Shabbat Shalom Ya'll

By Geoffrey Orens

March 12, 2004

Students Gloria Rodríguez and Geoffrey Orens hard at work on a Web posting in a Charleston, S.C. hotel room. Photo: Chris Karmiol

The temperature in Charleston, S.C. climbed toward a comfortable 81 degrees on the afternoon of March 12. Columbia journalism students in the Covering Religion class were scheduled to make their first stop at the Islamic Center of Charleston for Friday afternoon prayers. But no Columbia students were present. Thanks to a cancelled flight, students were forced to take four separate planes to Charleston. Five were stuck in Atlanta overnight and did not arrive in "The Holy City" until Saturday.

For the class's two professors and three of its students, the afternoon was not a complete loss. The small group arrived in Charleston at about 12:45 p.m., two hours later than scheduled. After checking in to their hotel and eating a filling Mexican lunch, the class walked 15 minutes to the city's historic downtown to meet Ruth Miller, a tour guide and local historian. An exuberant woman with a wealth of knowledge on Charleston and its religious heritage, Miller guided the class through the graveyards of several churches.

While standing among the tombstones at St. Philip's Episcopal Church, Miller explained that the winged cherubim carved on many stones evolved from the grim image of a skull and bones. Charleston, which has no nearby stone quarries, imported all of its gravestones from New England, Miller said. Today, Charleston has the largest collection of New England gravestones outside of
that region. Engraved on an eighteenth century tombstone belonging to three children was a poem that said the children were lucky to be in heaven while those on Earth were forced to suffer through life. Miller pointed out that the engravings of tombstones gave a glimpse into the religious beliefs of the period.

Inside St. Philip's, striking Tiffany glass windows glowed with majestic blue, red and gold hues. Brown wooden pews from the nineteenth century graced the aisles. The congregation, formed in 1680 now worships in an 1838 church. St. Philip's was Charleston's first religious community and the first Anglican church south of Virginia. Slaves, women and the poor were forced to sit in the
balcony at St. Philip's. Churches in Charleston were integrated before the Civil War and a congregation that was only white was a rarity, Miller said. During
the Reconstruction period, blacks were not allowed to return to these churches and were forced to start their own, she said. Although many of the churches the class saw on the tour were closed, it got a sense of colonial Charleston's religious diversity. Miller noted that during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries most American cities had only one or two denominations, but Charleston had five and a synagogue. A seventeenth century document known as the Shaftsbury Papers guaranteed religious freedom for all citizens of the city.

By the evening, five more students had arrived. The class attended the Sabbath service at Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim Synagogue, the second oldest synagogue in the United States and the oldest in continuous use. It is also the birthplace of the Reform Jewish movement in America. The congregation meets in a large white rectangular building with tall white pillars built in 1840. Shula Holtz, who conducted the service, introduced the class as guests of the congregation and helped its members welcome the Sabbath. Holtz, speaking in a thick Israeli accent, told about the importance of the Sabbath in Jewish tradition. "Shabbat [Sabbath] is about resting and being free," she said.

In the midst of the service, which included upbeat Hebrew songs, English prayers and the traditional candle lighting, Holtz said too many people did not spend enough time simply being present. She said the Sabbath gives Jews an opportunity to engage in this type of reflection.

After the service the class chatted with members of the synagogue in an adjoining hall while munching on rugala and brownies. Mordenai Hirsch talked about her family's role in forming Charleston's first Jewish community. Her mother's family arrived in Charleston in 1740, and one of her ancestors, who was a founding father, is painted on a colorful mural in the hall.
Hirsch's father was a rabbi at the congregation for 31 years.

"I was born in our pews," she said.

Hirsch has seen many changes in the congregation since she was a child. Three women have become presidents of the congregation and the ways of worship have changed, she said.

"It's getting more and more traditional," Hirsch said. "There's more Hebrew, more chanting."

One Hebrew phrase many students learned that night was the traditional Sabbat greeting, "Shabbat Shalom." Exhausted from the long day, the students ate a late seafood dinner at Hyman's and prepared for an even more traditional Jewish service the next morning, when they would attend an Orthodox Jewish service.

Gloria Rodríguez contributed to this article.