Traditional CJ-style Shabbat A Taste of Israel Activities include: pool, ropes course, archery, sports, cooking, hiking, and more! Meet and Make New Friends Community Meals in our Chadar Ochel( Dining Hall)
Adult( Ages 18 +): $ 150.00 Children( Ages 2-17): $ 100.00 Infant( Ages 0-2): Free Private housing available for an additional fee
The Charlotte Jewish News- August 2026- Page 24
Widening Our Circles, Southern Jewish Style
By Rachel Glazer
Being at a conference can be an isolating experience. You travel, usually alone, to a remote hotel that could be anywhere in the U. S., and make a lot of small talk and maybe take some polite notes during a plenary session. The mediocre coffee drags you across the finish line on day three, and you forget everyone’ s name the second you disembark the airport shuttle.
Institute of Southern Jewish Life( ISJL) conferences are not like this.
At Southern & Jewish, a conference hosted annually by ISJL, no one bats an eye at you for reading Hebrew with a Southern drawl or having a fish fry for your Yom Kippur break-fast. Some colleagues wear kippot, others have tattoos, and some sport both. It is a gathering of Jewish educators, lay leaders, and clergy from across the Southern U. S., and ISJL’ s mission of supporting, connecting, and celebrating Jewish life in the South is fully on display.
For the first time in ISJL’ s 25- year history, the conference took place in Charlotte. I was lucky enough to get to attend and reconnect not only with former colleagues and friends from my old stomping grounds in Mississippi and the Cajun South, but also to have dedicated time to learn and connect with other Jewish professionals from all over North Carolina.
The theme of this year’ s conference was“ B’ yachad: All Together Now.” The keynote speaker, Rabba Rori Picker Neiss, led more than 150 participants in an illuminating text study on the cautionary tale of Rabbi Yochanan and Reish Lakish and their friendship- and life-ending fallout. She expertly guided us through the chavruta study and highlighted the importance of widening our circles so that we can remain in meaningful relationship with members of our community across our differences. It is a text that will stick with me for a long time.
One circle I was able to expand was denominational: I went to a session on expanding one’ s spiritual practice through Mussar with Rabbi Robin Foonberg of the Jewish Educators Assembly one day and one on practical strategies to create communities of belonging with Rabbi Julie Zupan of the Union for Reform Judaism the next. Both leaders grounded their sessions in text and encouraged participants to share best practices for how these subjects come to life in their congregations.
My friends and former co-workers, Shira Muroff and Ana Berman of ISJL, led us in reimagining classic Bill Aron photos from his“ Shalom Y’ all” collection to reflect on how our cultural landscape has evolved. In one heart-wrenching example using a family photo from the Mississippi Delta, a participant X-acto cut out all the people except the old man, explaining that in many small Jewish communities, everyone has moved away, leaving elders and their legacies behind.
Another participant took a photo from a Torah study group in Alabama and drew in tallitot, tefillin, and kippot onto the female members of the group. We shared rich discussions on how Southern Jewish identities intertwine( or are inextricable), and how they have( and sometimes haven’ t) changed since the collection’ s creation nearly 30 years ago.
We also had the honor of hearing from leading North Carolina-based historians in the field of Jewish and Southern history, Dr. Marcie Cohen Ferris, Dr. Leonard Rogoff, and Mimi Wooten. They shared insights into the ever-evolving role of race, religion, and region in southern Jewish stories from across the Carolinas. Our history here is both entirely unique and unsurprisingly American; I cannot wait to deepen my own understanding of this piece of the southern Jewish experience.
I was also able to share a little of my own expertise in my session, CreativiTEENS: Art as Tool in Teen Education. I shared the not-so-shameful secret that I am not a particularly skilled or talented artist, but that I have an abundance of gumption to look at a project and say,“ I could try that.” One precious gift we can give our youth is to practice
Members of the Jackson, Mississippi, Jewish community, past and present, gathered at Southern & Jewish: B’ yachad: All Together Now in Charlotte.
feeling comfortable not being perfect, and to enjoy the process of creating and learning. We put these principles to work by making Shrinky Dinks and talked through other low-cost, high-impact creative projects and experiences that can enhance Judaic learning for teens.
All of this took place against the backdrop of hallway conversations with exciting Jewish nonprofits, melodious niggunim during evening kumzitz, and group photos with far-flung friends. Whether exchanging High Holy Day horror stories or best practices for Religious School staff orientation, connecting with colleagues from across different states, denominations, fields of expertise, congregation size, and more was truly energizing. We widened our circles and came away better for having jumped in together, b’ yachad.
To learn more about ISJL, please visit isjl. org.
CAMP JUDAEA FAMILY CAMP 2026
Labor Day Weekend Friday, September 4- Sunday, September 6
Weekend Highlights:
Traditional CJ-style Shabbat A Taste of Israel Activities include: pool, ropes course, archery, sports, cooking, hiking, and more! Meet and Make New Friends Community Meals in our Chadar Ochel( Dining Hall)
Register at cjudaea. org / family-camp
Pricing
Adult( Ages 18 +): $ 150.00 Children( Ages 2-17): $ 100.00 Infant( Ages 0-2): Free Private housing available for an additional fee
In Partnership with: