Northwest Premiere

Sunday, March 19, 4:00pm

USA, 1999, 57 min.

Mike Dewitt, Director  

Delta Jews

The Mississippi Delta is known for catfish not gefilte fish, levees not Levi’s, and the Blues not Jews.  For over a century, however, “the most Southern place on Earth” has been home to a thriving Jewish community with generations deeply rooted in Bible Belt soil. Delta Jews have forged a hybrid identity profoundly Jewish and distinctly Southern.  Narrated by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Alfred Uhry (Driving Miss Daisy, The Last Night of Ballyhoo), this frank and compassionate film traces a dwindling community’s proud history and examines the challenges Jews face in a society steeped in black-white antagonisms and a Christian way of life.

Cosponsored by B’nai B’rith, Evergreen Region

Shown with Yidl in the Middle  

For a list of related readings available at Tree of Life Books and Judaica and through the American Jewish Committee, please visit our SJFF 2000 Reading List.