December 20, 2023 • 33 mins
My parents met at Walnut Street Baptist Church in 1979. My father was there for services, at his mother's request. My mother was there working, as a sign language interpreter. They were married not long after in a different Baptist church, by a group of friends, using an interfaith wedding ceremony they wrote themselves.
As a young couple, my parents found their a home at Central Presbyterian Church, in downtown Louisville, where they met my godparents, and made lifelong friends. They even baptized their two children, much to the congregation's delight. We tried to have it both ways, and do all the things as my mother used to say, but that was starting to fall apart the older my brother got, until one day he said to my father, from the backseat of the car, "I'm Jewish. You're not." He was four.
Eventually, life took my family south, far from the relatively large Jewish community of Louisville, KY and the support that community can provide. But that's for another chapter.
72 Miles features the stories of three separate interfaith Jewish families–two real, one not, and one mine. Together, they trace 150 years of Kentucky history, with experiences that resonate today—about being Jewish in America, about being Jewish and southern at the same time. About being Jewish, being interfaith, and the blending of the two.
So strap in, and take a ride with me, up and down I65, or back and forth on the L&N Railroad. In the end the when and the who don’t make as much difference and you might think. But the where sure does. My name is Nathan Jordan Vaughan. It’s 72 Miles til Kentucky. Let’s get moving.
72 Miles Til Kentucky was written and produced by Nathan J. Vaughan. Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Lofi Girl. Curricular components for each episodes are available on the show's website.
You can learn more about me and any of my work on my website, www.nathanjvaughan.com.
Subscribe to my regular Torah podcast, Modern Torah anywhere you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
I once heard the following story.
A young man was studying in Jerusalem,where he was enrolled in yeshiva,
a kind of Jewish seminary.
He was deeply devoted to studyingthe text, practiced a traditional Jewish
life, and in time was given smicha,granted the title of rabbi.
In the ancient ceremony,three of his most learned teachers laid
(00:23):
their hands upon his head and blessedhim in the traditional manner.
May God bless you and keep you.
May God deal kindly with you.
May God bestow God's favoron you and grant you peace.
It was one of the most beautiful momentsof the young man's life,
equal to the birth of his children.
Years later, one of the rabbis who blessedhim, however, made a single request,
(00:46):
that the new young rabbi neverperform an interfaith marriage.
Years passed, decades.
The old rabbi passed away, and the youngman returned home to America.
He didn't become a congregational rabbi,though that was never his goal.
Instead, the young rabbi becamea professional in his local Jewish
community, serving as the executive leaderof important institutions and impacting
(01:10):
the lives of tens of thousandsof people, Jews and non Jews.
He had children and raised them to be goodjews, then sent them out into the world.
And one of them came home from that worlddeeply in love with a nonJewish man.
And when it came time, she askedher father to officiate the wedding.
Gender is important here becausethere's a quirk in Judaism.
(01:34):
In a lot of cultures, identityis passed through your father.
In Judaism, though, your Jewish identity,or Jewish status, as they call it,
passes through the mother.
If your mother is Jewish, you're Jewish.
End of discussion.
If your mother isn't Jewish,then by Jewish law, you're not considered
Jewish, even if your father is Jewish.
(01:54):
So when the rabbi's daughter asked himto perform the marriage,
there was no easy answer.
True, she wasn't marrying a non Jew,and she herself was Jewish,
which meant that her kids would be Jewish.
Could he use that as a loopholeto perform the wedding?
Despite the promise that he made yearsbefore, the old rabbi had been deeply
concerned about the futureof the Jewish people.
(02:15):
But his daughter'schildren would be Jewish.
Was that enough for himto break his promise?
Would it be a betrayal of the trustthat the old rabbite had placed in him?
He prayed and he thought and he prayed,and he thought some more.
And with a broken heart,he kept his promise.
And while he stood proudly by her side,the rabbi in this story did not
officiate his own daughter's wedding.
(02:51):
Do you want to tell me aboutthe first time that you met my father?
I think it was at theirwedding, probably, yeah.
You were not there when we came to.
I came.
I stayed with them in theirapartment when they got married.
And I remember one thing is that I'dbrought some stuff to stick
in your mother's suitcase.
One was a bottle of champagne,because I knew it was a dry wedding,
(03:12):
and she was horrified that somebody wouldopen her suitcase, like her soon to be
mother in law, and find this bottle.
My parents met at Walnut Street BaptistChurch in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1979.
My father was attending the service,and my mother was working as
(03:32):
a sign language interpreter.
A few months later,they were married
at Highland Baptist Church,using an interfaith wedding ceremony
that they designed themselvesin the early 1980s.
This was nothing less than revolutionary.
Judaism hasn't always been friendlyto interfaith marriages
and interfaith families in general.
(03:53):
Today, four out of ten Jews in Americawho are married have a nonJewish spouse.
