For over a century, the largely rural region of the Mississippi delta has been home to a thriving Jewish community, rooted generations-deep in its rich soil. Jews became an integral part of delta life, forging a hybrid identity that was deeply Jewish and distinctively Southern. Their numbers have dwindled in recent years, but a small number of Jews have stayed on, determined to maintain a Jewish presence against all odds.

Through the eyes of those who remain, Delta Jews traces the history of the community and its relationship to its white Christian and black neighbors. We meet families who as merchants and farmers have taken on many characteristic speech patterns and social attitudes of their neighbors. Yet the families maintained their traditions, even if it took importing rabbis and traveling miles for services or seders. These families developed an active social network to reinforce their identity and keep the younger generation "in the fold." Their greatest challenge was the civil rights movement, however, when northern Jewish freedom riders looked to them for support.

This is a unique film, not only for Jewish and Southern studies, but for anthropology and sociology courses dealing with cultural identity and assimilation.

"A story that cannot be fully portrayed on paper has been impressively captured in ‘Delta Jews.'" - Carolyn Lipson-Walker Indiana University
"Riveting and very well done. ... An illuminating portrayal of a vanishing world." - Prof. Jonathan D. Sarna, Brandeis University
"Honest and forthright... this documentary... has at once a sort of nostalgic sadness ... along with an uplift provided by the survivors who hold on to the faith that underlies their way of life." - Shelby Foote, Author/Historian
"A delicate and poignant portrait." Booklist

CINE Gold Eagle, 1999
New York Jewish Film Festival, 1999
Jewish Film Festivals of San Francisco, Toronto, San Diego, Montreal, Seattle, 1999-2000