SJHS Grants & Applications

The SJHS Grants Committee will accept applications for the 2024 grant cycle from February 1 to March 15, 2024. Grantees will receive notification in April. Please see below for full details.

For 2024, the SJHS will have approximately $7,500 available for grants, which typically range from $500 to $2,000. Please keep these limitations in mind when making your request. SJHS does not support indirect costs (“overhead”) for items such as salaries of existing employees, utilities, office space, etc., so please limit requests to items that are direct costs of the project. Funds are generally available after July of the grant year.

SJHS offers the following grants:

  • The Project Completion Grant is intended to facilitate the completion of projects relevant to Southern Jewish history. Grants may not be used to fund research or travel, but are intended to cover production or completion expenses such as the editing or indexing of a publication, costs related to illustrations or photo permissions, the production of a media project, or the fabrication of exhibits.
  • The Dr. Lawrence J. Kanter Grants assist scholars and independent researchers with travel and other expenses related to conducting research in Southern Jewish history. Graduate students completing doctoral dissertations are particularly encouraged to apply. A Kanter grant also is available for research into Florida Jewish history.
  • The Scott and Donna Langston Archival Grant supports projects aiming to preserve archival materials related to Southern Jewish history, either in secure repositories or in digital format.

Proposals should indicate which grant is being applied for, and also include the following:

  • The submitter’s name, address, phone number, email, and affiliation.
  • A brief abstract of the project, including its relevance to Southern Jewish history;  discussion of its goals and the questions or problems it intends to address; information about its format, content, and schedule for completion; and, where relevant, plans for its dissemination. 
  • Resumes or CVs of key individuals involved in the project, indicating the experience or training that suits them to carry out the project successfully.
  • If the project is related to a publication, exhibit, or media production, please include a letter of endorsement from the publisher, producer, or sponsoring museum or organization indicating their commitment to publish, produce, or carry the project forward, and a sample of the work that gives the committee a sense of what the final product will look like.
  • If the project is related to the preservation or processing of an archival collection, please provide a letter of endorsement from the repository where the collection will be housed and a sample copy of some of the materials to be preserved.
  • A detailed budget itemizing each expense for which support is requested. If the funds requested are to support a piece of a larger project, please provide information on the total budget as well as on the piece for which support is requested. Budgets should also indicate what funds you have requested and/or received from other sources.

Please send the application materials as an email attachment in Word or PDF format to the chair of the grants committee, Ashley Walters at [email protected] with “SJHS Grant Application” and your last name in the subject field. You should receive a confirmation email indicating receipt of your application within one week of submission.


The SJHS Grant Committee will evaluate each proposal based on its relevance to the goals of the Society, its scholarly merits, its significance and educational impact, and the likelihood of its successful completion.

Grant recipients will be contacted nine to 12 months after the award to provide a brief, written update about use of the funds. 

Awards will be presented at the Society's annual fall conference, with recipients being notified in advance. Recipients must acknowledge SJHS support in the acknowledgements or credits of any book or other work product that is a result of the grant project and provide a copy of the book or other work product to the Society.

 


Past Grant Winners

2023

Dr. Amy Weiss, Hartford University—Dr. Lawrence J. Kanter Grant to support research travel in Charlotte and Chapel Hill, North Carolina for a project called “Realigning Faith: American Jews, Protestants and Israel, 1966-2018.”

Dr. Heather Nathans, Tufts University—Dr. Lawrence J. Kanter Grant to visit archives in New Orleans, Atlanta, and Savannah for her book project, Playing the Land of Milk and Honey: Race Performs on Southern Stages – 1787-1915

Teresa Robinette—Project Completion Grant to develop an exhibition of painted portraits that relay stories about blended heritages in the area of the Cumberland Gap, Virginia.

Marci Darling Johnson, Endicott College—Project Completions Grant to develop a documentary film about Piroska and Flora Gellert, Jewish burlesque dancers from Romania who lived and performed in New Orleans.

2022

Dr. Tim Quevillon, Trinity University, received a Dr. Lawrence J. Kanter Grant to travel to Memphis in support of his work on The Jewish Mapping Project.

Dr. Keira Williams, Queen’s University, Belfast, UK, received a Dr. Lawrence J. Kanter grant to travel through the Carolinas for research on her book project about the Ku Klux Klan’s activities there.

Emily Williams, Louisiana State University, received a Rabbi Allen Krause Endowment Grant to support travel costs through Texas in support of her photography/oral history project on small-town Jewish life.

Margaret Norman, Congregation Beth El, Birmingham, received a Project completion grant to support exhibit development and artifacts for their ongoing work on a synagogue exhibit, the Beth El Civil Rights Experience.

2021

Dr. Lawrence J. Kanter Project Completion Grants

Gerald Peary, filmmaker—to support on-location filming in Florida for Why We Went: The St. Augustine 17, a documentary about the rabbis who traveled to St. Augustine, FL, in support of the civil rights movement and were incarcerated there.

Marlene Trestman—to support publication of her book Most Fortunate Unfortunates: New Orlean's Jewish Orphan's Home, 1855-1946. (Awarded provisionally in 2021 and fulfilled in 2022.)

Dr. Lawrence J. Kanter Research and Travel Grants

Erica Lally, Georgetown University—to conduct research in New Orleans about the history of the American Protective League’s New Orleans Detention Home, 1918-1919.

Gabrielle Lyle, Texas A&M—to conduct graduate research in South Texas about the Jewish communities near the U.S.-Mexico border.

Scott and Donna Langston Archival Grants

Anna Tucker/The Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience—to rehouse and properly store archival materials from five collections related to Jewish life and business interests across the South.  In the process of rehousing, MSJE staff plan to digitize key items from these collections, and make them available on their website.

Shannon Small/Annette Levy Ratkin Jewish Community Archives (Nashville)—to support the digitization of significant collections, including those of the Nashville Jewish Federation, the Gordon Jewish Community Center, and Jewish Family Service.

2020

Project Completion Grants

Janice Rothschild Blumberg - to support the completion of her book, What’s Next? Southern Dreams, Jewish Deeds and the Challenge of Looking Back while Moving Forward. Jewish Museum of Florida at Florida International University - to support the completion of the exhibit Miami Master Architects, displaying the life and work of historically prominent Jewish architects based in Miami, Florida.

Congregation of Adath Yeshurun of Aiken, SC - to support the completion of an historical exhibit, “A Source of Light: Celebrating Congregation, Commerce & Community,” which is scheduled to appear at the Aiken County Historical Museum in 2021 in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of the congregation.

Scott and Donna Langston Archival Grant

Augusta Jewish Museum - to support an Online Virtual Museum which will assemble and present historical documents, photos, and other primary sources about the history of the Augusta, GA, Jewish community, in conjunction with a larger project to restore the Augusta synagogue as a museum.

Grant from the Helen Stern Fund

Gabrielle Leon Spatt, Jacob Ross, and Adam Hirsh – to support the completion of a documentary film, The Jewish Atlanta Covid-19 Quarantine Story, to appear at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival.

2019

Research/Travel Grants

Prof. E. Howard Ashford, Assistant Professor in the Department of Africana and Latino Studies at SUNY-Oneonta, for travel and research funds to complete a scholarly article titled, “Freedom Journey: Jews and African Americans in the Former Confederacy.”

Prof. Samantha Baskind, Professor of Art History at Cleveland State University, for research and travel funds to complete a book titled, Moses Jacob Ezekiel: The Life of a Confederate, Expatriate, Jewish Sculptor.

Prof. Amy Milligan, Batten Endowed Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and Women’s Studies; and Director of the Institute for Jewish Studies and Interfaith Understanding at Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, for research and travel funds to complete a book titled The Last Jews of Selma, Alabama.

Project Completion Grants

Alexandra Horowitz for “Reawakened,” a documentary short on the Charlottesville Jewish community's response to the Unite the Right events of August 2017. The film will be shown as part of an exhibit on Jewish Charlottesville at the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Foundation's Museum of History and Culture.

