Southern community sees boom in Jewish population

wilmington, n.c. | When Marv and Esther Eisenstein moved to St. James Plantation in Brunswick County four years ago, the Jewish couple felt a void in their lives, a loneliness.

So Marv Eisenstein started looking for fellow Jews in the area, and through word of mouth he developed a group of about 100 members. They meet for informal parties three or four times a year, for a Passover seder, for a Chanukah celebration and for other occasions.

"There are certain times when you want to be with brethren," he added, "like when you are sick or when someone dies," to help relatives say Kaddish following a funeral.

The Eisenstein's ad hoc community is symbolic of a shift in the religious landscape in southeastern North Carolina — a boom in the Jewish population.

The 2000-01 National Jewish Population Survey estimated that 23 percent of American Jews live in the South. The 2002 American Jewish Year Book, a national survey of the Jewish population by the American Jewish Committee, listed North Carolina's Jewish population at about 26,500, and current estimates are over 30,000.

Wilmington's two synagogues are seeing more new people in the pews in Friday night or Saturday morning Shabbat services. The Reform synagogue, Temple of Israel, has about 180 families, its highest membership ever. And Conservative B'nai Israel Synagogue has about 150 families.

The welcoming nature of the area's Jewish community was a factor in Linda Levy's decision to move here from New York a few years ago. Soon after, she became the director of the Friedman-Neuwirth Jewish Community Preschool that opened last fall. The program now has 11 children.

Karen Bender brings her daughter, Maia, to the preschool because "I grew up in west L.A., where Rosh Hashanah was a school holiday. So coming here, I wanted my children to be part of something where they can be comfortable with their background."

Part of Jewish growth here has been a shifting of ideas about synagogue roles for men and women. B'nai Israel recently elected its first female synagogue president in 108 years, Amy DeLoach.

One of her missions will be outreach to the growing unaffiliated Jewish community, estimated at 600 families in the four-county area.

"A lot of people will join a synagogue so they will have someone to bury them. But we offer much more than that," DeLoach said. "We just want them to know that were here, and we have fun things going on and people for them to meet."

The Eisenstein' group in St. James tries not to schedule functions at the same time as Wilmington's synagogues. Marv Eisenstein said the group's meetings are not just about religion but about creating new connections.

With so many members of his group, Eisenstein said a few people occasionally wonder about starting a Brunswick County synagogue, but no one in their group is willing to assume the duties of building a synagogue.

"There probably would be enough Jews in this area to start a synagogue. The question is would they want to. Synagogues have started with fewer members than this," he said.

"But no one wants to start a second career as a rabbi. One day, somebody's going to see that they've got a huge influx of Jews here and start an outreach. But it's not going to be us."