Headed Down South

I've decided to revive the blog for the summer, as I'll be in Jackson, Mississippi, which someone told me "is more foreign than Israel." So for her sake--and yours--I'll be sharing tidbits from the South for the next two months.

First, a bit about where I am and why I'm here: I'm a history intern at the Institute of Southern Jewish Life which is, pretty much, exactly what it sounds like. There are four other interns (including a Rabbinical Intern) who will be here as well, but so far I'm the only one down here. The post-college Education Fellows are in town already, and I'm staying with a few of them at their place tonight. Our orientation starts tomorrow, which is when I'll have a better idea of what I'll be doing. The history department, under the guidance of Dr. Stuart Rockoff (who picked me up at the airport when I arrived), works to document the Jewish communities of the South--a very broadly-defined term such that it includes Oklahoma, the state that our work this summer will be concentrating on, I believe.

To get here, I flew (Southwest, of course) from Chicago to Houston, and from Houston to Jackson. There were no problems along the way, though it did seem a bit silly to go all the way west to Texas only to go back eastward to Jackson. It gives me an excuse to put a shout-out here to my favorite Texans, Nicole and Claire!

I could have just taken I-55 all the way south, though, straight from Chicago to Jackson!

(Oh, and the title of this blog is a reference to the Bob Dylan song, song by Old Crow Medicine Show, "Wagon Wheel")