Texarkana Museums System for an exhibit documenting the history of the Mount Sinai Temple of Texarkana, TX, a congregation that closed in 2015 after 140 years of operation as the area’s only Jewish house of worship. The exhibit will be mounted in the city's Museum of Regional History. Part of the funds will also be used to permanently preserve the collection of materials that were donated for the exhibit by past members of Mount Sinai.

Scott and Donna Langston Archival Grants

Jewish Historical Society of Memphis and the Mid-South, to support the digitization of The Hebrew Watchman, a Jewish newspaper that served Memphis Jews from the 1920s to the 1980s.

Ohef Shalom Temple of Norfolk, VA, for the preservation of two important archival collections: the papers of the Nusbaum and Goldback families.

Temple Emanuel of Greensboro, NC, for a project to digitize the minutes, bulletins, and other historical records of the congregation. The project is being undertaken in cooperation with the library at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, and the digitized material will be made available as part of the library’s digital collections.

 

2018

Josef Nothmann - research and travel grant in support of his dissertation project, “‘Cotton Jews’ and Speculative Spinners,” focusing on the role of southern Jews in transatlantic cotton commerce during the interwar period.

Dr. Melissa Klapper - research and travel grant in support of her book project, At Home in the World: American Jewish Women Abroad, 1865-1939

Dr. Sally Wolff King - research and travel grant in support of her book project on the Wolff Brothers Department Stores, providing a window into a Southern Jewish business family

Scott and Donna Langston Archival Grants

The Houston Jewish History Archive (HJHA) at Rice University -  archival grant to process and store the records of Congregation Beth Yeshurun, the largest Conservative synagogue in the United States. This collection was partially damaged during Hurricane Harvey and will now be stored at Rice University. The work will proceed under the direction of HJHA director, Dr. Joshua Furman.

The University of Houston’s Center for Public History – archival grant to transcribe and preserve a collection of oral histories gathered as part of a project titled, “Documenting Disaster in Jewish Meyerland.” This work is being conducted under the leadership of Dr. Monica Perales and Dr. Todd Romero.

Helen Stern Foundation grants: The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington -- to revise and redesign the brochure for its Downtown Jewish Washington Walking Tour.

Elizabeth Johnson -- grant to support her work in developing a Tennessee Jewish Heritage Trail.

2017

Travel/Research grants

Lucas Wilson - research travel to Charleston, SC to conduct oral history interviews with descendants of Holocaust survivors for a PhD dissertation on Holocaust memory literature.

 Dr. Amy K. Milligan - research travel to Selma, AL; Jackson MS; and Atlanta, GA for work on a project, "The Last Jews of Selma, Alabama: Sustaining and Creating a Legacy for Jews in the Deep South." Project will result in published articles and public programs.

 Dr. Mark Goldberg - travel and research support for his project "Double Diasporas: Understanding a Latina/Latino Jewish Past," which explores "entanglements" between Jews and Latino/as in the US South.

Dr. Lauren Strauss - support for a project called "People of the Book and the Protest Placard: Jewish Civil Rights and Social Justice Activism in Washington, DC," from which she hopes to produce a peer-reviewed article.

Dr. Avigail Oren - funds to travel to St. Louis and New Orleans to complete research for her book, Centering the Jewish Community: Religious Pluralism and Racial Diversity in the American Jewish Community Center Movement.

Dr. Shari Rabin - funds to travel to Jackson, MS to conduct research for a project on "Saving the Jewish South: The Institute for Southern Jewish Life and the Construction of Regional Heritage.”

Dr. Sally Wolff-King - support to travel to Natchez, MS and to hire research assistant to aid in research for a book on her family and their business, the Wolff Department Stores, founded by Romanian Jewish immigrants and spanning several southern states. 

Project Completion Grants

Dr. Dianne Ashton - completion of annotated edition of Emma Mordecai Diary from 1860s; funds requested for transcription of the diary.

Heritage Sandy Springs - completion of a traveling exhibit on "Jewish History and Culture of Sandy Springs"; partnering with local synagogues and Breman Museum - exhibit will appear in several synagogues and venues; funds requested specifically for completion of a related website.

