I opened Eli N. Evans’ book The Provincials: A Personal History of Jews in the South with one question in mind: How does Jewishness intersect with whiteness in America (through the lens of the South)? And I deeply appreciate the complex answer I was given by reading the oft-overlooked history of Jews in the American South, the homeland of Christian evangelism, and battleground between the old and new.

Ultimately, the answer to my question that I discovered in Eli N. Evans’ book was this: White Jews in America perform a balancing act— benefiting from whiteness to protect their families and to achieve prosperity while also taking risks when the opportunity arises to support Black communities.

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