That Pride of Race and Character - by Caroline E Light (Hardcover)
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<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br><p>"It has ever been the boast of the Jewish people, that they support their own poor," declared Kentucky attorney Benjamin Franklin Jonas in 1856. "Their reasons are partly founded in religious necessity, and partly in that pride of race and character which has supported them through so many ages of trial and vicissitude." In <em>That Pride of Race and Character</em>, Caroline E. Light examines the American Jewish tradition of benevolence and charity and explores its southern roots.</p> <p>Light provides a critical analysis of benevolence as it was inflected by regional ideals of race and gender, showing how a southern Jewish benevolent empire emerged in response to the combined pressures of post-Civil War devastation and the simultaneous influx of eastern European immigration. In an effort to combat the voices of anti-Semitism and nativism, established Jewish leaders developed a sophisticated and cutting-edge network of charities in the South to ensure that Jews took care of those considered "their own" while also proving themselves to be exemplary white citizens. Drawing from confidential case files and institutional records from various southern Jewish charities, the book relates how southern Jewish leaders and their immigrant clients negotiated the complexities of "fitting in" in a place and time of significant socio-political turbulence. Ultimately, the southern Jewish call to benevolence bore the particular imprint of the region's racial mores and left behind a rich legacy.</p><p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br>A deeply researched and beautifully written account of a neglected chapter of American Jewish historyand of national belonging. By telling the story of Jews in the Jim Crow South, Caroline E. Light vitally illuminates the ongoing production and negotiation of racial and religious difference not just in the South, but in the U.S. more broadly.--Ann Pellegrini, author of Performance Anxieties: Staging Psychoanalysis, Staging Race<br><br>Light has identified a significant topic that touches upon important matters such as the intersection of race and gender in the Jim Crow South, the changing nature of child welfare work in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century America, and the influence of regionalism in American Jewish history.That Pride of Race and Characterconstitutes a very interesting and useful investigation of this topic-- "The American Jewish Archives Journal"<br><br>Lights study strikes out in new and interesting directions, including the use of previously untapped sources for the study of southern Jews, such as case files from orphan homes and immigrant relief associations. Coupled with oral history interviews, these sources give rare insight into family and gender relations, the economic struggles of Jewish immigrants, and the social anxieties driving Jewish elites to impose a strict cultural discipline on aid recipients.-- "The Journal of American History"<br><br>This book sings. It is that rare beautiful volume that cuts to the heart of the mattera groundbreaking, eloquent and meticulously researched book about Southern Jewish culture. Light takes us inside the heart of this regional Jewish community. Through careful and creative archival inquiry she illuminates the subtle labors of benevolencethe care of 'our own' widows and orphansas the site where Southern Jews performed Southern gentility and whiteness as a means to achieve their own cultural citizenship. This book transforms our understanding of how American Jews do race. It changes the ways we think about Jewish life in the South. It is an astonishing accomplishment.--Laura Levitt, Temple University<br><br>Through its well-organized chapters and thorough research, That Pride of Race and Characteryields an important and thought-provoking examination of the exceptional ways in which two southern Jewish communities & took care of their own.-- "The North Carolina Historical Review"<br><br>Using historical records and social-worker case files of charitable organizations and 'social uplift' societies, Light compellingly details the nuanced and varied ways that southern Jewsin all their cultural and regional diversitynavigated local strictures and mores in order both to maintain their Jewishness and to create a home in the South.-- "American Studies"<br>
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