirs, ROMEO clubs, family reunions, and corporate junket organizers...
Plan your trip to see MSJE now and take advantage of our special group rates. We can help with hotel recommendations, restaurant reservations, and other suggestions for a great weekend or weekday visit to New Orleans.
Email Abbey to get the ball rolling!
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This Month in Southern Jewish History |
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TENNESSEE: August 4, 1871 |
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Rabbi Max Samfield is installed as rabbi at Congregation Children of Israel, in Memphis. Born in Bavaria, Samfield became a Reform rabbi, immigrated to the United States, and held his first pulpit at B'nai Zion, in Shreveport, LA, from 1867 to 1871. That year he was invited to become the rabbi in Memphis, where he served until his death in 1915. Samfield famously stayed in Memphis through three major yellow fever outbreaks, ministering to the sick and burying the dead. |
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LOUISIANA: August 6, 1865 |
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Judah P. Benjamin, secretary of state of the recently-defeated Confederate States of America, departs Havana, Cuba, in a ship heading for England. Having escaped Union troops, sometimes disguised as a Frenchman who spoke no English, Benjamin made it from Richmond to Greenville, NC, to Abbeville, SC, to Florida and then to the Caribbean. On August 30, 1865, he arrived in England, where the "Brains of the Confederacy" started a second chapter of his life as a successful barrister. |
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Rabbi Julian Shapo resigns from Beth David Synagogue in order to establish a third congregation in Miami to accommodate for Miami's growing Jewish population. Rabbi Shapo announced in The Miami Times that he would conduct New Year's and Yom Kippur services in the Masonic Hall that fall, but hoped to have a building by the end of the year. In a moment of true prescience, Shapo said, "I think Miami is destined to become one of the great cities of Jewish population, religion and culture."
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The Marshall Dramatic Club presented the three-act comedy, "Rio Grande," at the Opera House for the benefit of the local synagogue, Temple Moses Montefiore. The performance raised $72 for the congregation. The Marshall Dramatic Club was not Jewish, but a group of amateur actors who often provided benefit performances for local causes, including the Firemen's Association, the Marshall Brass Band, and the local YMCA. |
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SOUTH CAROLINA, August 24, 1861 |
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Union troops raid the Washington, D.C. home of Eugenia Levy Phillips looking for evidence of treason. Phillips, born in Charleston, had moved to the capital when her husband was elected to Congress from Mobile, AL. She had strong Confederate sympathies and worked covertly with the Confederate military. The troops found no useful evidence, but placed Phillips under house arrest. She was released three weeks later after the intervention of soon-to-be secretary of war Edwin Stanton.
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KENTUCKY: August 30, 1939 |
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Isaac Wolfe Bernheim, a successful bourbon distiller, in Louisville, lays out his vision for the Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest in a letter to the trustees of the Bernheim Foundation. Among other requirements for the 16,000-acre preserve near Clermont, he stipulated that there be no discussion of religion or politics, no trading or trafficking, and no distinction will be shown between rich or poor, white or colored. The land was given in trust to the people of Kentucky.
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Your MSJE Membership Includes:
- Unlimited, free admission throughout the year
- 15% discount at the Museum Store & online store (coming soon!)
- Priority reservations for MSJE events & programs
- Special members-only communications and opportunities
- Access to special rates for event rentals
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And Speaking of Memberships... |
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MSJE has partnered with museums across New Orleans to participate in Museum Month!
As a member of the MSJE, you will be able to visit all participating museums free of charge for the month of August as long as you show your membership card.
See a list of participating museums HERE.
Be sure to tell 'em MSJE sent you!
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Museum Store Item of the Month
Coffee Mugs!
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Greet your morning with a strong cup of joe and your afternoon with a soothing cup of tea. Our anti-tip mugs have our MSJE logo on one side and our welcoming tagline on the other: “Shalom. Make yourself at home.”
For sale in the Museum Store for $15.
And be on the lookout for our online Museum Store to go LIVE soon!
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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
DONATE STOCK
or other marketable securities
INCLUDE MSJE
in your estate planning
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Shalom. Make yourself at home.®
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Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience
818 Howard Avenue | New Orleans, LA 70113
504-384-2480
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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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