Touring the (Jewish) Mississippi Delta

Today was a field-trip day--one that included zero visits to libraries, zero microfilm machines, and zero century-old city directories. We drove up to the Mississippi Delta, to Oxford (home of Ole Miss, and William Faulkner), Clarksdale (home of the blues), and Greenwood (where most of The Help was filmed, since Jackson "didn't look Southern enough").

Oxford, in addition to being the home of both Ole Miss and William Faulkner, is conveniently also the home of one of the other summer interns, so she was able to navigate for us. Our first stop was Square Books, and independent bookstore in town. I was finally able to find a Mississippi postcard (Jackson doesn't have them) to send to DD at camp, completing my trilogy of LA-OK-MS postcards sent to her. We also made stops at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture where we met with Jimmy Thomas and had quite an interesting conversation about definitions of the South (Confederacy? Where kudzu grows? Where they say ya'll? Slave states? Segregation? etc.). Then we headed over to meet the folks at the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation and heard about their youth summer program, which sounds like a really great way to spread race education. We ate lunch at Big Bad Breakfast, where I had an opportunity to say Shehecheyanu (a prayer you say the first time you eat/wear/do something new): I had grits for the first time!

And then we continued on to Clarksdale, MS

This is the old building of Temple Beth Israel. It's no longer functioning as a synagogue--we think it might house a church, though there were no signs on the property at all. It was also surprising that none of the decorative architecture had Jewish stars or other Jewish symbols.

Despite the closing of the Temple, the community (and its descendants) have made a point of making sure that the Jewish cemetery stays in good shape. Compared to some of the other Jewish cemeteries I've seen this summer, it's pretty big, and it's in beautiful condition. Many of the graves even had stones on them. 

Of course, ice cream. No summer field trip is complete without ice cream. We had heard about Hugh Balthrop (Chicago native!) and his backyard Sweet Magnolia ice cream, and decided we had to try some. Unfortunately, the one place in Clarksdale that serves it was going to close before our arrival--so with a little pre-arranging, we got him to leave us some cups of delicious, homemade gelato at the Chamber of Commerce building in Clarksdale, where we would pick it up. Favorites; coffee, mint chocolate chip, and coconut (!)--though he's working on perfecting a fig ice cream!

 And on to Greenwood, MS:

This is the exterior of Congregation Ahavath Rayim, a formerly-Orthodox but now sort-of-Traditional-but-really-probably-Conservative, still operating synagogue in Greenwood. At the synagogue we met Gail Goldberg, who grew up in the synagogue, and she told us about its history and its current status.

The wall of the synagogue that housed the Ark, which holds the Torah, had gotten some pretty bad water damage, so the synagogue is doing some repair-work so the Torahs (and the building) don't get destroyed.

But the stained-glass is still intact and as beautiful as ever. There are currently about 10 Jews living in Greenwood, and they hold services once a month and get a minyan each time. On Rosh Hashanah, they run out of the 25 Machzors they own and the 25 that a family from Memphis brings down. 

 After a tour of Greenwood, in which we saw the two Jewish stores that are still in operation (one is Goldberg's, a shoe store run by Gail and her husband Mike, and this year marks the store's 90th anniversary) as well as many of the houses used in the movie The Help, we had a lovely dinner at Delta Bistro before heading back to Jackson. 

Picnic in the Park, Reading at the Diner (and a little about work)

Today started off with a brief intro to the office (copy machines, codes, printers, logins, etc.) before we actually met with our supervisor to speak in depth about our projects for the summer. For Diana and I, that meant a crash course about what kinds of information we're looking to present about the Jewish communities in the towns we're researching as well as a tutorial about historical research methods including how to make census records useful to us (ie: if the guy's name is Joseph Meyers, but his father was born in Kentucky and his mother in Indiana and he's a farmer in Oklahoma--but if both his parents are from Russia and his kids are named Esther and Moses, and his native tongue is "Hebrew" [ie: Yiddish, since no one spoke Hebrew in the early 1900s] then he's a Jew).

