Friday, November 7, 2008

Event: Shalom Y'all!

My father-in-law helped to sponsor this evening, "Shalom Y'all," at their local temple. The focus, as you might guess, was on Southern Jews. So my husband and I went to temple, which was the service followed by a brief lecture on the history of Jews in the South, followed by a Southern Jewish meal.

The lecture was actually really interesting. Did you know that before 1820 Charleston, South Carolina, had the largest population of Jewish people in the United States? (Of course, this was 700 people. And this changed dramatically after the wave of immigrants started arriving in the 1830s). Today, however, Brooklyn alone has more Jews then all the states in the South combined. Jewish people make up 1% of the Southern population. It was very interesting to hear about the ways in which Jewish people assimilated in the South but were also able to maintain their cultural and religious identities. Then again, I'm a history nerd.

Although we were not sure what to expect from a Southern Jewish themed Temple dinner, it turned out to be delicious. It was standard Southern fare, but with a twist. The corn bread, for example, was made with coconut milk (so that it could be kosher to serve with meat). If anyone has a recipe for this let me know! The collard greens were cooked with smoked turkey instead of ham hocks, and the fried chicken was really good. While everything was delicious, my favorite were the black-eyed peas. They were served room temperature with chopped arugala, red onions, and red pepper. Yummy!
Dessert was also fabulous. They served mini-pecan pies and peaches. The peaches were like canned peaches, but fresh. Mmmmm.

4 comments:

Steph said...

did they talk abt that town in the south that is offering money to jews to move there?

loving the blog :)

see you next weekend!?!!

Katherine said...

Yes! They did! There is this town in the South that was offering Jewish families $50,000 to relocate there! Here is a link to a CNN article about it for anyone interested:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/09/24/
jews.dothan/index.html

Crazy.

Unknown said...

Hi Katherine,

So thrilled to read your blog. Love what you wrote about our Friday night experience at the Village Temple. Can I forward this to Mimi Abrams? I sent her an e-mail telling her how much we enjoyed the evening and she sent me info. about the food. So wonderful that you shared and enjoyed this w/us. I will look forward to all of your installments with relish (no pun intended. Love you loads, Daryl

Nicole I. Frank said...

We attended this wonderful event. Thanks for writing about it. The next Synaplex shabbat at the Village Temple, on Fri 12/5, is a Chocolate Shabbat with lots of sweets!