The Spring meeting of the Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina will take place in Charleston and Summerville on May 20-21, 2017. The meeting will initiate the latest project of the JHSSC –documenting the Jewish merchants of South Carolina. The dominant narrative of Jewish history in South Carolina includes Jewish peddlers and merchants, frequently immigrants, who settled and often succeeded in both the small towns – Greeleyville, Summerton, Eutawville, Union...and the larger cities – Columbia, Greenville, and, of course, Charleston. That narrative needs to be documented, and the JHSSC has committed to taking that on as its next project. A point of JHSSC history: It was the decline of the small town Jewish merchants (and a panel at Jewish Studies discussing that decline) that led Senator Isadore Lourie obm, initially from St. George, to start the JHSSC in 1994.
The meeting will focus on Charleston and Summerville, spending Saturday in Charleston with a panel of King Street merchants and Sunday in Summerville with a panel of Jewish merchants there. An historic marker documenting the Jewish presence in Summerville will be dedicated in downtown Summerville on Sunday
Sponsor: Jewish Studies Program, Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina