American Roots talk May 16 to focus on Jewish experience in East Tennessee

“From Peddlers to Ph.D.’s – The Jewish Experience in East Tennessee” will be the topic of the fourth and last in the series of presentations in the 2024 “Our American Roots: An Exploration of Cultures” program . The talk will be held on Thursday, May 16, in Oak Ridge.

The speaker will be Wendy Besmann, author of the book “ A Separate Circle: Jewish Life in Knoxville, Tennessee ,” (University of Tennessee Press) for which she received an award of distinction from the East Tennessee Historical Society.

Her talk will start at 6 p.m. at the Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) New Hope Center, 602 Scarboro Road. Doors will open at 5 p.m. for a reception for her during which light food will be served.

The American Roots series is co-sponsored by the Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary Club and the Oak Ridge Institute for Continued Learning.

Besmann gave the following summary of her talk.

“For nearly 170 years, Jews have flourished within the broader East Tennessee community, while still maintaining the rituals and traditions that define them as a separate people. Drawing on interviews and documentary sources, I offer a vivid portrait of this tiny society over the decades, showing the complex bonds of kinship, ethics and culture that have united its many colorful characters.

“This is the story of itinerant peddlers, wheeler-dealers and struggling shopkeepers; a poor Knoxville newsboy who turned the New York Times into a flagship newspaper; a quiet record store owner who helped make Elvis Presley a star; the northern businessmen who built a furniture industry in Morristown and the young Jewish scientists who poured into Oak Ridge for the Manhattan Project.

“Over time, this small circle of East Tennessee Jews evolved from a ‘cousins club’ of merchant families into a geographically diverse and influential population of doctors, lawyers, high-tech workers and educators. I place these stories in the larger context of American Jewish history, patterns of immigration and the phenomenal growth of southern university towns.”

A longtime freelancer, Besmann began her career writing about travel for national newspapers and magazines, including USA Today and Better Homes & Gardens. Later she created a series of step-by-step workbooks to help parents of children with special needs find better services.

In 2021, she earned a master’s degree in public health from the University of South Carolina. She and her husband Ted (a former group leader at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and later a USC professor) split their time between Columbia, South Carolina, and their home along Melton Hill Lake near Oak Ridge.

This article originally appeared on Oakridger: American Roots talk May 16 to focus on Jewish experience in East Tennessee