Charleston Jewish Community Relations Committee papers, 1958-1967.

ArchivalResource

Charleston Jewish Community Relations Committee papers, 1958-1967.

Charleston Jewish Community Relations Committee papers, 1958-1967.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/48762852

Includes correspondence, minutes, typescripts, carbons, newspapers, photocopies of clippings, printed matter. Correspondence (1959-1966) is primarily that of Nat Shulman (1914-2000), as secretary and member of the Community Relations Committee, but also regarding his role as executive director of the Jewish Community Center. Correspondents include other members of the committee, representatives of the National Community Relations Advisory Council and other national groups, local Rabbis, such as Hersh Galinsky, Nachum Rabinovitch, Jordan Taxon, and Burton Padoll, Charleston ministers and citizens, and Joe Mosesman of the Savannah (GA) Jewish Council sharing information regarding racial conditions in Savannah, censorship of books in Savannah high schools (1961), merchant boycotts, and other topics. Main issues discussed include fighting to change Sunday opening (or "Blue") Laws, triggered by arrest of merchant Aaron Solomon (1917-1991), and also triggering a threat of a law suit (1962) between a congregant and a Rabbi; attempts to aid integration, such as a call (1961) to form a bi-racial committee with reports on similar committees in other cities; attempts to avoid sit ins and merchant boycotts. Many letters refer to antisemitism in the South (with some antisemitic literature); mentions of such groups as the Ku Klux Klan and the Grass Roots League, with a copy of one of latter's publications; refusal of Charleston private school Ashley Hall to accommodate Jewish boarding students; judicial rulings regarding prayer and religion in the schools. Includes immigration laws; alleged unethical advertising practices of the Southern Jewish Weekly; the "Israel Cohen" hoax (1963), falsely attributing a Communist plot to stir up racial animosities to a fictitious Jewish author; the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (1963) and related topics. Incomplete typed and carbon minutes (1960-63, 65-67) of monthly and special meetings deal with many of the same topics as the correspondence. Clippings cover such matters as controversies over enforcement and attempts to change Sunday closing laws (ca. 1962, 1966); racial matters of integration and segregation, sit-ins, etc; religion and prayer in the schools and judicial rulings (ca. 1963); communism, antisemitism; and the trial of Adolf Eichmann (1906-1962). Also included are printed matter of the National Community Relations Advisory Council, three copies (1960-65) of the anti-Communist paper, Common Sense, and one copy (c. 1966) of the Ku Klux Klan publication The Fiery Cross.

1.25 linear ft.

College of Charleston, Marlene and Nathan Addlestone Library