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November Issue 2002

A Layman's Look at A Portion Of The People - Three Hundred Years of Southern Jewish Life at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, SC

by Carl G. Marjenhoff

Caroline "Caro" Agnes Moise Lopez (1854-1885)

I'll begin by saying that I have never been really interested in history - not even that of my own family. My brother is the family historian and he has always taken care of that. He has compiled information and done family trees on both sides of the family.

Now, having gotten a copy of A Portion Of The People - Three Hundred Years of Southern Jewish Life from a friend, I've suddenly become very interested. Our ancestry, on my mother's side, is Jewish. I had heard stories about members of the family all my life, but except for their entertainment value, I had no real interest. Recently, I was invited to a reunion with relatives from another branch and got a copy of their family tree. There were those names I'd heard. Then, reading A Portion Of The People, there they were again! I read the book in less than two days because I simply couldn't put it down.

I knew something of our heritage, but if any details were ever told to me, I must not have been listening. This book is crammed with information I never knew about my family. We stem from Isaac Harby, who was born in Charleston, SC, in 1788. He was quite an intellectual; a scholar, a teacher, a writer and poet and a playwright, and a leader in the Reformed Jewish movement. (My brother, Bill Marjenhoff, produced one of his plays at the Dock Street Theater several years ago.) One of Isaac Harby's children, Octavia, married Andrew Jackson Moses. They had seventeen children, fourteen of whom survived past childhood.

There was at least one "black sheep" in the family. When I studied South Carolina history in grammar school, I read about Franklin J. Moses, Jr., called the "Robber Governor" during reconstruction after the Civil War. When I related this information to my mother, it was quickly dismissed. "He wasn't kin to us!" Well, he was, because most of Octavia's sons gave up the name Moses and took their mother's maiden name, Harby, thus disconnecting themselves from their "scalawag cousin".

There are so many stories and so many names that many Southerners will recognize. I'm sure that some readers will also discover some family history of which they have been unaware. These people, for the most part, came to America with little more than what they could carry. They worked hard as peddlers, farmers and tradesmen. These businesses grew into department stores, plantations and factories.

Jews were welcomed in the Carolinas, especially in Charleston. By 1800, Charleston had the largest Jewish population in the country. They spread from there into smaller towns upstate and to other states, as well. They established synagogues where congregations exist until this day. Many, as in my family, married Protestants and embraced Christianity. The Jewish people have been, and continue to be an influence in American society.

Lieutenant Joshua Lazarus Moses (1839-1865)

The book was wonderful, and will remain with our family for generations to come. However, its main function is that of a companion piece to the exhibit by the same name. The exhibit, A Portion Of The People - Three Hundred Years of Southern Jewish Life, is currently housed at The Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston and will be until Nov. 17, 2002.

I hadn't been to "The Gibbes" since childhood. There have probably been scores of events since then that I could have attended, but didn't. Did I think it was too "high-brow"? I don't think so. I'm not entirely without culture. Although I haven't been published, except once in Carolina Arts, I do write poetry and children's stories in rhyme. So, I guess I've simply ignored "The Gibbes", like so many others who live here. You can bet I'll see other exhibits in the future.

This exhibit is the book in life size. The beautiful portraits, artifacts, and family keepsakes were shown in the book, but WOW! Here we were gawking at a wonderful and beautiful piece of history. So much of this had belonged to some of my ancestors. Having read the book, I could now pretend to be an expert docent. My wife hadn't read it and the cards which accompanied each piece didn't begin to fully describe it. So, I could tell her more about some of the things we were seeing.

I'm not sure whether I enjoyed either the book or the exhibit better. I'm sorry that my brother, who is in Europe with the State Department, hasn't had the opportunity to experience it, but he will. After its stay in Charleston, the exhibit will travel to New York and, finally, next summer, to Charlotte, NC.

My thanks to the editor, Tom Starland, for his kind generosity in affording us the opportunity. Also, my thanks to Theodore and Dale Rosengarten, who put this all together so wonderfully. You have recreated, for me and thousands of others, a history and heritage we might never have known. Shalom!

Candlesticks belonging to Yocha Sobel Bolgla, Warsaw, Poland

A Portion of the People Three Hundred Years of Southern Jewish Life, edited by Theodore Rosengarten and Dale Rosengarten, with a preface by Eli N. Evans, was published by the University of South Carolina Press. The book is 9 1/4" x 10 3/4", 288 pages, 86 color plates, 74 halftones, cloth, ISBN 1-57003-445-1, $34.95. For more information, contact Linda Fogle at 803/777-4848.

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