That Pride of Race and Character: The Roots of Jewish Benevolence in the Jim Crow South by Caroline E. Light

by Caroline E. Light

“Ithas ever been the boast of the Jewish people, that they support their own poor,”declared Kentucky attorney Benjamin Franklin Jonas in 1856. “Their reasons arepartly founded in religious necessity, and partly in that pride of race andcharacter which has supported them through so many ages of trial andvicissitude.” In That Pride of Race andCharacter, Caroline E. Light examines the American Jewish tradition ofbenevolence and charity and explores its southern roots.Light provides a critical analysis ofbenevolence as it was inflected by regional ideals of race and gender, showinghow a southern Jewish benevolent empire emerged in response to the combinedpressures of post-Civil War devastation and the simultaneous influx of easternEuropean immigration. In an effort to combat the voices of anti-Semitism andnativism, established Jewish leaders developed a sophisticated and cutting-edgenetwork of charities in the South to ensure that Jews took care of thoseconsidered “their own” while also proving themselves to be exemplary whitecitizens. Drawing from confidential case files and institutional records fromvarious southern Jewish charities, the book relates how southern Jewish leadersand their immigrant clients negotiated the complexities of “fitting in” in aplace and time of significant socio-political turbulence. Ultimately, thesouthern Jewish call to benevolence bore the particular imprint of the region’sracial mores and left behind a rich legacy.

Hardcover

First published July 4, 2014

Reviews

[The Jewish Book Council]

Review by Dina Weinstein for the Jewish Book Council.

[Sam Schulman · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the worst scholarly books ever written, and immensely despressing. The thesis - crudely put - is that Jews in the South were anxious not to be "othered" like blacks were. The actual evidence that such a feeling existed on the part of soutnern racists consists of one remark by one random dude. Light assembles evidence of southern Jewish behavior and communication vis a vis their Gentile whilte neighbors from many sources. However in every single case, she does not bother to distinguish the statements and behavior of these Southern Jews from the statements and behavior of A) Northern Jews; B) Southern white Gentiles; C) Northern white Gentiles; D) any contemporary human beings living in equally bourgeois societies in the whole world. At first this is funny, but soon becomes deeply depressing. Particularly offensive is her discussion of a charitable society's concern that the teenage daughters of a certain Jewish widower in North Carolina have been seen hanging out in the red light district of their town - I think in the 1890s or 1900s. Professor Light pours scorn on the desire of the Jewish community that these girls "lily white purity" be saved from a fate worse than death - how bourgeois! Reading this sneer as I was writing about the 1,600 girls in Rotherham, England, whose lives have been ruined was nauseating.
Professor Light writes clearly, sentence by sentence, but is incapable of making any intellectual distinctions at all, and is incurious about even the history of her own period and her own subject. A perfect example of the decline of academia.

[Sandra Meador · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an extremely well-written & in-depth study of Jewish immigrants in the Jim Crow South.
Because this book focuses only upon those who migrated from eastern Europe and settled in the American South, the author is able to provide many well-researched examples their personal stories. I believe I especially loved this book
because of my continuing involvement with non-English-speaking refugees in my own city in the South.
The author has enhanced my understanding of the problems facing those who migrated during a very difficult period in our country's history.


Sandra Meador