The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride 1995

"There are two voices in this complex and moving narrative, and -- on the surface -- they could not seem more different. One is the voice of a black musician, composer and writer ... The second voice is that of Rachel Shilsky, daughter of a failed itinerant Orthodox Jewish rabbi. Inevitably, these voices are connected and ultimately convergent, for Rachel Shilsky and James McBride are mother and son." from a review by H. Jack Geiger in the New York Times 3/31/96

In this engaging memoir, which was designated an American Library Association Notable Book, James McBride, musician, composer and writer, sensed when he was quite young that his mother was different. She was white; her two husbands had been black, as were her twelve children. He realized she never talked about her family or her origins. He knew nothing about his maternal grandparents. He tried many times to solve the puzzle, but she deflected all questions. The older he got, the more confused he became about his identity as well as hers, and he felt that in order to better understand himself he had to know who she was.

Ruth Shilsky McBride Jordan lived with her family in poor neighborhoods in New York City, and when the children needed school clothes she would take them shopping on the Lower East Side and bargain with the merchants in what McBride learned was Yiddish. Eventually, through questioning his older siblings, he learned she had been born into an Orthodox Jewish family. When he went off to college, he extracted her maiden from her for a form he needed to complete. After being urged to for many years, she finally agreed to tell her story which she dictated into a tape-recorder. McBride uses her voice to tell her story in alternate chapters which are linked and contrasted to his chapters in which he tells the story of his growing up.

Rochel (Ruth) Shilksy’s story starts with her parents’ arranged marriage in Europe, a marriage of convenience between a physically handicapped young woman from a family of means to a poor young man. Rochel’s father became an itinerant rabbi in the United States but eventually settled in Suffolk, Virginia, where, when his contract to serve as a rabbi was not renewed, he opened a grocery store. His word was law; he compelled his wife and children to work all hours and subjected them to physical abuse. Eventually, Ruth ran away to New York where her mother’s parents and sisters lived, but once she started dating Andrew McBride, her family disowned her and cut all ties.

James McBride's mother paints a vivid picture of growing up in an Orthodox Jewish immigrant family in a segregated southern town that was not open to the small Jewish community in their midst. She feared her father, felt guilty about leaving her increasingly helpless mother and her younger sister, but felt she had to leave in order to survive.

In his chapters Andrew McBride rounds out the picture of his mother’s life by filling in the details of what is what like growing up as her son and how despite her seemingly complete break with her Jewish roots, she instilled in her twelve children what are commonly referred to as “Jewish” values. For example, she made sure that they all were enrolled in public schools in "better" neighborhoods where the student population was predominantly Jewish. And she made sure her children took advantage of what the city had to offer – from museums to music lessons.

Delving into his mother’s past revealed stories that totally surprised McBride. He learned about his Jewish heritage and heard from her why she had no ties to her family and had hidden her painful past. Her finally, but reluctantly, revealing her past, helped him to better understand his roots.

To read a New York Times obituary and see a photo of Ruth McBride Jordan who died in 2010, click here.

People
Family
Fishel Shilsky – married to Hudis
    Sam (Zylksa) Shilsky – son of Hudis
    Ruchel Dwajra Zylska (changed to Rachel Deborah Shilsky, then first name changed to Ruth) – daughter of Fishel and Hudis; married to Andrew McBride; 2nd marriage to Hunter Jordan
        Andrew Dennis McBride – son of Ruth and Andrew; married to Becky
        Rosetta McBride – daughter of Ruth and Andrew
        William McBride – son of Ruth and Andrew
        David McBride – son of Ruth and Andrew
        Helen McBride-Richter – daughter of Ruth and Andrew
        Richard McBride – son of Ruth and Andrew
        Dorothy McBride-Wesley – daughter of Ruth and Andrew
        James McBride – son of Ruth and Andrew; married Stephanie Payne
            Azure McBride – daughter of James and Ruth
            Jordan McBride – son of James and Ruth
        Kathy Jordan – son of Ruth and Hunter
            Gyasi and Maya - children of Kathy
        Judy Jordan – daughter of Ruth and Hunter
        Hunter Jordan – son of Ruth and Hunter
        Henry Jordan – son of Ruth and Hunter
    Gladys Shilsky – daughter of Fishel and Hudis

Laurie – sister of Hudis; married to Paul Shiffman
Harold ? – brother of Hudis
Bernadette – sister of Hudis
Mary – sister of Hudis – married to Isaac
    Lois and Enid – daughters of Mary
Rhonda – sister of Hudis
Betsy – sister of Hudis

Friends
Israel Levy
Aubrey Rubenstein
Gerry Jaffe
Halina Wind – married to George Preston
    David Lee Preston – son of Halina; married to Rondee
    Shari Preston – daughter of Halina
Leon Wind – brother of Halina

Places
Dobryzn, Poland
New York City, NY
Ewing, New Jersey

Shalom Y’All: Images of Jewish Life in the American South, Photographs by Bill Aron, text by Vicki Reikes Fox 2002

This large-format book was created as an adjunct to the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience in Utica, Mississippi to document through large black and white photos the history of Southern Jewish communities.  The five chapters focus on geography, food, work, religious practice and family.

