By Karen Olson House, December 2010
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Click photos to enlarge | |||
Intro
A groundbreaking, four-part, multimedia project has produced several interesting ways for people to learn about Jewish life in North Carolina.
The project, called “Down Home: Jewish Life in North Carolina” features a traveling, free museum exhibit, a documentary film, a companion book, and fourth- and eighth-grade curriculum guides with DVDs for North Carolina public schools. Former governor James B. Hunt Jr. is the project’s honorary chairman.
It’s the first major effort to document and present more than 400 years of Jewish life in North Carolina, and was organized and produced by the Jewish Heritage Foundation of North Carolina in Durham.
Museum exhibit
The same-named traveling exhibit is currently at the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh. It chronicles how Jews have blended into Tar Heel life while preserving their ethnic and
religious traditions.
“The exhibit brings to life Jewish values—family, faith, work and study,” says Leonard Rogoff, exhibit curator, historian and the companion book’s author. “It challenges stereotypes both Southern and Jewish.”
The exhibit presents a historical overview of Jewish immigration and acculturation and shows how Jews, through struggle and negotiation, became integrated and helped build a New South.
Documentary film
This 60-minute documentary brings history to life with re-enactments, archival photographs, vintage films and entertaining oral histories. Produced by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and historian Steve Channing, it sells
for $19.95.
Companion book
The illustrated volume presents a sweeping chronicle of Jewish life in the Tar Heel State, from colonial times to the present. The book includes more than 125 historic and contemporary photographs and incorporates oral histories, profiles of individuals and historical narrative. Readers learn about forward-thinking entrepreneur Karl Robbins, who purchased farmland for Research Triangle Park, as well as expressive Fannye Marks, whose dress shop in Roanoke Rapids outfitted the wives of governors. Written by Rogoff, it was published by the University of North Carolina Press in Chapel Hill in association with JHFNC. Hardcover, 432 pages, $35. The book and documentary are sold in the N.C. Museum of History’s gift shop, and online at www.jhfnc.org.
Educational DVDs and teacher resource guides
The DVDs will be available for use in “Peoples of North Carolina,” the curriculum required for fourth and eighth grades. Teacher guides are available now for download on the N.C. Museum of History’s “Down Home” section on www.ncmuseumofhistory.org. For updates, visit www.jhfnc.org or call (919) 668-5839.