But under their interpretations of Jewishlaw, conservative and orthodox rabbis are
often prohibited from performinginterfaith marriages.
Today, many Reform and reconstructionistrabbis do perform interfaith marriages.
But just as many refer couples to someoneelse or insist that the couples commit
(04:15):
to raising their children Jewish,or even just flat out refuse
to perform the ceremony.
Judaism is more than just a religion.
It's more than justa culture or a heritage.
It's hard to put it into a single word.
Jewish life is an intersection or culture,heritage, religion, and family mix.
(04:35):
Which is why if you ask some people,especially young people,
how they're Jewish,they'll just shrug and say something like,
I'm just a member of the tribe.
And it's the tribal nature that makesparentage such a big deal in Judaism,
because like most tribes,the most common way to become a jew is
simply to be born a jewfrom Jewish parents.
(04:56):
But you can't always helpwho you fall in love with.
In 1979, the Central Conferenceof American Rabbis and Organization
of rabbinic leaders from the ReformedJewish movement issued what's known as
a response, an official rabbinic rulingon a specific question that matters
to people who are tryingto live a Jewish life.
(05:18):
For the Reform movement,carefully written response are often how
they push the boundaries of traditionalJewish life and create space for modern
Jews to act more freely and choose moreintentionally how to live
their Jewish life.
This particular response,though issued just the year before
my parents were marriedat Highland Baptist Church,
shows just how little space there wasfor interfaith families in american Jewish
(05:43):
life, even in the mostprogressive circles.
Question may a rabbi recite a prayerat the regular synagogue service.
For a couple contemplating intermarriage,one of the parties is Christian.
Answer, intermarriage is notnormative within Judaism.
Some deem such marriages as a sinful act,regardless of who conducts
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them or as not being Kedushin.
All Reformed Jews discourage themto the best of their ability.
We could not then in good conscience offerpublic prayer for such a couple in advance
of the wedding as it is donefor the marriage of two Jews at a public
synagogue service,because such action would lend
public approval to such a marriage.
(06:24):
We may, however, be willing to recognizesuch a marriage, accept the Jewish partner
as a member of the congregation,and do everything possible to make
the nonJewish partner feel at easeand at home in our midst
and raise their children.
As Jews, it is our duty to continuewarning against
the contemplated intermarriage.
This is our task in this matter.
As in all other areas in which warningplays a major role,
(06:45):
Judaism disapproves of intermarriage,and we should do everything possible
to strengthen this position.
And so my parents, flat broke and totallyin love and expecting no help from either
of their faith traditions,decided to do it all themselves.
But I'll let them tell their story.
(07:11):
I spent four years in the air force.
When I came out,I went to University of Louisville,
and Granny was such that shewanted me to be in church.
Well, I could go to Walnut StreetBaptist Church and sit in the balcony.
And they were on television live.
Well, they recorded it and thenbroadcast the next week.
So they would always panthe audience during the offer.
(07:33):
Tory.
And where I was sittingwas always in the panning.
All right, so there I was,sitting there in the balcony, dutifully.
And then when all of a sudden they startedpreaching, I'd reach down,
pull up a textbook or something.
I'd start reading or studying like that.
Nothing has changed.
Nothing has changed.
So anyway, at one point,I could look down from the balcony across
(07:54):
the sanctuary, and there was this younglady over there doing deaf interpreting.
I thought, that's kind of cool.
The fingers and everything going allover the place and stuff like that.
And also I noticed she's kind of cute.
So, needless to say,there was this other guy who.
He was dating your mom,and I knew him well.
(08:14):
He introduced us and everything like that.
That was cool.
And so, know, he disappearedfor Wyoming or something like.
And so I started dating your mom,and next thing you know, I'm
in Michigan meeting the family approval.
So this was our wedding invitation.
The voice of joy, the voice of gladness.
(08:36):
The voice of the bridegroom,the voice of the bride.
And it came from Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 50.
311.
And I also used this verse on your hoofah.
And I cut the letters out from the dressthat I wore for Aunt Phyllis's wedding.
Yes, you did.
(08:57):
So we went through a very long processdeciding how and where and when
we were going to get married.
In my family, there were six kids.
I was the last to get married.
Therefore, when I said I was going to getmarried, and she's a nice Jewish girl
from Detroit, mind you, we're in Kentucky.
(09:20):
Nice southern Baptist family, bringinga nice Jewish girl from Detroit a know.
It's like, okay.
So when all of a sudden,we started talking wedding and stuff,
then something was said to my mother.
She's like, okay.
She was very easy going.
Just make it happen.
We decided to get married in March,because this Sunday in particular was
(09:40):
the beginning of Universityof Louisville's spring break,
and we didn't really want to waituntil summer, so we decided
to do it on spring break.
We had a very 70s wedding.