The book is made up of several short introductory essays by the playwright Alfred Uhry (Driving Miss Daisy) who grew up in Atlanta, Vicki Reikes Fox, the writer of the text accompanying the photos who grew up in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and the photographer, Bill Aron, who grew up in the Northeast.  It has many quotes from the residents commenting on Jewish life in their various communities.

Note:  This book includes photos and commentary only from the states of Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and South Carolina.

To read about an itinerant rabbi ministering to Jews who live in small towns in the South, click here.
To read about an annual deli-luncheon fund-raiser for Hebrew Union Congregation in Greenville, Mississippi and hear a podcast about it, click here.

People
Bill Aron – married to Isa
    Hillel and Jesse – their children
Alfred Uhry - Atlanta, Georgia
Eli Evans
Marci Cohen Ferris
Vicki Reikes Fox - Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Max Signoff – Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Macy B. Hart – Winona, Mississippi
Meyer Gelman – Greenwood, Mississippi
    Joe Martin Erber – Meyer Gelman’s nephew; Greenwood, Mississippi
Morris Grundfest - Cary Mississippi
         Betty Lee  - Morris Grundfest’s granddaughter; married Ben Lamensdorf; Cary, Mississippi
              Deborah Sue Lamensdorf – their daughter; married to Louis Howard Jacobs
              Ike Morris Lamensdorf – their son; married to Mary Jane Lindsey
Grace Grossman
Mary Ann Jacobson
Mark Greenberg
Sam Eichold
Dale Rosengarten
Sheila Rodin-Novak
Benedict Rosen
Ron and Anne Krancer
Robert and Nancy Lyon
Rebekkah Farber
Steven A. Fox
Abrom Kaplan – Kaplan, Louisiana
         Connie Kaplan – Abrom’s great-nephew
Adolph, Isaac, Sidney, and Lee Felsenthal - Felsenthal, Arkansas
Leopold Marks - Marks, Mississippi
Simon and Rose Weil – Joe’s Dreyfus Store – Livonia, Louisiana
Betty Goldstein – Greenville, Mississippi
Ernest L. Stanley – Levy, Arkansas
Morris Levy
David Poliakoff – Abbeville, South Carolina
Ilsa Goldberg – Greenwood, Mississippi
Jacob Kantor – Greenwood, Mississippi
    Sol Kantor – Jacob’s son
Harry Phillips – Dumas, Arkansas
Charles Dante – Dumas, Arkansas
Sam Stein – Greenville, Mississippi
         Jay Stein – Sam’s grandson
Melissa Samuels – Jackson, Mississippi
Rabbi Wolli and Sarah Kaelter – Hot Springs, Arkansas
    Baruch and Judy Kaelter – their children
Rabbi Matt Friedman – Hot Spring, Arkansas
Mary Klompus, Betty Kleinman, Elaine Wolden, Olivia Silverman – Hot Springs, Arkansas
Peter Gartenberg – Hot Springs, Arkansas
    Leo Gartenberg – his son; Hot Springs, Arkansas
         Robert Gartenberg – his son; Hot Springs, Arkansas
Henrietta Levine – Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Meyer Drexler – Wynne, Arkansas
    David Drexler – his son; Wynne, Arkansas
Larry Brook – Birmingham, Alabama
Rose Rotenstreich – Birmingham, Alabama
Meyer Newfield – Birmingham, Alabama
Joe Schwartz – Dauphin Island, Alabama
Delores Loeb – Mobile, Alabama
    Leslie Miller – her daughter
Milton Brown – Mobile, Alabama
Bob Zeitz – Mobile, Alabama
Andrea and Michelle Dorfman, sisters – Long Beach, Mississippi
Carolyn Lipson-Walker – grandmother had lived in Marks, Mississippi
Bess Seligman – formerly of Shaw, Mississippi (moved to Boca Raton, Fla.)
Jake Aranov – Columbus, Georgia
    Aron Aranov – Montgomery, Alabama   
         Jake and Owen Aronov – his sons; Montgomery, Alabama
Mortimer Cohen – Montgomery, Alabama
Raymond Cohen, Montgomery, Alabama
Jeanette Capouya – Montgomery, Alabama
Sarah Shumaria – Montgomery, Alabama
Jimmy Sabel – Montgomery, Alabama
Jacob and Getta Waterman Weil – Montgomery, Alabama
              Gloria  - their great-granddaughter; married to Kalman Shwarts
