JWA Events
Join JWA's Online History Course Belles and Butches: Jewish Women in the American South on Thursdays, September 4 - 25, at 8 PM ET. Register here.
The history of Jewish women in the South defies easy stereotyping. Discover the roles they played in the Civil War and Reconstruction; their complicated experiences of immigration and settlement; the changing experience of lesbian and queer Jews; and the ways Southern Jewish food has been shaped by women’s experiences of race, religion, migration, and class.
This course is offered in partnership with the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute for Southern Jewish Life.
Course Topics:
Thursday, Sep 4, 8 PM ET—Shari Rabin, Jewish Women in the Civil War and Reconstruction
South Jewish women navigated the Civil War and Reconstruction in ways shaped by their gender, religious backgrounds, racial status, and political inclinations. Learn about those who documented their thoughts about slavery, the sectional conflict, and the legacy of the War.
Dr. Shari Rabin is Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, Religion, and History and chair of Jewish Studies at Oberlin College. She is the author of Jews on the Frontier: Religion and Mobility in Nineteenth-century America (2017) and The Jewish South: An American History (2025).
Thursday, Sep 11, 8 PM ET—Rachel Cockerell, The Galveston Movement and Its Legacy
In the early 20th century, thousands of Russian Jews immigrated to the US through Galveston, Texas. This talk explores the origins, experiences, and legacies of women in the Galveston Movement and their descendants—including herself.
Rachel Cockerell is a London-born writer and historian. Her first book, Melting Point, an experimental history of her family’s search for a promised land, centers around the Galveston Movement, which brought 10,000 Russian Jews, led by her great-grandfather, to Texas.
Thursday, Sep 18, 8 PM ET—Rachel Gelfand, Queer, Jewish, Southern
This session examines different generations of queer experiences in the South, weaving together reflections from oral history interviews with Jewish lesbian activists in the 1970s and 1980s with recent interviews with younger queer activists, thinkers, and parents.
Dr. Rachel Gelfand is an Assistant Teaching Professor in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at North Carolina State University. She has published on queer oral history and archives, Jewish lesbian activists, Holocaust art, and research in journals such as Southern Cultures and The Oral History Review.
Thursday, Sep 25, 8 PM ET—Marcie Cohen Ferris, The Edible Jewish South
Explore food as a language shared by southern Jewish women and consider how the politics of power established a complex regional cuisine shaped by both privilege and deprivation. The southern Jewish kitchen’s history can teach us about women’s agency, migration, labor, social structures, religion, race, and class.
Dr. Marcie Cohen Ferris is emeritus professor of American Studies at the UNC-Chapel Hill and Senior Leadership Advisor at UNC’s Center for the Study of the American South. She is author of Edible North Carolina: A Journey Across a State of Flavor (2022) and Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South (2005), among others.
Join us for JWA's Fall 2025 Book Talks on Thursdays Oct 30 - Nov 20, 2025. Check back soon for registration.
Featured Authors:
Thursday, October 30, 8 PM ET—Jane Eisner, Carole King: She Made the Earth Move
Drawing on interviews as well as historical and contemporary sources, Jane Eisner explores the life and times of iconic singer-songwriter Carole King, revealing details of her humble beginnings in postwar Jewish Brooklyn, the roots of her musical genius, her four marriages, and her anguish about public life.
Thursday, November 6, 8 PM ET—Esther Chehebar, Sisters of Fortune
In this heart-warming and witty debut novel, three sisters chase love and grapple with the growing pains of young womanhood as they seek their place within and beyond their Syrian Jewish Brooklyn community.
Thursday, November 13, 12 PM ET—Minna Bromberg, Every Body Beloved: A Jewish Embrace of Fatness
This powerful memoir-meets-manifesto confronts the harm of anti-fat bias, interweaving Minna's personal journey with Jewish tradition. It demonstrates how ancient wisdom offers a path to healing and radical acceptance for all bodies, advocating for a world free from fatphobia. *Please note the 12 PM ET start time.
Thursday, November 20, 8 PM ET—Sarah Hurwitz, As a Jew: Reclaiming Our Story from Those Who Blame, Shame, and Try to Erase Us
An urgent exploration of how antisemitism has shaped Jewish identity and how Jews can reclaim their tradition, by the celebrated White House speechwriter and author of the critically acclaimed Here All Along.
Check back soon for registration.
