When I think of Selma, Alabama -immediately I flash on the Rabbi of my childhood congregation pontificating on "walking with Martin" and his involvement with the early civil rights struggle in the South. I went to Selma to just poke around and see what was there. I found the most lovely Romanesque abandoned synagogue. Just exquisite. Jews showed up in Selma as early as the 1830's and The Jewish community established Mishkon Israel in the mid 1800's and laid the cornerstone in 1899. I don't know when the last Jew left, but trust me, there aren't any lulav-esrog superstores close by. On to Demopolis to track Sadie Fink's mishpucka.
On the way to Demopolis, I exclaimed "be still m
y Greek Revival loving heart!" Julie and I 
spotted Gainswood through the schmutz filled window of the Pruis. (Thanks Chumley). We couldn't get a tour, (The docent was "runnin errands") but a lovely caretaker took us around. He knew EVERYTHING about the place, and history in general, and my mind was boggled. Constructed in 1843 - 61 The house is sort of an amalgam of pattern books and various references. An extraordinary curved bay window in the rear is unique and uncharacteristic. Here is my heretical thought for the day: the architecture of our newly formed country that represented Greek ideals of equality and representation was built by slaves. Suck on that. And another thought, how about all those Jewish plantation owners, and there were some, celebrating their Passover Seders and repeating the phrase "We were slaves in the land of Egypt.." while being served Charoses by "Mammy." More about the lost tribe of Demopolis at the next stop.
2 comments:
Hi Guys,
Wish I was on the road with you instead of freezing my private parts up here in the Great White North. The pictures are really interesting you're seeing parts of the US that I never thought of visiting. Maybe one day you can do the drive across Canada. Of course, don't even think of doing it in the winter. It would be an interesting drive in the winter but rather hazardous. In the summer it is a beautiful drive but there are not that many cities in the Western part of the drive and I've never seen a Willily Piggily. You are always welcome up here in Montreal.
Take care,
Sean
The Greeks owned slaves too, although slavery was not racially based, and was not always taken as a symbol of some innate inferiority. Men could fall into slavery due to misfortune, so slaves that were better educated than their masters were not uncommon. And of course there was great inequality in Greek societies; people not born in a polis were not eligible to be citizens and had fewer rights or no rights. There were monarchs and oligarchs with special rights. And women had no rights at all in most polii (weird Sparta, not a cultural center, gave them some ...)
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