Harry Lebovitz – Montgomery, Alabama
James Loeb – Montgomery, Alabama
    James, Loeb Jr. – his son
Irving and Judy Feldman – Jackson, Mississippi
Celeste Lehman Orkin, Dea Lehman Gotthelf, Phyllis Lehman Herman – sisters; Jackson, Mississippi
Barbara Edisen – Morgan City, Louisiana
Gaston Hirsch – Donaldsonville, Louisiana
I.A. Kamien – Cleveland, Mississippi
Mannie Krouse – Natchez, Mississippi
Jerry Krouse – Natchez, Mississippi
Marty Nathanson – Natchez, Mississippi
Zelda Millstein – Natchez, Mississippi
Jay B. Lehmann – Natchez, Mississippi
Elaine Lehmann – Natchez, Mississippi
Rosalie Beekman – Natchez, Mississippi
Lawrence Chiz – Shaw, Mississippi
Aaron Kline – Alligator, Mississippi
Robert Hirschberg – Friar’s Point, Mississippi
Billy Rosenberg – Selma, Alabama
Noah and Gerry Barkovitz – Hayti, Missouri
Abe Barkovitz – brother to Noah
Joseph Goldberg – Belzoni, Mississippi
    Charlie – Belzoni, Mississippi
Dotty London Stetelman – Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Henry Friedman – Franklin, Louisiana
Harold and Lucille Hart – Eudora, Arkansas
Rabbi Sam Stone – Greenwood, Mississippi
Goldie Fleischer – Shaw, Mississippi
Louise Weisman Levi – Dermott, Arkansas
Sam Epstein – Lake Village, Arkansas
         Sam Epstein Angel – his grandson
              Sammy – his son
Henry Galler – New Orleans, Louisiana
Henry Stern – New Orleans, Louisiana
Alan and Sandra Jaffee – New Orleans, Louisiana
Jerry and Jack Friedlander - Mobile, Alabama
Ron Hoffman – Mobile, Alabama
Joy Grodnick – Mobile, Alabama
Sam Strauss – Little Rock, Arkansas
Milton Waldoff – Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Sam H. Kirsch – Hot Springs, Arkansas
    Laura – his daughter; married Mark Fleischner
Joe and Suzi Rosenzweig – Hot Springs, Arkansas
Bob Cahlman – New Orleans, Louisiana
I.A. Rosenbaum – Meridian, Mississippi
Joel Lourie, Isadore E. Lourie, Hyman Rubin, Sylvia Dreyfus, David Taub, Irene Krugman Rudnick, Arnold Goodstein, Richard Moses, Harriet Keyserling, William Keyserling, Leonard Krawcheck – South Carolina Jewish legislators and mayors
David I Bruck – South Carolina
Michael Shackleton – New Orleans, Louisiana
Klara Koock – Ocean Springs, Louisiana
Roy Hoffman – Mobile, Alabama
Paul Greenberg – Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Jack Cristil – Tupelo, Mississippi
Archie and Ruth Bernstein – Columbus, Mississippi
Betty Kohn and Barbara Edisen – cousins; Morgan City, Louisiana
Mark Perler – Tupelo, Mississippi
Eliot Copen – Tupelo, Mississippi
Rabbi Seymour Weller – Little Rock, Arkansas
Elliott Dorman – Long Beach, Mississippi
Freeda Ritman – Shreveport, Louisiana
Sol Astrakan – Kennett, Missouri
Avram Aizenman – Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Stephen and Julie Ziff
Rueben Greenberg – Charleston, South Carolina
Jerry and Anita Zucker – Charleston, South Carolina
Edwin S. Pearlstine Jr. – Charleston, South Carolina
Patty Levi Barnett and Wendell M. Levi, Jr. – twins; Sumter, South Carolina
Harry Nowalsky – New Orleans, Louisiana
Jacob Bodenheimer – norwestern Louisiana
Ralph Friedman – Oxford, Mississippi
Louis Friedman – Oxford, Mississippi
Vinnie Prochilo – Oxford, Mississippi
Rabbi Eric and Laura Gurvis – Jackson, Mississippi
    Benjamin and Sarah – their children
Vivian Levingston – Cleveland, Mississippi
Jeanette Gorden – Itawamba County
Gerald Posner – Opelousas, Louisiana
Joe Pasternack, Jr. -  New Orleans, Louisiana
Lisa Pollack
Abraham and Fannie Isaacs Block – Washington, Arkansas
    Isaac Block – their son
Louis  and Sarah Kasten – Fort Smith, Arkansas
Leopold Levy – buried in Port Gibson, Mississippi
Jacob Cohen - Mississippi
Jacob Schwartz - Mississippi
Henry Burgance – buried in Jewish cemetery in Woodville, Mississippi
Cliff and Wilma Abrams – Brookhaven, Mississippi

