000			02353cam a2200241 i 4500
999			_c38073 _d38073
020			_a9781479854530 (cloth : alk. paper)
041			_aeng.
082	0	0	_a305.8924075 _bLIG-T
100	1		_aLight, Caroline E. _eauthor.
245	1	0	_aThat pride of race and character : _bthe roots of Jewish benevolence in the Jim Crow south / _cCaroline E. Light.
260			_aNew York : _bNew York University Press, _c2014.
300			_aix, 278p. _billustrations ;
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references (pages 257-271) and index.
520			_a“It has ever been the boast of the Jewish people, that they support their own poor,” declared Kentucky attorney Benjamin Franklin Jonas in 1856. “Their reasons are partly founded in religious necessity, and partly in that pride of race and character which has supported them through so many ages of trial and vicissitude.” In That Pride of Race and Character, Caroline E. Light examines the American Jewish tradition of benevolence and charity and explores its southern roots. Light provides a critical analysis of benevolence as it was inflected by regional ideals of race and gender, showing how a southern Jewish benevolent empire emerged in response to the combined pressures of post-Civil War devastation and the simultaneous influx of eastern European immigration. In an effort to combat the voices of anti-Semitism and nativism, established Jewish leaders developed a sophisticated and cutting-edge network of charities in the South to ensure that Jews took care of those considered “their own” while also proving themselves to be exemplary white citizens. Drawing from confidential case files and institutional records from various southern Jewish charities, the book relates how southern Jewish leaders and their immigrant clients negotiated the complexities of “fitting in” in a place and time of significant socio-political turbulence. Ultimately, the southern Jewish call to benevolence bore the particular imprint of the region’s racial mores and left behind a rich legacy.
546			_aEnglish.
650		0	_aJews _zSouthern States _xSocial life and customs
650		0	_aJews _zSouthern States _xPolitics and government
650		0	_aBenevolence.
650		0	_aCharity.
650		0	_aKindness.
650		0	_aJewish way of life.
942			_2ddc _cBK