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.
