Shalom Y'All: Images of Jewish Life in the American South

By Bill Aron

Book Overview

The kitchen of Henrietta Levine in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where chopped liver is sauteing. Ben and Betty Lee Lamensdorf's farm in Cary, Mississippi, where cotton, wheat, and pecans are harvested. The New Americans Social Club, a group of Holocaust survivors that meets regularly in New Orleans. The historic and flourishing Temple Emanu-El in Birmingham, Alabama. From Levy, Arkansas, to Kaplan, Louisiana, Southern Jewish culture is alive and well below the Mason-Dixon line. And it has been flavored by the South in both subtle and larger ways: during Sukkot, freshly picked cotton is used to cover sukkahs. Synagogue cookbooks contain dishes like charoset with pecans, matzo ball gumbo, and lox and bagels with cheese grits. Jewish cemeteries hold the tombstones of Jewish soldiers who fought in the Civil War. No matter what adversity they faced -- whether it was discrimination, a language barrier, or simply the lack of a community -- Southern Jews have survived with a combination of good humor, faith, and perseverance. Together, award-winning photographer Bill Aron and curator Vicki Reikes Fox bring the lives of these families -- in all their variety, history, and joy -- to these pages. With a moving foreword by Alfred Uhry, Shalom Y'all conveys the richness of the Southern Jewish experience. It's a celebration of what it means to be Jewish and Southern, and all the contradictions that it entails. As Alfred Uhry says, "I feel sure that they'll be making chopped liver in Arkansas and baking challah in Alabama for a long time to come... As long as there's a South, there'll be Jews inhabiting it -- upstanding, strong Jews like the ones who had the vision and fortitude to immigrate all those years ago." Book jacket.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1565123557
• ISBN13: 9781565123557
• Release Date: September 2002
• Publisher: Algonquin Books
• Length: 138 Pages
• Weight: 2.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 10.1" x 10.4"

Customer Reviews

Bagels, Bacon and Butter, Y'all....

As a Mississippian, I found this pictography truly amazing! I work for a US Government agency, and I will be living in Israel for the next two years. Although I am not Jewish, I think the best way to learn about another culture is to incorporate what you know. What? Southern Jews eat bacon, and GASP, HAM? Southerners know all about the BLT and Easter Hams. Not too many of us know about Judaism or that Temples even exist(ed) in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana or even Arkansas. The photos and text of this book reveal a beautiful heritage that I am afraid is --- or soon will be --- extinct from the states that border the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River. Florida NOT included! If you have any interest in Southern Culture(s), add Shalom Y'all to your shopping cart today! PS: Please note the spelling of "y'all." It is a contraction for You All, thus, the apostrophe replaces the OU. Correct your friends who probably spell it: "ya'll."

Light, delightful, nostalgic

This is an easy-going, pick-up-and-enjoy book that has no pretense of being exhaustive, scholarly or deeply insightful. It is simply a sweet, loving glimpse at an enduring yet changing way of life as told through award-winning, black and white photos and commentary. Those featured are not caricatures or sterotypes, but vivid and memorable portraits of Southern Jews, each with their own unique story. There's not one bad photograph and every one is a story in itself. And while there's much to love about everyone in this book, if forced to choose, my favorites would include the Lehman sisters, Lucille & Harold Hart, and Harold Nowalsky. BTW, I mistook this volume as the companion book to the documentary film by Brian Bain (SHALOM Y'ALL, also worth your time), so I was surprised when nothing "matched". In the end, I got the best of both worlds: a wonderful introduction to Southern Judaism via the film, and another loving look courtesy of Fox & Aaron.

Southern Jews - a diverse view

I found this book to not only be informative, but also quite introspective. I thoroughly enjoyed the diversity that the photographs depicted, and the first-hand stories added flavor, too. Good job!

A joy to simply page through

Shalom Y'all: Images Of Jewish Life In The American South is a unique treasure trove of black-and-white images by professional photographer Bill Aron in which he expertly capturing images of Jewish daily life, culture, and tradition in America's southern states. Homes, shops, places of worship, and people young and old are vividly portrayed in these striking visuals, with a bare minimum of commentary by Vicki Reikes Fox (Founding Project Director of the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience) rounding out the collection. A joy to simply page through, Shalom Y'all is a welcome and much appreciated contribution to both personal and academic photography collections, as well as Judaic Studies reference collections.

Wonderful

I thought the book was a wondeful portriait of a vanishing world--it was really interesting to see how these Jews bridged the gap between their two identities. The pictures and text were really beautiful.