Crockett Arts Center Hosts State Jewish History and Culture Exhibit

An opening reception is slated for 10:00 until 11:00 a.m. Monday, May 12, at the Crockett Arts Center to welcome a special exhibit, on loan from the Tennessee State Museum, that documents the Jewish immigration to Tennessee.

Bagels & Barbeque: The Jewish Experience in Tennessee begins with the saga of early Jewish settlers emigrating from Europe, where most faced religious persecution, chronicles the lives of Jewish families during the Civil War and Reconstruction, the wave of immigrants who arrived between 1880 and 1924, and during World War II.

As the young left to seek their fortunes after the war, Tennessee's Jewish population declined to less than 17,000 in 1960. The Civil Rights era raised ongoing challenges for Tennessee Jews. The Nashville Jewish Community Center was dynamited in 1958, while a Chattanooga synagogue was destroyed in 1977.

In 1984, the Tennessee Holocaust Commission, Inc. became the third such state organization in the country. And in 1998, to understand the enormity of Hitler's atrocities, non-Jewish middle-school children in Whitwell, Tennessee, collected six million paper clips worldwide. Dedicated to tolerance and peace and documented in an award-winning film, their internationally acclaimed Children's Holocaust Memorial is another unique contribution to the ongoing, many-sided Jewish experience in Tennessee.

Scholars from across the state of Tennessee provided the research for the exhibit, along with noted authorities on Jewish history from other locations.

Bagels & Barbeque: The Jewish Experience was shown at the Tennessee State Museum from December 9, 2007 to February 3, 2008. It is now traveling for three years to other museums across the state.

The Crockett Arts Center is located on North Military Avenue in downtown Lawrenceburg, TN, south side of the Historic Crockett Theatre. Hours of operation are: Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m., closed during the lunch hour.