KENNESAW STATE UNIVERSITY’S
FIRST ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM
ON
JEWISH LIFE IN THE SOUTH
This Symposium on “Jewish Life in Metropolitan Atlanta during the
Twentieth-Century”
IS SPONSORED BY
The Kennesaw State University 40th Anniversary Celebration Planning Committee
The KSU Center for Regional History & Culture
and The Atlanta History Center
with support from the RTM Restaurant Group
February 26-27, 20041
Room 400, KSU Center on Busbee Drive2
The symposium is open to the public, but registration is required. There will be a
$10 registration fee ($5 for retirees). Students and faculty may attend for free.
Contact information is given below.
Thursday evening, February 26, 2004
7:00 P.M.
Speech by Steve Oney, author of And the Dead Shall Rise: The Murder of
Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank (Pantheon Books 2003).
A reception and book signing will follow Mr. Oney’s address.
Friday, February 27, 2004
8:30 A.M.
Refreshments and sign in.
1
In addition to the sessions at the KSU Center, teachers and teacher education majors will
also have an opportunity to tour the Breman Jewish Heritage Museum on Sunday
afternoon, February 29. Please see details at the end of the agenda.
2
To reach the KSU Center from south of campus, take I-75 to the Chastain Road exit
(Exit 271). At the end of the exit ramp, turn right onto Chastain and go one block to the
traffic light at Busbee Drive. Turn right onto Busbee, go by the Cracker Barrel and Best
Western, and take the first driveway into the KSU Center. There should be plenty of free
parking. Go through the Continuing Education entrance and go straight back beyond the
Anne Frank exhibit to Room 400.
8:45 A.M.
Welcome.
9:00 A.M.
Cliff Kuhn address on “ ‘Before I Work for a Crowd of Jews’:
Antisemitism in Atlanta of the Teens.”3
9:30 A.M.
Mark Bauman address on “Leo Frank: Aberration or Part of a Pattern.”4
10:00 A.M.
Break.
10:15 A.M.
Melissa Fay Greene address on “The Jewish Community in the Civil
Rights Era and the Temple Bombing.”5
10:45 A.M.
Question and Answer session with panelists Oney, Kuhn, Bauman, and
Greene.
11:15 A.M.
Break. During the break the KSU Bookstore will hold a book sale of the
works of the presenters at the Symposium. The audience will have an
opportunity to meet the authors and have their books signed.
11:30 A.M.
Panel of Rabbis from Cobb and Fulton County. The panelists will share
recollections and stories on the growth of the Jewish community in Cobb
County and metropolitan Atlanta.
Listed below are those who have accepted invitations as of 16 December
2003:
3
Dr. Kuhn teaches history at Georgia State University where he is director of the Georgia
Government Documentation Project, one of the premier oral history projects in the South.
His most recent book is Contesting the New South Order: The 1914-1915 Strike at
Atlanta’s Fulton Mills (University of North Carolina Press 2001). He also co-authored
Living Atlanta: An Oral History of the City, 1914-1948 (Atlanta Historical Society and
University of Georgia Press 1990).
4
Dr. Bauman is the editor of the Journal of the Southern Jewish Historical Society. His
books include Harry H. Epstein and the Rabbinate As Conduit for Change (Farleigh
Dickinson University Press 1994) and Quiet Voices: Southern Rabbis and Black Civil
Rights, 1880s to 1990s (University of Alabama Press 1998).
Ms. Greene’s books include Praying for Sheetrock (Addison-Wesley 1991) and The
Temple Bombing (Addison-Wesley 1996). Both were National Book Award finalists.
The former won the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award and the Lillian Smith Award of the
Southern Regional Council. The latter won the Southern Book Critics Circle Award and
the Georgia Author of the Year Award. Ms. Greene’s latest book is Last Man Out: The
Story of the Springhill Mine Disaster (Harcourt 2003).
5
Moderator:
Rabbi Dr. Albert Slomovitz, Kennesaw State University
and Congregation Gesher L’Torah in Alpharetta
Panelists:
Rabbi R. Ephraim Silverman, Chabad of Cobb County,
Congregation Bais Chayeinu, Marietta
Rabbi Harvey J. Winokur, Temple Kehillat Chaim, Roswell
Rabbi Shalom J. Lewis, Congregation Etz Chaim, Marietta
12:30 P.M.
Box lunches provided free of charge by the RTM Restaurant Group. They
will consist of Arby’s Market Fresh sandwiches (choice of beef, turkey, or
veggie), with chips, pasta salad, and a cookie. We will accommodate
special dietary needs, upon request.
1:00 to 2:30 P.M.
2:30 P.M.
Tours of the Anne Frank in the World: 1929-1945, exhibit, hosted
by Dr. Catherine Lewis of the KSU faculty
Panel of Distinguished Community Leaders. The panelists will give their
insights into the changing role of Jews in the recent South.
Moderator: Timothy S. Mescon, Ph.D., Dean of the Michael J. Coles
College of Business and Dinos Eminent Scholar Chair of Entrepreneurial
Management, Kennesaw State University
Panelists:
Dr. Harry Stern, Executive Director, Marcus Jewish
Community Center of Atlanta
Sherry Z. Frank, Executive Director, Atlanta Chapter, The
American Jewish Committee
Deborah M. Lauter, Southern Regional Director, AntiDefamation League
Steven A. Rakitt, CEO, Jewish Federation of Greater
Atlanta
Gary Miller, Executive Director, Jewish Family & Career
Services, Atlanta
4:00 P.M.
Adjournment
Sunday, February 29, 2 P.M. Guided tour for teachers of the William Breman
Jewish Heritage Museum, located in the Selig Center, 1440 Spring Street (18th Street
at Spring Street), Atlanta. The first twenty (20) teachers or teacher education
majors who sign up will be given a free tour, courtesy of the sponsors of the
symposium. This outstanding museum hosts many school groups each year.
Exhibits are designed to emphasize respect for difference, responsible citizenship,
building community, and personal responsibility.
Contact Information:
Thomas A. Scott, Ph.D.
Dept. of History & Philosophy #1806
Kennesaw State University
1000 Chastain Road
Kennesaw, GA 30144-5591
Phone: 770-423-6254; FAX: 770-423-6432
E-mail:
tscott@kennesaw.edu