Jackson Free Press

Lauren Fredman of Jackson sat with 24 other educators in a Boston, Mass., classroom last week at the opening of the Jewish Women's Archive's Summer Institute. They came to explore Jewish roles in Civil Rights Movement and to find ways to share that history with younger Jews.

Each person at the Boston seminar brought something to share: a rolling pin, a piece of jewelry, a recipe, a prayer books and a leftover breakfast. All the items belonged to Jewish women who were important to the participants. Fredman brought a picture of her grandmother.

"She was a character. I was very close to her," she says. Her grandmother, who died when Fredman was 10, lived in Marion, Ill., where the family owned furniture stores. They were one of the few Jewish families in the community. Fredman's grandmother kept a kosher home. She had to drive into St. Louis, Mo., to shop.

"I wish I could speak to her now about what it was like to maintain a religious observance in that community," Fredman says. As an education fellow with the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life, Fredman, 24, works with seven communities.

Last week's Jewish Women's Archive program, "The Power of Our Stories: Jews and the Civil Rights Movement," introduced Fredman and the other educators to a social-justice curriculum. Fredman will use the teaching material in Jewish religious classes for teens.

Fredman, who writes for the Jackson Free Press, lives in Belhaven. She grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Denver, Colo. She got a journalism degree from University of Missouri in 2009.

Her job requires her to travel a lot, so she hasn't been able to do as many of the fun things she wants to do in Jackson. She missed Mal's St. Paddy's Day Parade this year, for instance. She is determined to make time to go on more community bike rides.