Places and Institutions
The Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience in Utica, Mississippi
The Fleischer Store – Shaw, Mississippi
Kaplan and Liberty Rice Mills - Kaplan, Louisiana
Kaplan Herald, Kaplan, Louisiana   
Felsenthal Land and Timber Company - Felsenthal, Arkansas
Grundfest and Klaus – Cary, Mississippi
Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society
Dante and Son – Dumas, Arkansas
Stein Mart – multiple locations
Agudath Achim – Shreveport, Louisiana
B’nai Zion – Shreveport, Louisiana
Congregation Bikur Cholim – Donaldsonville, Louisiana
Beth Israel Congregation, Jackson Mississippi
Congregation Beth Shalom – Oxford, Mississippi
Ohel Jacob Synagogue – Meridian, Mississippi
Hebrew Union Congregation – Greenville, Mississippi  
Gemiluth Chessed – Port Gibson, Mississippi
Congregation House of Israel – Hot Springs, Arkansas
B’nai Israel – Fort Smith, Arkansas
Ahavah Achim – Wynne, Arkansas
Anshe Emeth – Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Temple Meir Chayim – McGhee, Arkansas
House of Israel – Hot Springs, Arkansas
Agudath Israel - Montgomery, Alabama
Temple Beth El – Birmingham, Alabama   
Springhill Avenue Synagogue – Mobile, Alabama
The Old Church St. Graveyard – Mobile Alabama
Temple Mishkan Israel – Selma, Alabama
Temple Beth El – Anniston, Alabama
Temple B’nai Israel – Little Rock, Arkansas
Agudath Achim Synagogue – Little Rock, Arkansas
Temple B’nai Israel – Tupelo, Mississippi
Temple Beth Israel – Biloxi, Mississippi
Temple Beth El – Lexington, Mississippi
Congregation Ahavath Rayim - Greenwood, Mississippi
Congregation Shaarey Zedek, - Morgan City, Mississippi
Touro Synagogue - New Orleans, Louisiana
Anshe S’fard – New Orleans, Louisiana
Temple Emanuel – Opelousas, Louisiana
Temple Shalom – Lafayette, Louisiana
Temple Beth El – Birmingham, Alabama
Temple Emanu-El – Birmingham, Alabama
    Hannah Lazarus Sewing Guild
Temple Emanu-El – Charleston, South Carolina
Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim – Charleston, South Carolina
Temple Beth El – Camden, South Carolina
Temple B’nai Israel – Natchez, Mississippi
Jewish Cemetery – Natchez, Mississippi
Blytheville Temple – Blytheville, Missouri
Anshe Chesed Cemetery – Vicksburg, Mississippi
Jewish cemetery in Plaquemine, Louisiana
The Old Magnolia Cemetery – Mobile, Alabama
James Loeb and Son  - Montgomery, Alabama
Epstein Land and Gin Company – Lake Village, Arkansas
Krouse and Company – Natchez, Mississippi
Dixie Tobacco and Candy Co. – Shaw, Mississippi
The Whale Store, Alligator, Mississippi
Hirshberg’s Drug Store – Friar’s Point, Mississippi
Boston Hardware and Locksmith – Selma, Alabama
Goldberg’s Department Store – Belzoni, Mississippi
Friedman and Sons – Franklin, Louisiana
Leo Kahn Store – Morgan City, Louisianna
Gartenbergs – Hot Springs, Arkansas
Mr. Henry’s Tailoring – New Orleans, Louisiana
Henry Stern Antiques – New Orleans, Louisiana
Mobile Rug and Shade Company – Mobile, Alabama
Hoffman Furniture Company – Mobile, Alabama
Waldoff’s Department Store – Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Lauray’s Jewelry Store – Hot Springs, Arkansas
Aranov, Realty - Montgomery, Alabama
Ruth’s Department Store – Columbus, Mississippi
Palmetto Pigeon Plant – Sumter, South Carolina
Deep South Jewish Voice – Birmingham, Alabama

The Peddler's Grandson: Growing Up Jewish in Mississippi 1999

Winner of the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters nonfiction award in 2000

Edward Cohen (born in 1948) has written an interesting memoir about what it was like growing up as a Jew in the South, specifically, in Jackson, Mississippi. His was a large, close-knit extended family most of whom worked in the family business, Cohen Brothers, a men’s clothing store.

