For people not from Appalachia, the very word Appalachia conjures up images of poverty and backward, uneducated people who speak strangely and make a hardscrabble living farming or working in poultry plants, textile mills, logging, or coal mining.
But it is and always has been much more than that.
I grew up in Appalachia, spending my childhood here with grandparents who were born in the early 1900s and a great grandmother who was born in 1880. I grew up in a small town in a prosperous, educated family, but the old stories, music, and folkways were passed down to me. As a young adult I moved away but returned thirty years ago as my daughter was entering high school, and since then I have lived even further into the hills than when I was a child.
Back in 2012, when I began blogging, the first post I ever published was Why I Live in the Woods, which explains the reasons I love it here.
Appalachia is a geographical region that, according to the U.S. government’s Appalachian Regional Commisssion, is made up of 423 counties in 13 states.
Cultural definitions of Appalachia: Burgundy color – Always included in Appalachia. Red color – Usually included. Salmon color – Sometimes included. White color – Rarely included, physically contains the Appalachian Mountains or associated features; not culturally Appalachian The blue dotted line encloses the counties included in the ARC definition.
Many social media creators who post about Appalachia define Appalachia as being only eastern Kentucky, eastern Tennessee, and western North Carolina. But if you ask almost anyone who grew up or now lives in any of areas on the above map colored burgundy, red or salmon, they will say they are from Appalachia. (I grew up in Hall County, Georgia, full of poultry processing plants and known as the Poultry Capital of the World, which is in the salmon-colored area, but I now live in White County, Georgia which is in the burgundy-colored area. My daughter and her family live in Whitfield County in northwest Georgia, full of carpet mills and known as the Carpet Capital of the World.)
Much more than a geographical region with stunning natural scenery, Appalachia is a cultural region influenced by European, African, and Native American traditions. (And many people carry the DNA of all three.) There are unique storytelling traditions, superstitions, folklore, traditional musical styles, and crafts. People from other parts of the country think there is one Appalachian dialect, but in fact, there are many differences depending on the area in which people live. People in northwest Georgia speak differently than people in northeast Georgia. I can hear differences depending on whether people are from Northern Alabama, Western North Carolina, upstate South Carolina, or eastern Tennessee.
Religion always has been important in the region, and churches can be found on almost every corner in small towns, along every highway or county road, and at many crossroads. However, a little-known fact is that Jews have been here since the beginnings of settlement, and many Southerners, like myself, are discovering our Jewish roots.
In this blog, I hope to explore Appalachian heritage, Jewish heritage in Appalachia, and what it means to live as a Jew in Appalachia today.
The Appalachian Jew 