Date of Award
1-1-2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A. in Southern Studies
First Advisor
Ryan J. Parsons
Second Advisor
Ralph Eubanks
Third Advisor
Annemarie Anderson
School
University of Mississippi
Relational Format
dissertation/thesis
Abstract
This thesis examines the role that place performs in the creation of different Jewish identities in the South through the study of foodways practices. The first chapter provides a historical background of Jewish foodways and an analysis of two Jewish cookbooks and their recipes. These texts act as historical markers of the similarities and differences between varying diasporas across space and time and show how these elements impact Jewish culinary practices. Chapter two is centered around an oral history conducted with Jewish chef Laurence Faber and the places that have shaped his approach to the food served at his Knoxville restaurant, Potchke. Faber journeyed to his family’s ancestral home in Eastern Europe in order to better understand the culinary practices of old world Jewish communities so that he may adapt those traditions in a new world space. The final chapter is a study of my own southern Jewish identity. Through the use of autoethnographic vignettes and recipe development, I explore the ways in which my identity is informed by the spaces I occupy as well as those spaces that impact my identity from afar. The thesis dismantles the idea of a singular Southern Jewish experience and explores the different approaches taken in the formation of one’s identity.
Recommended Citation
Pappas, Charles George, "Here, There: Jewish Identities in the South Through the Lens of Food" (2025). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3349.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/3349