Greater Heights of Spiritual Achievements

Gertrude Weil ◽

10.5149/northcarolina/9781469630793.003.0005 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Leonard Rogoff

Keyword(s):

North Carolina ◽

Sunday School ◽

School Principal ◽

Ethical Culture ◽

Reform Judaism ◽

Jewish Women ◽

Rabbinic Judaism ◽

The North ◽

Personal A

Weil rooted her in idealism in the ethics of Classical Reform Judaism although she described her beliefs as personal. A spiritual seeker, she adhered to a prophetic rather than a rabbinic Judaism that emphasized ethics, rationalism, and universalism. Judaism was a live issue, and she was drawn to Ethical Culture Society. At the Oheb Sholom temple in Goldsboro she served for fifty years as Sunday School principal and worshipped there faithfully on the Sabbath. She was also a leader of the North Carolina Association of Jewish Women, founded by her Aunt Sarah. In contrast to Reform ideology, the Weil women were committed Zionists, fostered through their friendship with Henrietta Szold, founder of Hadassah.

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My Kinship with All Other Jews

Gertrude Weil ◽

10.5149/northcarolina/9781469630793.003.0010 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Leonard Rogoff

Keyword(s):

North Carolina ◽

Sunday School ◽

Jewish People ◽

German Idealism ◽

Jewish Women ◽

Jewish State ◽

Leadership Positions ◽

The North ◽

State Of Israel ◽

Zionist Organization

After the war and Holocaust, Weil dedicated herself to the restoration of the Jewish people in Palestine. She took state leadership positions in the North Carolina Association of Jewish Women. She remained a Temple lady, a congregational activist teaching Sunday school and worshipping on the Sabbath, but she retained a questioning, universalistic outlook on religious questions. In a series of credos she wrote and spoke on What Judaism Means to Me, delineating a prophetic ethic reflective of German idealism but still affirming Jewish peoplehood. As a member of Hadassah and the Zionist Organization of America, she was a benefactor of the budding state of Israel which she visited in 1951 and 1962, returning to Goldsboro as a public advocate for the Jewish State.

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The Emergence of a Black Leader during the Age of Jim Crow and Black Racial Uplift in North Carolina

Between Washington and Du Bois ◽

10.5744/florida/9780813056609.003.0002 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Reginald K. Ellis

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

North Carolina ◽

Race Relations ◽

Jim Crow ◽

Sunday School ◽

Insurance Company ◽

Black Leader ◽

Life Insurance Company ◽

Racial Uplift ◽

The North

This chapter focuses on Shepard’s early education and career as a druggist, tax collector, cofounder of the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, and superintendent of the International Sunday School Association. I also emphasize his “radical” approach to race relations in Durham at the turn of the twentieth century. By investigating these topics, I develop a clearer understanding of Shepard’s style of leadership as the eventual president of the North Carolina College for Negroes (NCC).

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