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I got a good view of Jewish Southern religious sociology as a conservative, pre-Vatican II Roman Catholic at Tulane University in the 1970's. Tulane has long had a strong Jewish contingent, and while times were a-changing, there were strong distinctions and some tensions between Southern and Northern Jews.

In my freshman year, I made some Jewish Northerner friends convulse with laughter when I admitted that I did not know what a bagel was until I came to Tulane -- and they were stunned into disbelief when a Jewish Southerner with us acknowledged the same thing. Jews from the North were distinctly, adamantly ethnic Jews and tended to be very liberal, while Jews from the South did not particularly see themselves as distinct from other Southerners except in faith, and many of them were instinctively conservative.

On the whole, the worst of the flaming leftists were Jews from the North and Presbyterians from the suburbs of the New South. My chosen circle of friends at Tulane was mostly conservative or apolitical and included a number of Jews from both North and South. With strong support from New Orleans' Jewish businessmen and professional, Tulane was unique among American universities in never having had a quota limiting the number of Jews admitted.

Several of Tulane (and Newcomb's) Jewish trustees, fund-raisers, and donors helped to ease them into abandoning the vestiges of Jim Crow early and without a serious fight or much publicity. This was an example of the practical and humane approach to divisive issues that Jewish Southerners are known for, often serving well both their communities and their faith. The Jews of the South have much to their credit.