A Portion of the People

Book excerpt: In the year 1800, South Carolina was home to more Jews than any other place in North America. As old as the province of Carolina itself, the Jewish presence has been a vital but little-examined element in the growth of cities and towns, in the economy of slavery and post-slavery society, and in the creation of American Jewish religious identity. The record of a landmark exhibition that will change the way people think about Jewish history and American history, A Portion of the People: Three Hundred Years of Southern Jewish Life presents a remarkable group of art and cultural objects and a provocative investigation of the characters and circumstances that produced them. The book and exhibition are the products of a seven-year collaboration by the Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina, the McKissick Museum of the University of South Carolina, and the College of Charleston. Edited and introduced by Theodore Rosengarten, with original essays by Deborah Dash Moore, Jenna Weissman Joselit, Jack Bass, curator Dale Rosengarten, and Eli N. Evans, A Portion of the People is an important addition to southern arts and letters. A photographic essay by Bill Aron, who has documented Jewish