We had approached both sets of parentsabout just going to have a quiet civil
ceremony in January and living together.
(10:05):
They both had a fit.
Yes.
And therefore, we just moved in together.
So we were like, okay.
We just didn't tell them.
Right, you made your wedding dress.
Yes, Jan and I made my wedding dress.
Right.
So your mother and I were living together.
She was sewing lace on the bottomof the dress and everything like that.
(10:26):
And we had little three by five indexcards, and we were practicing our vows,
writing them, and practicing and kind ofediting and trying to get everybody happy.
And so we had a pretty interestingdiscussion, and we finally got it down to
where we were good with what was going on.
We tried to figure out how we could doa combination of a Jewish and a christian
(10:49):
wedding by being sensitiveto both traditions.
At that time, there wasn't the willingnessof clergy to embrace both traditions.
There wasn't a rabbi who was interestedin even talking to us about participating.
First of all, it was just, well,you have to convert before we'll do this,
(11:11):
or at least be partway throughthe conversion process.
We probably could have found somebodywho would do the ceremony,
but we knew that a strictly Jewish ora strictly christian service would not
fly with either side of the family.
I had a very dear friend in Danville,Kentucky, who had been a surrogate father
(11:33):
to me throughout college, and I reallywanted him to officiate at my wedding.
Jim Daniel,who was the pastor of the church
of the Covenant, more or less expectedto be the one who would officiate.
So we decided we'd have both of them.
And we had a friend who was a psychiatristwho was Jewish, and so we asked him if he
(11:56):
would do the Jewish blessings,which he was happy to do.
So we put this conglomeration together.
We asked Linda Oto if she would sing.
We pulled a song out of the hymnal,the Baptist hymnal that we thought
didn't have any reference to Jesus.
It was just a nice song, which.
(12:16):
Was the only thing bothmothers commented on.
Granny said, you only used the nameJesus once, and that was in a song.
And my mother said,use the name Jesus in a song.
You had to use it or something like that.
We chose Highland Baptist church becauseit was a beautiful, beautiful old church,
(12:37):
and it had beautiful stained glasswindows, and it didn't
have a lot of imagery.
Of Jesus or crosses.
Or crosses.
They had one cross, and it wason a cloth covering the lectern.
And I'd asked the minister if we couldremove it, and he said it was
fine as long as we put it back.
(13:00):
And I didn't realize until I was walkingdown the aisle that no one had removed it.
And I thought, oh,like, now what we did was nothing.
But 40 years ago,it was huge to have created an interfaith
wedding ceremony like we did,without having any Jewish clergy,
(13:22):
but having all these elements.
We did not have a chutva.
Smash a cup.
We did smash a cup.
And what was so hilarious,I told your dad, I need light bulbs.
A really thin, thin wine glass set.
And he came back with,we still have the wine glasses.
I'll show you when we're finishedthese really thick wine glasses.
(13:46):
And I just looked at him and said,there's no way you can break
this by stomping on it.
So I told him, I said,we need just a light bulb.
Just get a light bulb.
That's all we need.
Wait, did you actually use a light bulb?
Yes, did actually use light bulb.
And we had a version of the katuba.
You've probably seen it,where it's kind of like we had
(14:08):
this little celebration, da da da.
And then everybodyat the wedding signed it.
Not just one or two people.
Everybody signed it.
And so it was more 70 ish.
In fact, my older brother, he'sthe one that stood there at the little.
We had a little not podium,but a little lectern type thing.
And everybody came up and signed,and he talked to everybody.
(14:28):
And then what happened is they ran outof places on the front,
so he just turned it over and startwriting the back because we were going
to frame it and hang it somewhere.
But it was like we never could figure outhow to frame it in such a way
that you had the front and the back.
And it was like, okay,so we just never did it.
I felt like we had a sweet wedding.
It was us.
It was not ostentatious.
(14:48):
It was what we could do within our budget.
And it checked off all the marksthat we needed to check off.
Now, inside the invitation,that is the invitation that Irvin Elaine
sent out to family and friends like that.
When my parents got married,a lot of my mother's family didn't come.
(15:11):
For some, it was just too far to schlep.
For others, it was the venue,a baptist church, or the fact that a
priest was marrying them and not a rabbi.
But like my mother said,no rabbi would marry them at the time.
Still, when they did get married,the family wanted to celebrate.
So my grandmother snatchedthe wedding dress.
And later that year, when my parents drovenorth for passover, she threw
(15:33):
them a surprise wedding reception.
My parents were so delightedthat I was getting married.
You know, they did nothave a lot of money.
And when my sister,my oldest sister got married, they had the
funds to give her a really nice wedding.
(15:55):
The sit down dinner at a hotelwith a rabbi, the whole business.
There were five more of us to get through,but they were happy to be there.
My youngest sister and my youngest brotherwere the only ones
of my siblings who came.
