Southern & Jewish

Southern Jewish Music: Klezmer and Bluegrass

This legacy episode of Southern & Jewish originally aired on Mar 23, 2021. Subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify, and watch all of our past episodes at www.isjl.org/podcast.html. 
Join Southern & Jewish for Southern Jewish Music: Klezmer and Bluegrass. We're talking about the intersections between these musical traditions, the experiences of bluegrass performers who happen to be Jewish, and the contemporary artists intertwining Jewish tradition and Americana music. Don't miss this thoughtful, meaningful, musical episode—featuring award-winning banjo player, producer, and historian Henry Sapoznik and the acclaimed bluegrass band Nefesh Mountain.
Check out our playlist, Jews, Country, and Bluegrass. 

Southern Jewish Music: Jews and Country

This legacy episode of Southern & Jewish originally aired on February 23, 2021. Subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify, and watch all of our past episodes at www.isjl.org/podcast.html. 
 
Join Southern & Jewish for a celebration of Jews and country music. It may seem like an unusual combination, but the intersection of Judaism and Americana music has been expanding ever since the American folk music revival of the 1940s and 1950s, resulting in a group of contemporary artists who are exploring Jewish identity through new musical fusions. This episode features conversations with Nashville writer and music historian Stacy Harris and Jewish Americana artist Joe Buchanan.
 
Music:
"Under the Wire" by the Mini Vandals
"Almost Heaven" by Giorgio de Campo
"Unexpected Hoedown in Bagging Area" by Doctor Turtle 
"Sing A Song" by Joe Buchanan 
"Texas" by Joe Buchanan
"Hashkiveinu" by Joe Buchanan 
"Moonshine Town" by JR Tundra

Boca on Broadway: Road Show, Addison Mizner, and Florida’s Jewish Boom

This legacy episode of Southern & Jewish originally aired on June 28, 2022. Subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify, and watch all of our past episodes at www.isjl.org/podcast.html. 
 
The story of south Florida is a story of boom and bust, of destruction and creation, of capitalism and its discontents. It's a story that is interpreted in Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's musical Road Show, about the relationship between (non-Jewish) brothers Addison and Wilson Mizner, whose creative imagination and thirst for wealth shaped Palm Beach and Boca Raton during the 1920s Florida land boom. In conversation with three-time Tony nominee John Weidman and with insights from historians of Jewish Florida, we're tracing the development of Jewish life in the Sunshine State. Join Southern & Jewish for a whirlwind musical tour of Florida Jewry and a dissection of the enigmas and eccentricities of early-20th-century American history.
If you've ever wondered what Stephen Sondheim has to do with Boca Raton, this episode is for you.
 
Links from the episode:
Road Show: https://www.mtishows.com/road-show
John Weidman: https://masterworksbroadway.com/artist/john-weidman/
Jewish Museum of Florida - FIU: https://jmof.fiu.edu/
Marcia Jo Zerivitz's book Jews of Florida: Centuries of Stories: https://www.amazon.com/Jews-Florida-Centuries-Marcia-Zerivitz/dp/1467142530
Richard René Silvin: https://rrsilvin.com/2.0/
Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach: https://www.palmbeachpreservation.org/
Boca Raton Historical Society: https://www.bocahistory.org/
Boca Raton Jewish Oral History Project: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlCl4uZbvREcRAleq-kdlQSd38AL77Y02 
ISJL Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities: https://www.isjl.org/florida-encyclopedia.html
Images of the 2008 Public Theater and 2019 New York City Center Encores! productions of Road Show courtesy of Joan Marcus: https://www.joanmarcusphotography.com/
This project was made possible by a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council, through support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the Mississippi Humanities Council.

In Conversation: Tatiana Wechsler on the Power of Musical Theatre

This legacy episode of Southern & Jewish originally aired on March 29, 2022. Subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify, and watch all of our past episodes at www.isjl.org/podcast.html. 
 
Welcome back for another showstopping season of Southern & Jewish, a video podcast from the Institute of Southern Jewish Life! To kick off 2024, we are excited to share with y’all a month of musical episodes exploring everything from Jewish bluegrass to southern Jews and Broadway. First up, our 2022 interview with Tatiana Wechsler.
 
What's southern and Jewish about contemporary musical theatre? Join Southern & Jewish for a conversation with Tatiana Wechsler, a musical theatre actor, songwriter, and Yiddish performer with roots in Atlanta. Among other accomplishments, Tatiana has the distinction of being the first woman to play the role of Curly in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!, and she will make her Broadway debut in the new musical Mr. Saturday Night starring Billy Crystal, which begins previews on March 29. We talk about growing up Jewish in Atlanta, the role of musical theatre in Tatiana’s life, and the importance of celebrating Black and Jewish joy through song. This episode also features performances from Tatiana Wechsler!
 
Links from our conversation:
Learn more about Tatiana Wechsler (www.tatianawechsler.com)
Mr. Saturday Night on Broadway (mrsaturdaynightonbroadway.com)
Love in Hate Nation original cast recording (mrjoeiconis.com/love-in-hate-nation)
Learn more about Kendell Pinkney's The Workshop (theworkshopny.com/)
 
This project was made possible by a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council, through support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the Mississippi Humanities Council.

