BY JAWEED KALEEM
PHOTOGRAPHS BY CARY NORTON
WHY THE SOUTH IS LOOKING FOR
A FEW GOOD JEWS
B I R MI N G H A M, A LA . — On a recent Tuesday night at
Rojo, a trendy Mexican restaurant on the south side of
the city, a group of women were kicking off an unusual
welcome party for someone they’d never met. Their
guest of honor: Lisa Pataky, a 25-year-old student
who was new to town, trying out a summer internship and considering moving to Birmingham full-time.
Around her were supporters of the Birmingham Jewish Federation, peppering her with reasons to stay:
abundant jobs, lack of traffic, low cost-of-living, and
— most important – a friendly, tight-knit community
of 5,200 Jews spread among five congregations.
Caren Seligman, the outreach coordinator for the group, had recently
been introduced to Pataky through
a mutual friend. And Seligman was
the one responsible for inviting
these women to the restaurant that
evening for their first crack at recruiting Pataky to their city.
“If I can get her to like this place
for the next six weeks, maybe I can
get her to move back here when
she graduates,” Seligman, 53, recalls thinking at the time.
Though the population of Jews
in the South hovers at 1.1 million
overall, Jewish life in less bustling
parts of the region has taken a
dive. More than half of Southern
Jews — 638,000 — are in Florida.
Another 140,000 are in Texas;
120,000 reside in Atlanta, and
97,000 are in Virginia. But the