Chant of Ages; Cry of Cotton: The Biography of a South Georgia Jewish Community’s Beginnings 1865-1908 by Louis Schmier
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
NOTE: I have known the author since I was maybe 5 years old? His son and I were friends in elementary school. We worked in the same building for several years.
Some time last week I heard an interview about the Diaspora becoming uncomfortable and leaving Europe. I think it was with Ari Shavit and his book My Promised Land The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel. This was about the Zionists going to restore the nation of Israel. Similar tensions were in effect even decades earlier resulting in people of the same faith coming to the United States and a few of those settling in south Georgia.
Hearing about the people of south Georgia accepting others culturally very different from them restores my faith in humanity.
As a Baha’i, I am empathetic to the challenges of not being a Christian in the rural Southeastern United States. The temptation is to keep the head down low and act just like everyone else so no one can you are obviously different.
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