Deborah Gurt and Marx Library, University of South Alabama - Production of an exhibit on Civil War-era German Jewish musician Joseph Bloch who was an important figure in the cultural life of Mobile, AL. Exhibit will be displayed at the University of South Alabama's Marx Library

Jewish Educational Loan Fund (JELF) - completion of exhibit on “The Legacy of the Hebrew Orphans’ Home: Educating the Jewish South Since 1876" to be displayed at William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum in Atlanta.

Scott and Donna Langston Archival Grant

Precious Legacy Archive at Congregation B'nai Israel in Monroe, LA - support to hire a local professor and intern to assemble source material, digitize it, and write the history of the synagogue in advance of its 150th anniversary celebration. 

 

2016

Scott and Donna Langston Archival Grants

University of Kentucky Research Foundation to support the work of a Jewish Studies student to create a finding aid for the Jewish Federation of the Bluegrass records. These records date back to the 1880s and reveal the educational, charitable, social, and cultural activities of the Jewish community in central Kentucky. 
Breman Jewish Heritage Museum in Atlanta to support transcription of oral histories with Alabama Jews regarding Jewish response to and participation in the Civil Rights Movement. 
Temple Israel Archives in Memphis to support the transcription and digitization of interviews from the Temple’s Oral History Project with Memphians living in the area for three or more generations.

Project Completion grants

Leonard Rogoff will publish a book on Gertrude Weil, a Progressive-Era civic leader, activist, and Jewish communal leader from Greensboro, North Carolina. 
Shari Rabin will publish a book about geographically mobile Jews and the ways they built their Jewish identities. 
An exhibit on the Jewish Educational Loan Fund will originate at the Breman and travel to other venues. 

Travel and Research grant

Ph.D. student Timothy Quevillon received a grant to support his research on Rabbi Moshe Cahana, an Orthodox rabbi in Houston who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and supported interracial civil rights activities in the Houston area.

2015

Research and Travel

David Markus:  For travel to the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies for archival research related to American Jewish domestic life.  Mr. Markus is finishing a doctoral dissertation on The Archaeology of Jewish Folk Practice at The University of Florida and is particularly interested in the Block Family Papers related to the Block Family Farmstead in Washington, Arkansas, the most extensively excavated Jewish domestic site in North America.

Public History

Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington:  To complete oral histories and a brochure for a walking tour of the H-Street neighborhood in Washington, D.C.  Contact:  Laura Apelbaum.
Steve Rivo:  For production costs related to film, Caravalho’s Journey.  Simon Carvalho, a Jew of Portuguese descent, was born in Charleston, S.C. in 1815 and became a renowned daguerreotype photographer.  The film documents his expedition to document a route for a transcontinental railroad.    

Donna and Scott Langston Archival

Columbia Jewish Heritage Initiative – Columbia, South Carolina:  for transcription and digitization services related to the oral history component of a community history project that brings together Historic Columbia, the College of Charleston, the Columbia Jewish Community Center and Jewish Federation, the Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina, and the University of South Carolina.  Contact:  Robin Waites and Wendy Spratt
Catherine Eskin:  For digitization of 18 oral history interviews related to the Jewish history of Lakeland, Florida.  Dr. Eskin is an Associate Professor of English at Florida Southern University and the archivist at Temple Emanuel.

2014

Research, Travel and Project Completion:  Academic

Mark Bauman:  For book subvention, to be published in2016, for A Moment in Time:  Reform Rabbis in the South, Their Percepts of the Civil Rights Movement and Roles in it.  This will bring the work of the late Rabbi Allen Krause to publication.  It will be co-authored by the late Rabbi Krause and Mark Bauman.  Mark Bauman is the editor of Southern Jewish History and a retired professor from Atlanta Metropolitan College. 

Shira Kohn:  For travel and research to University of Texas and University of Missouri for work on From German Jews to Jewish Greeks:  Student Refugees in American Universities, 1933-1945.   Dr. Kohn is Associate Dean of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies at The Jewish Theological Seminary.

Public History

Emma Carlin – on behalf of Aviva Kempner:  for project completion of film on The Rosenwald Schools.  Focus of film is on Julius Rosenwald and his work with African Americans to build schools in the South in the early 20th century. 

