* Saturday, April 1, 3:00 pm

The story of American Judaism often begins and ends in New York City; but New York has not always been the center of American Jewish life.

In the 18th century, Jews established dozens of communities around the Atlantic basin, in cities such as Newport, Rhode Island; Savannah, Georgia; and Charleston, South Carolina.

The lecture looks closely at the material worlds—public and private, sacred and secular—that these Jewish communities created and shows how quickly they wove themselves into the fabric of a new America.

The speaker is Daniel Ackermann, the chief curator at the Museum Of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA), in Winston-Salem, NC

First Lecture:
To Bigotry No Sanction: Acceptance and Assimilation in the 18th-Century Jewish Communities of Newport, RI and Charleston, SC
Saturday, April 1, 1:00 pm