Rooted in Southern Soil—Slavery, the Confederacy, and the Jews
Jews settled and thrived in the American South beginning in the late seventeenth century and numbered over 10,000 there by 1860. One of their own, Judah P. Benjamin, was second only to Jefferson Davis as a leader of the Confederacy. What was the attitude of southern Jews toward the enslavement of millions of African Americans in their midst? To what extent did they own, trade, and auction enslaved people? What was their role in the Civil War? Based on recent scholarship, this talk will examine these weighty questions and their present-day significance.

Fred Rosenbaum, the founding director of Lehrhaus Judaica (now Hamaqom), is an award-winning Jewish educator, teacher, and author who has published eight books on modern Jewish history. He was the traveling scholar for three study tours of the Deep South.