A Nação
Email
  • Home
  • Nação
  • Europe
  • Caribbean & Latin
  • North America
  • Custom & Ritual

The Jews of South Carolina

Picture
  • Subtitle:  From the Earliest Times to the Present Day
  • Author:  Barnett Abraham Elzas
  • Publisher:  J. B. Lippincott, 1905 – 352 pp
  • LOC Permalink:  http://lccn.loc.gov/06002528
  • Availability:  this book is in the public domain, and can be accessed HERE

Review

This book is the first attempt at creating a synthetic history of South Carolinian Jewry.  It was the fruit of unceasing effort by Rabbi Elzas, who spent years combing through overlooked archives and a colossal array of secondary sources to find even the slightest mention of Jewish life in the state.  More than a hundred years after publication, and notwithstanding its flaws, it remains an essential source book on the Jewish history of Charleston and the surrounding communities through the nineteenth century.

Of particular value are his biographies of prominent eighteenth century lay leaders, his descriptions of Southern Jewish participation in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, and his treatment of the formation of the first Reform Jewish society in the country.  He also engages in a heated polemic with Leon Hühner, against whose writings in the Jewish Encyclopedia he issues a blistering critique that was but the latest salvo in a controversy that dragged on for several years.  In spite of its vitriol, this section demonstrates the exacting standards to which he held himself in gathering historical evidence, which strengthens the overall narrative in the remaining parts.  In all, it is a solid contribution to the discourse on Southern Sephardim, and several subsequent scholars have used it as the chief point of departure in their own analyses.

Contents

Preface
Beginnings, 1670-1750
Organization, 1750-1775
Moses Lindo
Francis Salvador
The Revolutionary period
Joseph Salvador
1783-1800
1800-1824
The Reformed Society of Israelites
1824-1860
Religious development, 1824-1860
The War Between the States

    7
  17
  30
  47
  68
  78
108
119
131
147
166
220
241
Smaller communities
Modern period, 1865-1905
Miscellaneous biographies
Appendices:
   The Act for Making Aliens Free
   Directories, 1695-1800
   The Salvador grant of arms
   The Hebrew Benevolent Society
   The Hebrew Orphan Society
   The Congregation Beth Elohim, 1800-1824
   Ministers of Beth Elohim, 1750-1905
   Old Jewish Cemeteries in South Carolina
Bibliography
Index
241
260
268

276
277
280
282
285
287
292
293
295
307