History
A Long Overdue Visit
Clarksdale, Mississippi. To fans of the blues, Clarksdale is the birthplace of the great Sam Cook, “A Change is Gonna ...
The High Holiday Research Method
With Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur just behind us, I thought I would share a little bit about the significance ...
Texas and Illegal Jewish Immigrants
While illegal immigration has become a hot button issue in recent years, it is not a new phenomenon. In fact, ...
Pilgrimage
Pilgrimage: “a journey to a place associated with someone or something well known or respected” (The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of ...
When One Ark Closes, Another One Opens
There are 650 miles and 3 states between Fort Mill, South Carolina and Greenwood, Mississippi, but their connection is closer ...
My Summer in the South: An Intern’s Perspective
At the little public library in Hartshorne, Oklahoma, I see a man wearing a camouflage-patterned Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. baseball ...
The ISJL Conquers Texas
At first, it seemed crazy: writing the histories of 55 different Texas Jewish communities for our Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities. The ...
The Dangers of Nice
When I set out to write the story of the Aleppo Codex, I imagined that I would be writing an uplifting ...
The Maid of Ludomir
A Queer Ancestor in the Butch-Trans Border WarAs the month of Tammuz draws to a close, we have the opportunity ...
My Pekar Years
I met Harvey Pekar in 2005. On a whim, I gave him a copy of my book, and he really liked ...