Holiday Shopping in the Jewish South

This legacy episode of Southern & Jewish originally aired on December 22, 2020. Subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify, and watch all of our past episodes at www.isjl.org/podcast.html. 
Happy holidays! Join us for our final episode of 2023, featuring personal insights about southern Jewish retail businesses, reflections on Christmas shopping at Jewish stores, and conversations about what it means to be southern and Jewish.
Learn more about the towns in Mississippi and Arkansas featured on this episode in the Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities. 
Looking for some southern & Jewish favorite books to give your friends and family this holiday season? Check out our bookshelf on Bookshop.org, where you can support both the ISJL and independent bookstores. 

In Conversation: Elisheva Fox on Spellbook for the Sabbath Queen

This legacy episode of Southern & Jewish originally aired on May 2, 2023. Subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify, and watch all of our past episodes at www.isjl.org/podcast. 
 
Happy Jewish Book Month! This week we will be highlighting our conversation with poet Elisheva Fox and her book Spellbook for the Sabbath Queen.
 
Elisheva Fox’s debut poetry collection, Spellbook for the Sabbath Queen, is a vulnerable and raw exploration of her East Texas Jewish roots coupled with her self-described late-blooming queerness. Join Southern & Jewish for a wide-ranging conversation featuring reflections on southern Jewish experiences as they intersect with parenthood, sexuality, climate change, grief, and finding a home.
 
If you are questioning your sexual orientation or gender identity, or struggling with coming out, check out these resources:
Sojourn (the Southern Jewish Resource Network for Gender and Sexual Diversity): sojourngsd.org/
Keshet (for LGBTQ equality in Jewish life): www.keshetonline.org
Trans Lifeline: translifeline.org/
The Trevor Project: www.thetrevorproject.org
 
Order Spellbook for the Sabbath Queen from the ISJL Bookshop.org storefront: bookshop.org/a/90921/9781960215000 

In Conversation: Samantha Rosenthal on Living Queer History

This legacy episode of Southern & Jewish originally aired on May 31, 2022. Subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify, and watch all of our past episodes at www.isjl.org/podcast.html. 
 
Happy Jewish Book Month! This week we will be highlighting our conversation with author and historian Samantha Rosenthal (she/her or they/them) and her book Living Queer History: Remembrance and Belonging in a Southern City.
 
Where do Jewish, southern, and queer histories intersect in the contemporary South? The answer might be Roanoke, Virginia, where Samantha Rosenthal lives and works. Samantha is Associate Professor of History and Coordinator of the Public History Concentration at Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia. Samantha's work has received recognition from the National Council on Public History, the Oral History Association, the Committee on LGBT History, the American Society for Environmental History, and the Working Class Studies Association. 
 
Learn more about Samantha Rosenthal: https://gsrosenthal.com/
 
Order Living Queer History from the ISJL Bookshop.org storefront: https://bookshop.org/a/90921/9781469665801 
 
This project was made possible by a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council, through support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the Mississippi Humanities Council.

Visit Natchez, Mississippi

The ISJL tour season is fast approaching, and we've extended the registration deadline to November 15, 2023! 
 
This legacy episode of Southern & Jewish previews some of the people and places around Natchez, Mississippi that you'll get to know on our February 2024 tour: Jewish Life in the Most Southern Place on Earth.
 
Natchez, a historic Mississippi River hub, is where histories of Native American, African American, and early immigrant communities converge. Hear from local historians and preservationists working to tell Natchez's complex story.  
 
Enjoy this virtual experience, and then join us in Mississippi in person in February 2024! Learn more about our tours at isjl.org/tours. 
 
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This legacy episode of Southern & Jewish originally aired on September 1, 2020. Subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify, and watch all of our past episodes at www.isjl.org/podcast.html. 
 
Join ISJL Director of Heritage and Interpretation Nora Katz for a virtual visit to Natchez, Mississippi, home of the oldest Jewish congregation in the state.

Visit the Mississippi Delta

The ISJL tour season is fast approaching! This legacy episode of Southern & Jewish previews some of the people and places around the Mississippi Delta you'll get to know on our February 2024 tours. 
Enjoy the video, and join us on Thursday, October 12 at 7:30 PM Central for an information session about our upcoming trips. Register at bit.ly/InfoSessionOct. We'd love to see you there! 
For additional information about ISJL tours, visit isjl.org/tours. 
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This legacy episode of Southern & Jewish originally aired on April 27, 2021. Subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify, and watch all of our past episodes at www.isjl.org/podcast.html.  
Join us for a visit to the Mississippi Delta. This episode is an exploration of this diverse, complex, and vibrant region in northwestern Mississippi—featuring virtual visits to sites across the Delta and conversations with folks who are currently working to tell the Delta's story. 
Content warning: this episode contains descriptions of violence against African Americans. 

It’s Time to Stand Up and Be Counted: Rabbi Milton Grafman and the Birmingham Campaign

This legacy episode of Southern & Jewish originally aired on October 13, 2021. Subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify, and watch all of our past episodes at www.isjl.org/podcast.html. 
In this episode, we’ll unpack one moment in the history of southern Jews and Civil Rights: Rabbi Milton Grafman’s Rosh Hashanah sermon at Birmingham’s Temple Emanu-El in September 1963. Reeling from the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church just four days earlier, and having expressed ambivalence about the tactics of the Birmingham Campaign in the spring and summer of 1963, Grafman delivered an off-the-cuff sermon that both defended his damaged reputation and called on white moderates to step up to fight for Black Civil Rights. As relevant today as it was in 1963, the sermon exemplifies the complex position of southern Jews during the classical Civil Rights Movement.
Featuring Rabbi Milton Grafman's sermon courtesy of The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, Ohio, at americanjewisharchives.org.
This project was made possible by a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council, through support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the Mississippi Humanities Council.