The Lowcountry Digital Library proposes to digitize—with free access for the public—key components of the Jewish Heritage Collections from the College of Charleston’s Special Collections in order to shed light on the hidden history of Southern Judaism. Centered on Charleston, South Carolina’s early nineteenth-century Jewish history, the twelve-month project will digitize source materials including family papers, synagogue records, and photograph collections. The materials will contribute to scholarship in three major ways, illuminating Charleston’s history as the birthplace of Reform Judaism, documenting American Jews’ participation in slavery, and uncovering women’s role in shaping American Judaism. Given that all three of these aspects of Southern Jewish history have been neglected by scholars, this project will advance the scholarship by revealing these underdeveloped themes. Through digitization, advanced metadata, a public lecture, and a digital exhibit, this project will provide resources for scholars, public historians, students, and the broader public.
Collections Now Available on LCDL:
- Isaac Harby Family Papers
- Harby, Moise, Levy, Moses, Davis Family Photographs
- Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim Congregation Records
- Rabbi Jacob S. Raisin Papers (select portions)
- Lazarus and Hirsch Family Papers
- Thomas J. Tobias Papers, ca. 1790-1970
- B. A. Rodrigues Ottolengui Collection
- Hebrew Benevolent Society Papers
- Temple Sinai (Sumter, S.C.) Records
- Cohen, Emanuel, Moses, Seixas Family Papers
- Phillips Family Papers
- Moses Family Papers
- Pearlstine-Strauss Family Papers (select portions)
Digital exhibit available now: