ISJL Southern & Jewish 2026: Full Schedule

For the first time ever, the ISJL’s annual conference is taking place outside of Mississippi, our longtime home in the heart of the Deep South. To help explore our new location, the ISJL Culture division welcomes North Carolina-based historians Dr. Leonard Rogoff, Dr. Marcie Cohen Ferris, and Mimi Wooten for a panel discussion on how Jewish histories of the Carolinas reinforce and challenge enduring notions of the southern Jewish experience. Participants will gain new insights into the ever-evolving role of race, religion, and region in southern Jewish stories from colonial-era Charleston to the present-day Research Triangle.

Presenters

Shira Muroff

Director of Programs, ISJL

Shira Muroff is the ISJL's Director of Programs. She is a California native and a graduate of the University of California, Davis, with a degree in Human Development. A Jacksonian since 2016, Shira first joined the ISJL as an Education Fellow from 2016-2018. After the fellowship... Read More →

Ana Berman

Programs & Education Coordinator, ISJL

Ana Berman is the ISJL's Programs & Education Coordinator. Originally from New York, she graduated from Macalester College with a degree in History and Religious Studies. Ana joined the ISJL in 2023 as a public history intern and then as the 2023-2024 Education and Culture Program... Read More →

Leonard W. Rogoff

President and Historian, Jewish Heritage North Carolina

Leonard Rogoff holds a doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Former president of the Southern Jewish Historical Society and recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award, he is currently historian and president of Jewish Heritage North Carolina. He is a frequent... Read More →

Dr. Marcie Cohen Ferris

Emeritus Professor, UNC Chapel Hill

Marcie Cohen Ferris is an emeritus professor in the Department of American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Director of UNC’s Center for the Study of the American South where she is a faculty editor for , a quarterly journal of the history and... Read More →

Mimi Wooten

Mimi Wooten is a Ph.D. candidate in the department of History at the University of Michigan and a Todd M. Endelman Fellow at the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies. Her dissertation is a microhistory of the Ottoman Sephardi migrants who settled in Atlanta, Georgia and Montgomery, Alabama... Read More →

Resource Partners

Goldring Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life (ISJL)

Monday June 22, 2026 5:30pm - 6:30pm EDT
Tyvola

All Attendees

Audience Clergy, Community Members, Cultural Programmers, Education Directors, Jewish Professionals, Lay Leaders, Teachers

7:55pm EDT

Concert with Eliana Light

Monday June 22, 2026 7:55pm - 9:15pm EDT

Tyvola

Join us for an evening of music with featured artist Eliana Light. Eliana's thoughtful, playful, original music is meant to help us learn, feel, sing, and connect with each other.

Presenters

Eliana Light

Educator, Musician, and 2025 Covenant Foundation Family Education, The Light Lab

Eliana is working towards a world of One-ness, guided and inspired by Jewish heritage. She focuses on translating liturgy, prayer practice, and g?d-concepts in ways that are deep and accessible for all people at any age. Eliana’s music, gatherings, and teaching reflect a spirit... Read More →

Monday June 22, 2026 7:55pm - 9:15pm EDT
Tyvola

All Attendees

8:00am EDT

10:30am EDT

11:45am EDT

11:45am EDT

3:45pm EDT

3:45pm EDT

5:30pm EDT

7:55pm EDT

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