The original brothers, his grandfather Moise and great uncle Sam, married two sisters, and the two families set up housekeeping together in a house they built that came to be known as “The Big House.”  Cohen felt safe and loved there where all of the five children of Sam and Moise and their spouses and their children went every Sunday without fail for dinner. He felt protected from the Christian world outside the front door; he was never totally at ease with a culture and lifestyle that seemed markedly different from his own.

Cohen discusses the small Jewish community, their temple - Beth Israel, and their practice. He describes how assimilated the Jewish community was, whose members wanted to blend in  rather than stand out. He also discusses at length the relationship between the black and white communities in the still-segregated South, and the behavior and attitudes within the Jewish community toward race relations and civil rights when the 60's and 70's were upon them and there was social upheaval. 

In large part this memoir is about the author’s figuring out who he is – the grandson of immigrant Jews who had left everything behind in order to start a new life in a new country and who settled in the South.  He tries to calibrate how crucial his Jewish identity and Southern identity are to who he is, two parts of him that often were at war with each other.

This memoir includes photos.

For a short biography of Edward Cohen on the Mississippi Writers page click here.

People
Gershon Cohn - father of Etta, Nell, and Ida Cohn; author’s maternal great-grandfather
    Moise (Kahane) Cohen – married Etta Cohn; author’s grandparents
        Leonard Cohen – married Pauline Weltman; author’s parents
            Edward Cohen – their son; author
        Pearle Cohen – married Melvin
            Roslyn Frank – Pearle and Melvin’s daughter
            Janice Knowles – Pearle and Melvin’s daughter
    Isaac Lazar Cohen – Moise’s brother
    Sam Cohen – Moise’s brother; married Nell Cohn (Etta’s sister)
        Lazar Cohen – married Lolita Stein
            Gary Cohen – their son
        Bernard Cohen – Sam and Nell’s son; married Anne
        Marvin Cohen – Sam and Nell’s son; married Helen
            Harriet, Debbie, Marilyn Rothstein, Marci – 1st cousins of author; either the children of Bernard or Marvin
    Ike Levy – married Ida Cohn

Mother’s family
    Ben Weltman -  married to Rae (author’s grandparents
        Pauline – their daughter; married to Leonard Cohen (author’s parents)
            Edward – their son; author
        Louis Weltman – their son; married to Marcia

Friends and Acquaintances
Ralph Salomon
Eva Sussman
Rabbi Perry E. Nussbaum
Max Berman
    Walter Berman – his son
Victor Glick
Phyllis, Bea, and Celeste Lehman
Ellis Hart
Henry Kline

Places
Vaslui, Romania
Jackson, Mississippi
Rochester, NY
Memphis, Tenn.
Shreveport, Louisiana
         

The Jew Store by Stella Suberman 1998

"Like the store, which is practically a character in its own right, the people in The Jew Store linger in the mind." From a review by Marisa Kantor Stark in the New York Times

Stella Suberman, has written this engaging memoir about her immigrant parents’ migration from New York in 1920 to a small town in Tennessee where her father opened up a dry goods store, called by his southern customers, The Jew Store. The store was successful; the family was integrated into the community despite encounters with ignorance and anti-Semitism.

But her mother, especially, felt at first homesick for her large extended family in the Bronx, then isolated as an observant Jew. She agonized over the celebration of Jewish holidays and the need to arrange a bar mitzvah for her son, and then worried about the social life that the rural south offered her two growing daughters. So they returned north to the Bronx in 1933.

There are extensive discussions of the establishment and running of her father’s store, and Suberman writes about her father’s connections to the St. Louis Jewish wholesalers, itinerant Jewish peddlars, and a few Jewish families who owned other dry goods stores in the rural south. This is an interesting memoir to read if you are interested in American Jews in the South, in this case an American Jewish dry goods merchant and his family, living far from major centers of Jewish life.

Note: Suberman chose to fictionalize the names of her family and her southern neighbors to protect their privacy.

For a reading list of book on Southern Jewish History compiled for an American Studies class at the University of North Carolina, click here.

Places
Podolska – her father’s shtetl south of Kiev;
Nashville, Tenn.,
St. Louis, Mo