INSTITUTE OF SOUTHERN JEWISH LIFE, GOLD-RING/WOLDENBERG

The institute was founded in 1986 as the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience; in 2000 its name was changed to the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life. Based in Jackson, Mississippi, the institute works to preserve and document the practice, culture, and legacy of Judaism in the southern United States. The original idea for the museum came from Macy B. Hart, a longtime director of the uahc Henry S. Jacobs Camp in Utica, Mississippi. Hart recognized that many of the smaller Jewish communities in the region were experiencing population decline, forcing several synagogues to close their doors. The Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience began as an effort to preserve the artifacts and history of these declining communities. The msje completed its first building in 1989 on the grounds of Jacobs Camp in Utica. In 1992, the museum entered into a preservation agreement with Temple B'nai Israel in Natchez, Mississippi, with the congregation deeding their historic 1906 building to the museum. The museum created several award-winning exhibits, including "From Alsace to America: Discovering a Southern Jewish Heritage" and "Bagels & Grits: Images of Southern Jewish Life." The msje maintained an active History Department that worked to gather information about every Jewish community that ever existed in the South. The museum also worked to restore and preserve historic Jewish cemeteries in communities that no longer had a Jewish presence.

In 2000, under Hart's leadership, the museum expanded its mission to become the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life. Incorporating the research and historic preservation work of the museum, the isjl created new departments of Rabbinic Services, Education, and Cultural Programs. Many small congregations in the South and around the country do not have full-time rabbinic leadership. Reviving the old practice of circuit riding rabbis, the isjl hired its first itinerant rabbi in 2003, who served over 24 small congregations in a four-state region. The isjl also sought to raise the level of Jewish education in the small cities and towns of the region. The isjl Education Department developed a complete and detailed non-denominational religious school curriculum administered by a team of Jewish educators, who travel across the region making site visits. In 2005, 28 different congregations in a four-state pilot region used the isjl curriculum. The isjl also works to bring leading Jewish cultural programs to small communities in the South through its Jewish Cinema South film series and its Southern States Jewish Literary Series.

Funded by both large foundations and individual members, the isjl represents an innovative attempt to serve the spiritual, educational, and cultural needs of isolated and underserved Jewish communities in the South. Working outside of the national institutions of American Judaism and the movements, the isjl envisions the Jews of the 12 southern states as if they were one community and synagogue. While most of its initial work focused on the Deep South, the Institute plans a gradual expansion to serve the entire 12-state region.

The problems of isolated and underserved Jewish communities are not limited to the South. In every region, small congregations do not have the resources to support a full-time rabbi or Jewish educator. The Institute of Southern Jewish Life is shaping a model of living Judaism and Jewish preservation that can be replicated in other parts of the country.

[Stuart Rockoff (2^nd ed.)]