I’m not Jewish but I Work in a Temple: Exploring Jewish Heritage in Greensboro

And because I’m not Jewish, I’m going to talk about some of the things I’m learning through the work I’m doing there. Actual Jewish people may find it somewhat ridiculous. My apologies in advance.

I’m a graduate student in public history and museum studies at UNC Greensboro. I love a good archival rabbit hole, whether it’s digging through it or, as I’m discovering, trying to organize it into something people can use. This kind of work also affords me the opportunity to learn more about a culture/religion a little different from my own and that’s never a bad thing (mind you, the only religion I actually claim is house music).

Right now I’m helping to build a small archive of Jewish presence in Greensboro, North Carolina, where I live, digging through piles of materials donated and collected by the congregation. The temple has since built itself a grand, modern building on the other side of town, but I am fortunate to get to spend my time in the old one downtown, a 100-year-old building with creaky stairs and an old building smell that goes perfectly with the tasks at hand.

This particular temple also comes with a living archive, a woman in her eighties who has worked for the temple for over fifty years (and who is, ironically, a Baptist — only in the South, I swear!) Brenda, thankfully, is a texter, and doesn’t seem to mind my endless questions: “Do you recognize this rabbi? Any idea what year this was? Is this adult confirmation or Sisterhood?”

And, because I, too, grew up as a protestant, I’m constantly looking things up in order to better make sense of the things I’m looking at. I’ve learned that Reform Judaism is, generally, a liberal and progressive movement that embraces women and LGBTQIA+ people, and is dedicated to social justice (this particular temple even had Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II come speak on MLK day one year, as I discovered sorting through photographs and newspaper articles).

My most recent search, however, may be the most interesting one yet: “What is a shochet?”

It turns out that the photograph I came across of one such shochet was an important find. A shochet is a ritual slaughterer of birds and animals for kosher food, someone who goes through years of training and study of Jewish law and animal anatomy in order to perform the act. And according to the professor I’m working with, it’s also proof of an Orthodox congregation that once practiced here in Greensboro earlier in the 20th century. Thus, it’s important to the project of cataloguing Jewish life in Greensboro, which is my job.

I also want to address what might be an elephant in the room for some here: yes, there are many people in this congregation who are staunch Zionists. No, we do not discuss this (for one thing, I mostly work alone anyway), and we never will. I am, however, interested in trying to understand Zionism from an critical-historical perspective and while this tiny little archive of Jewish life in a small Southern city isn’t necessarily the hub of primary source material on that topic, it’s giving me some good places to start.