None of my aunts or uncles came.
(16:15):
And I knew it was because we were beingmarried in a church
instead of a synagogue.
I didn't think aboutthat until much later.
Somewhere along the process,during the reception or whatever, your
mother changed out of the wedding dress.
Everything's cool.
And grandma, your mother.
Grandmother tookthe wedding dress with her.
(16:35):
But she said is.
She said, let me take this.
I'll take it home, and I'll haveit cleaned and packaged for you.
Well, that's not exactly what she did.
What she did was she went and gota mannequin from her cousin's store
at a clothing store, and she put the dresson it because she had asked me, she said,
will you wear your dress for reception?
(16:58):
I said, no, because the reception is over.
And so she put the mannequin in the house,in the basement because she had
the reception at homeand put my dress on the mannequin
so everybody could see my dress.
Then somehow I'm wearinga suit, all right?
(17:18):
I have a gray suit that I bought at valuecity it was cheaper than renting anything.
All right, so I had a suit,and I got somehow talked into,
or I was told, put your suit on.
So I'm wearing my wedding suit.
There's the dress that I'm standingbeside, but my wife is not in the dress.
And that was an interestingphotos of this.
(17:41):
I don't know.
I don't think so.
I hope not.
Hope there are.
Seriously now, mind you, we took in.
A lot of gifts.
Oh, yes, a lot of gifts.
Yeah.
Everybody who didn't cometo the wedding, probably you.
(18:07):
There's an ongoing question in americanJewish life, and it's an incredibly
important part of understandingthe next phase of my family story.
The question is, what counts as small?
For starters,the american Jewish community is,
by definition, small,but no one can quite agree how small.
That's because since the 1950s,the United States census
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hasn't asked about religion.
So the Jewish community has been leftto figure out for itself just
how many Jews live in America.
The best estimate that we have comesfrom Brandeis University,
which in 2001 estimated that Jews,adults and children, make up about
2.4% of the total us population.
(18:49):
So, like I said, small.
But of course,America is a large and diverse
country with lots of places to live.
And like a lot of minority groups,american Jews tend to congregate
in a few places in the south.
Well, there are more Jewish adults livingin Chicago today than in Kentucky,
Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas,Louisiana, North Carolina,
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South Carolina, and Georgia combined.
And nationwide, nine out of ten Jews livein 20 states,
which means that the remaining 10%of the american Jewish population
is spread out across 30 states.
When I spoke with Dr.
Boxer from Brandeis,he told me about how he defines a small
(19:32):
Jewish community and about how and whysmall communities function so differently
in his personal and professionalexperience from large communities.
So, as with everything in Jewish life,this gets complicated in a hurry,
and it all really depends on how youdefine large, and it's more
of a continuum than a binary.
(19:53):
And you're referring to the other 30states as small Jewish population states.
But among them, among those 30 statesthat you mentioned are places like
Minnesota, Kentucky, and Wisconsin.
And it's true that for large parts of eachof those states, the Jewish
community is extremely sparse.
But the Twin cities is one of the largestJewish communities in the country.
(20:15):
Louisville, whose 2021 to 22 communitystudy I personally directed,
offers a lot more Jewish resourcesthan the rest of Kentucky.
And so Jewish life is very differentin Louisville than it is in a place
like Bowling Green, where you grew up.
And we're getting ready to launchthe survey from Milwaukee's
next community study.
And we don't have a population model yetthere, but they're likely
somewhere in the rest of the state.
(20:38):
There's Madison, with several thousandjews, and there are a handful
of communities with a few hundred.
And everywhere else,you're looking at a Jewish household here
and a Jewish household there,and you might be the only Jewish
family within a 50 miles radius.
And that makes for a verydifferent kind of Jewish life.
So the Twin Cities, Louisville, Milwaukee,they're very different from the states
(21:00):
they're in, even though the states they'rein are these 30 states that have
just 9% of the Jewish population.
And that's really the key.
It doesn't matter if your state issparsely Jewishly populated if you happen
to live in the one place in the statewith a big Jewish community.
And the converse is also true.
(21:22):
I grew up in New York state,which has the largest Jewish population
of any state, but the vast majorityare in the vicinity of New York City.
And I didn't live anywherenear New York City.
I grew up in Niagara Falls,where there are literally dozens of Jews
today, not the one and a halfmillion in the New York metro area.
And so where I grew up, in Niagara Falls,with its dozens of Jews,
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buffalo isn't too far away, but Buffalois a distinct and separate community.
Jewish life in a small town in ruralKentucky has a lot more in common
with Jewish life in Niagara Falls thanit does with Jewish life in Louisville.
So really, what's the big difference?
It's communal infrastructure basedon the size of the community.
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The size of the Jewish community,I should say you might not have any
infrastructure at all in a very,very small Jewish community.
There won't be a local Jewish federation.
