Jackson Free Press

Dr. Stuart Rockoff, the executive director of the Mississippi Humanities Council, says that about 3,000 Jewish soldiers fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War. The issue of slavery divided the American Jewish community in that time period, and some families even owned slaves.

"[W]ith our own experience of slavery in Egypt, it seems unbelievable that Jews would ever support the enslavement of a group of people," Rockoff said in a press release.

The Houston, Texas, native graduated from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., in 1991 with a bachelor's degree in history. In 2000, he earned a Ph.D. in U.S. history with an emphasis on immigration and American Jewish history from University of Texas at Austin. Rockoff has served from around 2002 until 2013 as the director of the history department at the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life and the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience, where he preserved and documented the history of southern Jews. He became the executive director of the Mississippi Humanities Council in 2013.

As part of the Feb. 25 preview night for New Stage Theatre's production of "The Whipping Man," Rockoff will host a panel titled "Southern Jews and Slavery." He will discuss how the "peculiar institution" divided northern and southern Jewish communities, and how they reacted to slavery.

"It's interesting to think about Jews and slavery," Francine Thomas Reynolds, director of "The Whipping Man," told the Jackson Free Press. "It seems like they would be opposing to each other because the whole belief system of the Jewish faith is that they were slaves in Egypt."

The play centers around Caleb DeLeon, a Jewish Confederate soldier who comes home to find it ransacked and his family gone with only two former slaves, John and Simon, left there. Caleb chooses to stay with the two as they begin the ritual of Passover.

Rockoff's talk is at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 25 at New Stage Theatre (1100 Carlisle St.). It is free and open to the public. The play begins at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 25 and runs through March 9. Tickets for "The Whipping Man" are $28 with discounts available for students, senior citizens and groups. For more information and to purchase tickets, call 601-948-3531 or visit newstagetheatre.com. Read more about "The Whipping Man" in the Feb. 26 issue of the Jackson Free Press.