Curatorial

Harrison County Historical Museum – Marshall, Texas:  For exhibit module focusing on the Jewish history and culture of Harrison County to be part of a permanent exhibit in the museum.  Contact:  Janet Cook.

Scott and Donna Langston Archival Grant

Breman Jewish Heritage Museum – Atlanta, Georgia:  Second request for processing grant to transcribe oral histories in Cuba Family Archives project with Alabama Jews.  Contact:  Marina Rakitova

2013

Research and Travel – Academic

Eric Goldstein and Deb Weiner:  Book subvention for On Middle Ground:  The Jews of Baltimore, 1765-Present.  A contract has been obtained from Johns Hopkins press.  Eric Goldstein is Associate Professor of History with a joint appointment in Institute for Jewish Studies at Emory.  Deborah Weiner is Research Historian and Family History Coordinator at the Jewish Museum of Maryland, Baltimore.

Allison Schottenstein:  For dissertation research in Houston, Texas on the Jewish community’s response to the civil rights movement.  Ms. Schottenstein is a Ph.D. student at the University of Texas, Austin.

Adam Mendelsohn:  For reproduction of images and indexing of book on Jewis and the clothing trade.  The book will be published by NYU Press.  Dr. Mendelsohn is Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies at the College of Charleston.

Rebecca Kobrin: For travel to Corpus Christi to research in Saul Singer papers at Texas A&M – Bell Library for forthcoming book, Destructive Creators: Failed Jewish Immigrant Businessmen Who Changed America.  Dr. Kobrin is Assistant Professor of American Jewish History at Columbia University, NY.

Bryan Stone:  For completion of annotated and edited book, Memories of Two Generations,  an historical memoir of Alexander Gurwitz.  The subvention is for the reproduction of images.  Dr. Stone is Associate Professor of History at Del Mar College, Corpus Christi, Texas

Dina Weinstein:  For travel to St. Augustin, Florida to research the 1964 civil rights movement, with particular focus on 15 Reform rabbis jailed during protests.  Ms. Weinstein is an independent journalist.

Curatorial

Columbus Museum – Columbus Georgia:  For exhibition catalog on exhibit on Jewish Heritage of the Lower Chattahoochee River Valley in Georgia and Alabama.  The money will be used for a gallery guide for continued learning.  Contact – Ashley Bice and Donna Atkins

Archival

Jay Silverberg: For translation of Meyer Brothers Store letters written in Sutterin, Hebrew, and Yiddish.  Letters will be deposited in Special Collections at Louisiana State University’s Hill Memorial Library.  Mr. Silverberg is an independent scholar. 

Scott and Donna Langston Archival Grant

Congregation Beth Israel – Houston, Texas:  To continue digitizing “Basic Principles” materials and to post on website.  Contact – Judy Weidman
University of North Carolina – Asheville:  To fund project archivist to migrate textual finding aids and images for collections on Jewish life in Asheville.  Contact – Gene Hyde, Special Collections librarian.
Breman Jewish Heritage Museum – Atlanta, Georgia:  for processing grant to complete Alabama project on Jewish community life and heritage documenting the past 150 years.  Contact:  Marina Rakitova
Temple B’nei Israel – Little Rock, Arkansas:  To preserve synagogue records from 19th and 20th centuries.  Contact:  Jim Pfeifer

2012

Project Completion: Academic

Lee Shai Weisbach:  To support publication of book, A Jewish Life on Three Continents:  The Memoir of Menachem Mendel Frieden.  The book will be    published by Stanford University Press.  Dr.Weisbach is Professor of History at University of Louisville. 

Project Completion:  Museum/Public History

Karin Shapiro:  To complete work on exhibit for Durham’s Beth El Synagogue’s 125 anniversary.  Ms. Shapiro is a Visiting Associate Professor at Duke, and the exhibit will move to Duke University.

Sharon Fahrer:  To complete Asheville, Carolina’s Jewish Museum Without Walls exhibit.  Ms. Fahrer is a certified planner with degrees in Geography and Urban Planning.  She is a partner in History@Hand, a history consulting firm.