There won't be a Jewish day school.
There will be no Jewish family services,no Jewish community center.
There might not be any synagogues at all,or maybe one or even two, but not
multiples of any given denomination.
(22:33):
And that means that you have to be morecollaborative, because you have to mean.
I remember several years ago,I got a call from a reporter who was
asking me about a situation in Des Moines,Iowa, where the local orthodox
synagogue had to sell its building.
But rather than closing the congregation,a reformed synagogue offered
them space in their building.
(22:54):
I can't imagine somethinglike that happening in Boston.
Here they'd either merge into anotherorthodox shul, or they'd borrow or
rent space from another orthodox.
Just it wouldn't be a considerationto move into a reformed
congregation's building.
But in Iowa, where you don't have otherchoices, there's nothing extraordinary
about these very divergent movementscoming together to ensure
(23:17):
that each has a home.
It's just an ordinary way for neighborsto help each other the way
you do in small communities.
(23:40):
I baptize you in the name of the Fatherand of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Let's begin praying.
Almighty God,giver of life, pray for Nathan.
Watch over him, guide him as he grows.
God, grace.
(24:04):
We pray for barkman, Willard.
Help them to love your love,to teach of your truth, to tell the story
of Jesus, that your word might be heard.
Holy God, make us strong enough to do yourwill, faithful enough to do it
joyfully for the sake of Jesus Christ.
(24:27):
Amen.
That's me at the end,punctuating my own baptism in 1985.
My parents held me up as the preacherpoured water over my head.
The second Vaughan child to be baptizedat Central Presbyterian Church
in Louisville, Kentucky.
(24:47):
In the early years of their marriage,my parents found a home at Central Prez,
one where they both felt comfortable,at least to some degree.
At the time, my mother wastrying to check all the boxes.
We went to church, but my brotheralso went to a Jewish preschool.
It seems complicated,but it didn't at the time.
It was just what we did.
(25:12):
So in this photo, it's me and the twoof you in front of a Christmas tree.
So Nathan, you're about eight.
Looks like you're about a year old.
Christmas, 1986.
I would have been exactly a year old.
We had a habit thenof celebrating everything.
We would celebrate Hanukahand we would celebrate Christmas.
(25:32):
We would celebrate,sort of celebrate easter and celebrate,
know, you just ate matzah with butter andthen went to attest synagogue, preschool.
And we celebrated all the Jewish holidays,but we also went to central
Presbyterian Church.
So we were trying to balance and doeverything because we decided that we were
(25:54):
going to be the family that could doeverything and show the world
how we could do it all.
And that was starting to peel away.
The older Benjamin got,the harder it was becoming to do both.
Central had a particular openness.
(26:15):
Well, openness and tolerance.
It wasn't even tolerance.
They had an acceptance for people.
And they also did somuch social action work.
And all of a sudden when we start to startmeeting people, there were the Sinclair
sisters, Marjorie and Gladys.
Marjorie started the social work programat the University
(26:35):
of Louisville back in 19.
Ought, right?
Gladys Guild, organist and sheknew how to play the organist.
She just was so old she couldn't anymorethen there was Professor Extram,
former president of the Universityof Louisville, former this.
And then there was the.
(26:55):
Oh, the husband and wife team.
What was their name?
George and.
Oh, George and Jean Edwards.
He was a professorat Presbyterian Seminary.
Well respected, very knowledgeable,really enjoyed him.
And they were always at the courthouse,out of Vietnam, out of here, out of,
you know, they were always protesting.
(27:17):
Right?
And then Harry and Florenceand the Grammyers were there at the time,
at the Grammyier awardsat University of Louisville.
They were there.
And just goes on and on like that.
Everybody who was in that church,I'm not going to say it was a somebody,
but they had made a marketdistinction on their life.
And so this was not a groupof Bible thumping whatever.
(27:39):
No, this was a fairly intellectual groupof people who would take all kinds
of radical ideas and theywould listen to you.
And we really enjoyed it.
So there was not the Jesus in your face,I'm going to call it.
So we fit in really, really well.
And then she got pregnant.
So the day you were born,I'd say within minutes after I got
into a room, student minister showed upwith flowers at my room wanting
(28:05):
to talk about a christening.
And I was like, what are you doing here?
I had a baby an hour ago.
I'm not going to talk about a christening.
And your mother blows them off.
And then the obstetrician came in,and he was Jewish, and he wanted
to know if we were going to do a verse.
And I'm like, and I didn't have anybodyaround that could help me pull a bris off.
(28:31):
So when the doctor asked me about a brisk.
I was just like,that's not going to happen.
So I said, well, can you just dothe circumcision and say the blessings?
And he just left.
He said, you're not the firstone to ask me to do that.
So, yeah, I can do that.
He was a great guy.
He really was.
He really was.
(28:52):
But anyway, the mainpreacher came back later.