Our supervisor, Dr. Stuart Rockoff (director of the ISJL history department) introduced us to all these really cool history resources I didn't know existed! Like the 1937 Jewish population study completed by Dr. Harry Linfield. The first community I'll be working on is the Jewish community of Ponca City, OK. We make our first roadtrip out to Oklahoma in about a week and a half!

For lunch, the entire office went to on a picnic at a park nearby--I think is called LeFleur's Bluff, but might be wrong (it was right on the Pearl River, and right behind the Mississippi Children's Museum). In any case, a couple of us took the opportunity to wander the trails, and it was the first time I've ever really seen marsh/swamp.

On our way back we caught sight of this snake hanging out in a "river" created because of last night's storm--which did not wake me up.

For dinner we went to Brent's, a local diner with an old-timey feel. It's right next to McDade's, one of the non-Krogers groceries in Jackson, and both were featured in various scenes from The Help. Though the movie came out a while ago, people in Jackson are still talking about: not many movies are actually filmed down here (though much if it was filmed in Greenwood, MS).

On the first Tuesday evening of every month, Brent's Diner hosts play readings by local playwrights/actors from the Fondren Theater Workshop. This evening was a play by (Pittsburgh-native) Bret  Kenyon called "Open Mic" and it was fantastic.  The one-act won an award early this year from the Mississippi Theater Association. 

A Driving Tour of Jackson

Last night and today were very much a day of introductions to Jackson specifically, and the culture of the South more generally.

Highlights:

1. Sunday in the South is like Shabbat in Jerusalem. Nothing is opened. Except for the hippie-dippie "Rainbow Co-op" which has free memberships for students with college IDs.

2. Everybody knows Macy Hart, and not just folks from Jackson. Macy is the president of the Institute. But he was (for all you camp people reading this) the Jerry Kaye of Camp Jacobs down in Utica, MS. He was the director for thirty years before making the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience and then the Institute his full-time job. Nearly everyone I've met who heard I was going to be doing Jewish things in Jackson this summer said to pass along regards to Macy (including the president of the Princeton Alumni Association down here).

3. Jackson is a tiny city. And by "tiny" I mean that, on I-55 (yes, Chicagoans, I-55 goes through Jackson in it's way to New Orleans!), you can cross the whole city in about 15 minutes.

4. This is not a walking town, and neither is it a public transportation town. While that is unfortunate (and I plan to walk down the middle of some of the sleepy streets in the area I'm living), Diana and I (the other intern with whom I'm living this summer) have full use of the Institute's minivan for the summer. (Lucky for me, I actually know how to drive minivans! In fact, they're the only kind of motor vehicle I know how to drive!) But, we've been told, if we want to go to New Orleans for a weekend (yes) we have to rent a car (no) or take the train (yes).

5. Lemuria Books is an independent bookstore that we stopped in, and it is the only other bookstore I've ever been to in my entire life that comes anywhere near having the same kind of nook-and-cranny/labyrinthine wonderful layout that the Seminary Co-op bookstore in Hyde Park does. For some wonderful pictures of the Seminary Co-op, check out the Tumblr of my friends Eleanor and Merrill, who are doing a cross-country tour of independent bookstores. (For pictures of Lemuria, you'll have to wait, but I plan on going back).

6. Jewish Geography is alive and well, even down here where I thought I knew no Jews. Turns out that the house I was hosted at my first night down here used to be rented by one of the outgoing two-year post-college Education fellows--who, in college, was roommates with my cousin Eric! Not only that, but this same fellow was also roommates (in that house) with a counselor of mine from camp--and one of the current residents of that house is a friend of a friend who I've actually met a couple of times. Small, small world. My roommate is also, it turns out, a friend of a good friend from camp.

Other than that, today was our first day at work which consisted of short presentations by each of the departments at the Institute to introduce us to the work that everyone else is doing. Plus, of course, a tour of Jackson that included the street where many scenes from the movie The Help were shot--and many other things, which I won't write about till I go back and really get to find out more about them.

For the second summer in a row I have been very lucky to live with another intern(last summer: interns) who I really like. We even have the same ring!

Hopefully I'll get to walk around and take some pictures soon, since I know that picture-posts are better than written posts.