Archives

Sandra Blate:  For The Precious Legacy Archives in Monroe, Louisiana.  The archive documents the history of the congregation as far back as 1844.  Their goal is to collect, record, and display artifacts for use by local communities. Sandra Blate is the Coordinator of the Archive.  She attended theUniversity of Alabama and is a trained educator.

Judy Weidman:  For preservation of deteriorating materials at Congregation Beth Israel Archives in Texas.  Scan and digitize 1853 circumcision book, a collection of letters, newspaper articles, and documents which created national attention over Zionism.  Ms. Weidman is the Temple Librarian.

Travel Grants

Neil Cogan:  For doctoral dissertation research in Rabbi Henry Cohen papers at the Briscoe Center at University of Texas.  Professor Cogan is a senior scholar in both law and Jewish Studies.  Mr. Cogan is a Professor at Whittier Law School, where he previously served as dean.

Sarah Imhoff:  For research in Sam Perl Papers and other Jewish men in Austin, Texas to support a study on masculinity, looking at the American Jewish immigrant experience. Dr. Imhoff is an Assistant Professor in the Boris Jewish Studies program at Indiana University. 

Jackie Rosensweig:  Research in New Orleans for doctoral dissertation work through Yeshiva University in New York.  She will explore the controversy over a proposed statue of Judah Touro.

Marni Davis:  For travel to and research at Baker Library at Harvard University for a new project which focuses on immigrant entrepreneurship and ethnic economies of the New South.  Dr. Davis is an Assistant Professor in Department of History at Georgia State University.  

2011

Project Completion

Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington:  to create an online version of the exhibition Jewish Life in Mr. Lincoln’s City. Contact:  Laura Apelbaum

Research/ Travel

Adam Wolkoff:  For Ph.D. research in archives in Savannah, Columbia and Morrow, Georgia related to “A Manifest Anomaly:  Blacks, Jews, and the Forgotten Trails of the First African American Lawyer.” The work focuses on the life of Moses Simons.

2010

Project Completion

North Carolina Museum of History:  For public programming related to the Down Home:  Jewish Life in North Carolina exhibit.

Archival

Temple Emanu-El in Birmingham, Alabama:  for computerization of burial records from three historic synagogues.

2009

Project Completion

Amy Bloch, ethno-sociologist at University of Toulouse-France,  for translation of a major manuscript into English. The work, Des berges du Rhin aux rives du Mississippi. In this work, explores the stories and testimonies of descendants of Franco-German Jews who settled in the United States – most specifically along the Mississippi River and in New Orleans.

Travel and Research

Robert Gillette: for research and completion of work on Hyde Farmlands, a project initiated by William Thalheimer of Virginia, and for his book, Shareholders, For Life.  Mr. Gillette is an independent scholar.

Archival

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill:  for preservation and digitization of  39 writings (including diaries, travel accounts, memoirs, prose and poetry) from the Mordecai Family Papers.

 

2008

Project Completion

To Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation State Historic Site (Brunswick, Georgia):  To create a brochure to tell the story of the Dent-Gratz families.
Rabbi Allen Krause:  for repair of important tapes of conversations with individuals involved in the Civil Rights movement and for possible travel to Florida to interview Rabbi Seymour Atlas.

Bryan Stone:  subvention for photographs for book, Rope Walkers:  Jews of Texas, 1590-2000.  Dr. Stone is as Assistant Professor at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas. 

Travel Grants

Rachel Bergstein:  for research for Ph.D. dissertation on “From Leo Frank to Civil Rights:  Jews in New South Cities:  1915-1968.

To Rachel Gholson and Mara Cohen Ioannides, faculty at Missouri State University,  for a study of Ozark Jews.

Dina Pinsky, Sociologist at Arcadia University, for new project on southern Jewish identity.

2007

For the Project Completion Grant

The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington for an exhibit on Jewish Life in Mr. Lincoln's City. This exhibit will correspond with the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth (2009) and will include a section focusing on Jewish life in Alexandria, VA.

Rosie Moosnick for assistance in conducting an oral history project entitled, “Arabs and Jews Keep Shop in Kentucky.”

