The kitchen of Henrietta Levine in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where chopped liver is sauteing. Ben and Betty Lee Lamensdorf's farm in Cary, Mississippi, where cotton, wheat, and pecans are harvested. The New Americans Social Club, a group of Holocaust survivors that meets regularly in New Orleans. The historic and flourishing Temple Emanu-El in Birmingham, Alabama. From Levy, Arkansas, to Kaplan, Louisiana, Southern Jewish culture is alive and well below the Mason-Dixon line. And it has been flavored by the South in both subtle and larger ways: during Sukkot, freshly picked cotton is used to cover sukkahs. Synagogue cookbooks contain dishes like charoset with pecans, matzo ball gumbo, and lox and bagels with cheese grits. Jewish cemeteries hold the tombstones of Jewish soldiers who fought in the Civil War.

No matter what adversity they faced -- whether it was discrimination, a language barrier, or simply the lack of a community -- Southern Jews have survived with a combination of good humor, faith, and perseverance. Together, award-winning photographer Bill Aron and curator Vicki Reikes Fox bring the lives of these families -- in all their variety, history, and joy -- to these pages. With a moving foreword by Alfred Uhry, Shalom Y'all conveys the richness of the Southern Jewish experience. It's a celebration of what it means to be Jewish and Southern, and all the contradictions that it entails. As Alfred Uhry says, "I feel sure that they'll be making chopped liver in Arkansas and baking challah in Alabama for a long time to come. As long as there's a South, there'll be Jews inhabiting it -- upstanding, strong Jews like the ones who had the vision and fortitude to immigrate all those years ago." Book jacket.