For the Kawaler Research/Travel Grant

Sally Stokes, Senior Research Specialist at the White House Historical Association, for research in Ithaca, NY (Cornell University) on a paper entitled, “Builders of the Mishkan”; research includes work on the papers of Clarence Stein, Henry Wright, and Warren J. Vinton.

For the Lowenstein Archival Grant

The Archives of Springhill Avenue Temple for the continuing project of organizing and preserving historic records of the oldest Jewish congregation in Mobile, AL and one of the oldest in the southern United States.

2006

For the Project Completion Grant

The Institute of Southern Jewish Life and the Jewish Women’s Archive to support the costs of conducting and processing oral history interviews related to the Jewish experience of Hurricane Katrina.

Hollace Ava Weiner for costs related to the publication of her book, The Jewish Junior League: The Rise and Decline of the Fort Worth Council of Jewish Women, 1901-2002 (Texas A&M University Press).

For the Kawaler Research/Travel Grant

Cristi L. Schwarcz to support research expenses for a project designed to explore the experiences of Jews in Washington, D.C. over the past forty years. This research will rely heavily on oral histories.

Kimberly Marlowe Hartnett to support research expenses related to writing a biography of Harry Golden. The biography has a working title of, The Next Issue Will Be A Little Late: How Harry Golden Sold The Civil Rights Movement to America, and will open at the end of the 1950s, as Golden’s first book, Only in America, debuted. The subsequent chapters will re-trace earlier decades of his life, and then continue through the civil-rights movement of the 1950s-70s, examining the rise and fall of Golden’s influence until his death in 1981.

For the Lowenstein Archival Grant

Special Collections, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA to assist in restoring records damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Two sets of records were identified for restoration: the records of the National Council of Jewish Women, Greater New Orleans Section and the records of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans.

2005

For the Project Completion Grant

Dr. Marcie C. Ferris to assist with costs related to the publication of her book, Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South, published by the University of North Carolina Press at Chapel Hill.

Dr. Deborah R. Weiner to assist with costs related to the publication of her book, Coalfield Jews: An Appalachian History, to be published by the University of Illinois Press.

For the Kawaler Research/Travel Grant

Susan Cooper  to assist in retrieving any remaining written, oral, and photographic materials associated with the diminishing Jewish community of Corsicana, TX.  

Mary Stanton to support research for writing the history of the Jews of Montgomery, AL during the 1956 Bus Boycott.

Adam Mendelsohn to aid in researching the mercantile, familial, and religious connections between southern Jews and their co-religionists in England and the British Caribbean during the mid-nineteenth century.

For the Lowenstein Archival Grant

Congregation Sha’arai Shomayim (formerly Springhill Avenue Temple), Mobile, AL to assist in microfilming the congregation’s most significant records.

2004

Dr. Mark Bauman and The University of Alabama Press to aid in the publication of the book, Southern Jewish History: An Anthology, edited by Dr. Bauman and to be published by The University of Alabama Press.

The Jewish Heritage Collection at the College of Charleston Library to aid in the publication of the book, Orthodoxy in Charleston: Brith Sholom Beth Israel and American Jewish History by Dr. Jeffrey S. Gurock.

2003

Dr. Linda J. Borish, Associate Professor of History, Western Michigan University--The grant was  to assist in the production of the documentary film "Settlement Houses to Olympic Stadiums:  Jewish Women in American Sport."

Jewish Heritage Foundation of North Carolina--The grant was for assistance in the production of a teacher's guide to accompany the documentary, "Down Home:  Jewish Life in North Carolina."

Louisville Jewish Community Center--The grant was to aid in the production of the historical drama, "General Orders No. 11."

2002

The William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum, Atlanta, GA for their statewide archival project seeking to document Jewish life in small communities throughout the state of Georgia.

Dr. Andrea Greenbaum, Assistant Professor of English at Barry University, Miami Shores, Florida to aid in the production of her book, "Jews of South Florida" (Brandeis University Press).

Beth-el Congregation of Ft. Worth, TX to aid in the publication of their centennial volume.

Mr. Julius Herscovici of Vicksburg, MS to aid in the publication of a book on the history of the Jewish community in Vicksburg.

2001

Marcie Cohen Ferris towards "Matzah Ball Gumbo, Gasper Goo Gefilte Fish, and Big Momma's Kreplach: Exploring Southern Jewish Foodways"

National Council of Jewish Women, Nashville Section towards creation of a brief video of the history of NCJW in Nashville.

Ohef Sholom Temple Archives towards exhibit "Scout Troops of the 1920s - 1940s: Congregational Leaders in the Making".

Donna Schatz towards "The Southern Jewish Store: A Video Documentary" on Miller's Department Store, the only remaining Jewish store in Winston-Salem, NC.

University of South Carolina Research Foundation towards "…A Portion of the People" exhibit brochure (McKissick Museum)

2000

Reprinting of American Jewry and the Civil War by Bertram Korn, The Jewish Publication Society

Documentary film Shalom Y’all, Shalom Y’all Films, LLC

1999

Congregation Gates of Prayer: From Jackson Avenue to West Esplanade Avenue in One Hundred and Fifty Years, Daniel B. Alexander

The Cousins Club: East Tennessee Jews 1840-2000, Wendy Lowe Besmann

Expanding the Horizons of American Judaism: The Achievements of Gershom Kursheedt 1817-1863, Dr. Kenneth Libo

History of Richmond, Virginia’s Jewish Family Services which is celebrating its 150th year, Peter Opper, Ph.D. M.S.S.

Traveling museum project Migrations: The Jewish Settlers of Eastern North Carolina, The Rosenzweig Museum and Jewish Heritage Foundation of North Carolina


1998

Multi-faceted project to preserve, protect and share their history, Birmingham Jewish Community Center

Book detailing history of Congregation Agudath Achim in Shreveport, Louisiana

1997

Guide to sources in New Orleans for the study of Jewish history, Greater New Orleans Archivists

Jewish Stars in Texas, Hollace Ava Weiner

Animated adaptation of “The Tale of a Kite”, Mya Akerling

1996

The Quiet Voices: Southern Rabbis and Black Civil Rights from the Late Nineteenth Century to the Modern Era, Professor Mark K. Bauman and Dr. Berkley Kalin

The Jews of Atlanta: 150 Years of Creating Community, William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum, Atlanta, Georgia

Documentary entitled From Pushcarts to Plantations: A History of the Jews of Louisiana, Apple West Productions

Self-guided walking tour of greater Miami's three oldest Jewish quarters, Judaic Studies Program, University of Miami

Profile of the existence of West Feliciana Parish, formerly known as St. Francisville, Louisiana, Brenda S. Levine

Exhibit "Teachers of The Temple" at Ohef Sholom Temple in Norfolk, Virginia

Documentary entitled The Righteous Remnant on Jewish experience of West Virginia with focus on Jews of Beckley, West Virginia, West Virginia University Research Corporation

1995

“Max Heller: Progressive and Zionist in the American South”, Dr. Bobbie Malone

“Delta Jews: A Public Television Documentary”, Mike Dewitt

“Jewish Life in Wilkinson County, 1820-1929”, Ernesto Caldeira, David Smith, and Marsha Oates

“Migrations: A Social History of the Durham-Chapel Hill Jewish Community”, Dr. Leonard Rogoff

1994

The Synagogues of Kentucky, Dr. Lee Shai Weissbach

Conference on “Southern Rabbis and Civil Rights”, Memphis, Dr. Berkley Kalin

Documentary on “The Jews of Rural Texas”, Brian Cohen

Story and painting entitled “Kaddish”, Jenny Lukacs

1992

Illustrated sesquicentennial history of Springhill Avenue Temple of Mobile, Alabama

“The Jews of Colonial Maryland 1656-1776”, Jewish Historical Society of Maryland

1991

Traveling exhibit and speaker series on Jewish life in Mississippi, Museum of Southern Jewish Experience

Documentary entitled “Write for your Life: The Story of Ludwig Lewisohn”, Roy Lekus and Allagash Films of Charleston, South Carolina

Book by Dr. Selma Lewis on history of Jews of Memphis, Tennessee, Jewish Historical Society of Memphis and the Mid-South