Yeah, Ron Reinhardt came back laterand told us the whole history of why he
would like for us to thinkabout a christening.
What did he say?
It basically came down to this.
The church is so ecstaticthat for the first time in almost 50 years
or whatever, we have a baby born,and everybody thinks it's their
(29:14):
baby and it's not your kid.
And the christening wouldbe for them, not for you.
Well, we kind of said, okay,I was raised Baptist,
so I didn't really know.
Anyway, so you talk to Florence, I think,or whatever, and next thing you know,
Harry and Florence werechosen to be your mean.
(29:34):
They were so very kind.
They were.
They really were.
So at the end of the day, we were bothchristened in the presbyterian church.
Yes.
In fact, Bart Barrettlooked your brother up.
He found the record.
Yep.
Right here.
And I'm sure if he goes a few more yearslater, there, you will be in the books.
Trust me, there weren't that manypeople in the books then.
(29:56):
If you go to congregation, Micah,you both are there recorded
as having your bar mitzvahs.
So things really started falling apartfor the dual religion when we moved
to Bowling Green, because as long as wewere in Louisville,
I think we managed pretty well to playboth sides of the fence because we
had a lot of cultural support, too.
(30:19):
You were getting both piecesof your family religion.
Of course, you had your grandmother, who.
Was indoctrinating you to the max.
Every opportunity.
Every opportunity.
However, I would like to expressone final comment on the religion.
Benjamin, you and I, I had gone and pickedyou up, and I was coming home,
and we got off at the grinstead exit rightthere to kind of go up
(30:42):
to the house, right?
I'm sitting there,and you so calmly looked at me and said,
I'm Jewish, you're not.
And you're about four.
Yeah, about four.
And I kind of looked at you and said,I'm christian, you're not.
That was it.
That was the first time that my brotherposed a blunt question from the backseat
(31:02):
of a car about our family'sreligious identity.
But it wasn't the last.
Soon we'd moved to Bowling Green and leavethe local Jewish community behind.
And eventually we'd have to bridgethe divide that my brother
had so elegantly pointed out.
Next time on 72 miles,my family moves from a large community
(31:23):
to a small community where we struggleto fit in as outsiders and find a new
Jewish community to replacethe infrastructure that we'd left behind.
72 miles features the stories of threeseparate interfaith Jewish families,
two real, one not and one mine.
(31:43):
Together, they trace 150 years of Kentuckyhistory with experiences that resonate
today about being Jewish in America,about being Jewish and being southern
at the same time,and the blending of the two.
So strap in and take a ride with me upand down I 65 or back and forth
on the Ellen railroad.
(32:05):
In the end, the win and the who don't makeas much difference as you might think,
but the where sure does.
My name is Nathan Jordan Vaughan.
It's 72 miles till Kentucky.
Let's get moving.
(32:58):
Our.
I once heard the following story.
A young man was studying in Jerusalem,where he was enrolled in yeshiva,
a kind of Jewish seminary.
He was deeply devoted to studyingthe text, practiced a traditional Jewish
life, and in time was given smicha,granted the title of rabbi.
In the ancient ceremony,three of his most learned teachers laid
(00:23):
their hands upon his head and blessedhim in the traditional manner.
May God bless you and keep you.
May God deal kindly with you.
May God bestow God's favoron you and grant you peace.
It was one of the most beautiful momentsof the young man's life,
equal to the birth of his children.
Years later, one of the rabbis who blessedhim, however, made a single request,
(00:46):
that the new young rabbi neverperform an interfaith marriage.
Years passed, decades.
The old rabbi passed away, and the youngman returned home to America.
He didn't become a congregational rabbi,though that was never his goal.
Instead, the young rabbi becamea professional in his local Jewish
community, serving as the executive leaderof important institutions and impacting
(01:10):
the lives of tens of thousandsof people, Jews and non Jews.
He had children and raised them to be goodjews, then sent them out into the world.
And one of them came home from that worlddeeply in love with a nonJewish man.
And when it came time, she askedher father to officiate the wedding.
Gender is important here becausethere's a quirk in Judaism.
(01:34):
In a lot of cultures, identityis passed through your father.
In Judaism, though, your Jewish identity,or Jewish status, as they call it,
passes through the mother.
If your mother is Jewish, you're Jewish.
End of discussion.
If your mother isn't Jewish,then by Jewish law, you're not considered
Jewish, even if your father is Jewish.
(01:54):
So when the rabbi's daughter asked himto perform the marriage,
there was no easy answer.
True, she wasn't marrying a non Jew,and she herself was Jewish,
which meant that her kids would be Jewish.
Could he use that as a loopholeto perform the wedding?
Despite the promise that he made yearsbefore, the old rabbi had been deeply
concerned about the futureof the Jewish people.
(02:15):
But his daughter'schildren would be Jewish.
Was that enough for himto break his promise?
Would it be a betrayal of the trustthat the old rabbite had placed in him?
He prayed and he thought and he prayed,and he thought some more.
And with a broken heart,he kept his promise.
And while he stood proudly by her side,the rabbi in this story did not
officiate his own daughter's wedding.
(02:51):
Do you want to tell me aboutthe first time that you met my father?
I think it was at theirwedding, probably, yeah.
You were not there when we came to.
I came.
I stayed with them in theirapartment when they got married.
And I remember one thing is that I'dbrought some stuff to stick
in your mother's suitcase.
One was a bottle of champagne,because I knew it was a dry wedding,
(03:12):
and she was horrified that somebody wouldopen her suitcase, like her soon to be
mother in law, and find this bottle.
My parents met at Walnut Street BaptistChurch in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1979.
My father was attending the service,and my mother was working as
(03:32):
a sign language interpreter.
A few months later,they were married
at Highland Baptist Church,using an interfaith wedding ceremony
that they designed themselvesin the early 1980s.
This was nothing less than revolutionary.
Judaism hasn't always been friendlyto interfaith marriages
and interfaith families in general.
(03:53):
Today, four out of ten Jews in Americawho are married have a nonJewish spouse.
But under their interpretations of Jewishlaw, conservative and orthodox rabbis are
often prohibited from performinginterfaith marriages.
Today, many Reform and reconstructionistrabbis do perform interfaith marriages.
But just as many refer couples to someoneelse or insist that the couples commit
(04:15):
to raising their children Jewish,or even just flat out refuse
to perform the ceremony.
Judaism is more than just a religion.
It's more than justa culture or a heritage.
It's hard to put it into a single word.
Jewish life is an intersection or culture,heritage, religion, and family mix.
(04:35):
Which is why if you ask some people,especially young people,
how they're Jewish,they'll just shrug and say something like,
I'm just a member of the tribe.
And it's the tribal nature that makesparentage such a big deal in Judaism,
because like most tribes,the most common way to become a jew is
simply to be born a jewfrom Jewish parents.
(04:56):
But you can't always helpwho you fall in love with.
In 1979, the Central Conferenceof American Rabbis and Organization
of rabbinic leaders from the ReformedJewish movement issued what's known as
a response, an official rabbinic rulingon a specific question that matters
to people who are tryingto live a Jewish life.
(05:18):
For the Reform movement,carefully written response are often how
they push the boundaries of traditionalJewish life and create space for modern
Jews to act more freely and choose moreintentionally how to live
their Jewish life.
This particular response,though issued just the year before
my parents were marriedat Highland Baptist Church,
shows just how little space there wasfor interfaith families in american Jewish
(05:43):
life, even in the mostprogressive circles.
Question may a rabbi recite a prayerat the regular synagogue service.
For a couple contemplating intermarriage,one of the parties is Christian.
Answer, intermarriage is notnormative within Judaism.
Some deem such marriages as a sinful act,regardless of who conducts
(06:03):
them or as not being Kedushin.
All Reformed Jews discourage themto the best of their ability.
We could not then in good conscience offerpublic prayer for such a couple in advance
of the wedding as it is donefor the marriage of two Jews at a public
synagogue service,because such action would lend
public approval to such a marriage.
(06:24):
We may, however, be willing to recognizesuch a marriage, accept the Jewish partner
as a member of the congregation,and do everything possible to make
the nonJewish partner feel at easeand at home in our midst
and raise their children.
As Jews, it is our duty to continuewarning against
the contemplated intermarriage.
This is our task in this matter.
As in all other areas in which warningplays a major role,
(06:45):
Judaism disapproves of intermarriage,and we should do everything possible
to strengthen this position.
And so my parents, flat broke and totallyin love and expecting no help from either
of their faith traditions,decided to do it all themselves.
But I'll let them tell their story.
(07:11):
I spent four years in the air force.
When I came out,I went to University of Louisville,
and Granny was such that shewanted me to be in church.
Well, I could go to Walnut StreetBaptist Church and sit in the balcony.
And they were on television live.
Well, they recorded it and thenbroadcast the next week.
So they would always panthe audience during the offer.
(07:33):
Tory.
And where I was sittingwas always in the panning.
All right, so there I was,sitting there in the balcony, dutifully.
And then when all of a sudden they startedpreaching, I'd reach down,
pull up a textbook or something.
I'd start reading or studying like that.
Nothing has changed.
Nothing has changed.
So anyway, at one point,I could look down from the balcony across
(07:54):
the sanctuary, and there was this younglady over there doing deaf interpreting.
I thought, that's kind of cool.
The fingers and everything going allover the place and stuff like that.
And also I noticed she's kind of cute.
So, needless to say,there was this other guy who.
He was dating your mom,and I knew him well.
(08:14):
He introduced us and everything like that.
That was cool.
And so, know, he disappearedfor Wyoming or something like.
And so I started dating your mom,and next thing you know, I'm
in Michigan meeting the family approval.
So this was our wedding invitation.
The voice of joy, the voice of gladness.
(08:36):
The voice of the bridegroom,the voice of the bride.
And it came from Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 50.
311.
And I also used this verse on your hoofah.
And I cut the letters out from the dressthat I wore for Aunt Phyllis's wedding.
Yes, you did.
(08:57):
So we went through a very long processdeciding how and where and when
we were going to get married.
In my family, there were six kids.
I was the last to get married.
Therefore, when I said I was going to getmarried, and she's a nice Jewish girl
from Detroit, mind you, we're in Kentucky.
(09:20):
Nice southern Baptist family, bringinga nice Jewish girl from Detroit a know.
It's like, okay.
So when all of a sudden,we started talking wedding and stuff,
then something was said to my mother.
She's like, okay.
She was very easy going.
Just make it happen.
We decided to get married in March,because this Sunday in particular was
(09:40):
the beginning of Universityof Louisville's spring break,
and we didn't really want to waituntil summer, so we decided
to do it on spring break.
We had a very 70s wedding.
We had approached both sets of parentsabout just going to have a quiet civil
ceremony in January and living together.
(10:05):
They both had a fit.
Yes.
And therefore, we just moved in together.
So we were like, okay.
We just didn't tell them.
Right, you made your wedding dress.
Yes, Jan and I made my wedding dress.
Right.
So your mother and I were living together.
She was sewing lace on the bottomof the dress and everything like that.
(10:26):
And we had little three by five indexcards, and we were practicing our vows,
writing them, and practicing and kind ofediting and trying to get everybody happy.
And so we had a pretty interestingdiscussion, and we finally got it down to
where we were good with what was going on.
We tried to figure out how we could doa combination of a Jewish and a christian
(10:49):
wedding by being sensitiveto both traditions.
At that time, there wasn't the willingnessof clergy to embrace both traditions.
There wasn't a rabbi who was interestedin even talking to us about participating.
First of all, it was just, well,you have to convert before we'll do this,
(11:11):
or at least be partway throughthe conversion process.
We probably could have found somebodywho would do the ceremony,
but we knew that a strictly Jewish ora strictly christian service would not
fly with either side of the family.
I had a very dear friend in Danville,Kentucky, who had been a surrogate father
(11:33):
to me throughout college, and I reallywanted him to officiate at my wedding.
Jim Daniel,who was the pastor of the church
of the Covenant, more or less expectedto be the one who would officiate.
So we decided we'd have both of them.
And we had a friend who was a psychiatristwho was Jewish, and so we asked him if he
(11:56):
would do the Jewish blessings,which he was happy to do.
So we put this conglomeration together.
We asked Linda Oto if she would sing.
We pulled a song out of the hymnal,the Baptist hymnal that we thought
didn't have any reference to Jesus.
It was just a nice song, which.
(12:16):
Was the only thing bothmothers commented on.
Granny said, you only used the nameJesus once, and that was in a song.
And my mother said,use the name Jesus in a song.
You had to use it or something like that.
We chose Highland Baptist church becauseit was a beautiful, beautiful old church,
(12:37):
and it had beautiful stained glasswindows, and it didn't
have a lot of imagery.
Of Jesus or crosses.
Or crosses.
They had one cross, and it wason a cloth covering the lectern.
And I'd asked the minister if we couldremove it, and he said it was
fine as long as we put it back.
(13:00):
And I didn't realize until I was walkingdown the aisle that no one had removed it.
And I thought, oh,like, now what we did was nothing.
But 40 years ago,it was huge to have created an interfaith
wedding ceremony like we did,without having any Jewish clergy,
(13:22):
but having all these elements.
We did not have a chutva.
Smash a cup.
We did smash a cup.
And what was so hilarious,I told your dad, I need light bulbs.
A really thin, thin wine glass set.
And he came back with,we still have the wine glasses.
I'll show you when we're finishedthese really thick wine glasses.
(13:46):
And I just looked at him and said,there's no way you can break
this by stomping on it.
So I told him, I said,we need just a light bulb.
Just get a light bulb.
That's all we need.
Wait, did you actually use a light bulb?
Yes, did actually use light bulb.
And we had a version of the katuba.
You've probably seen it,where it's kind of like we had
(14:08):
this little celebration, da da da.
And then everybodyat the wedding signed it.
Not just one or two people.
Everybody signed it.
And so it was more 70 ish.
In fact, my older brother, he'sthe one that stood there at the little.
We had a little not podium,but a little lectern type thing.
And everybody came up and signed,and he talked to everybody.
(14:28):
And then what happened is they ran outof places on the front,
so he just turned it over and startwriting the back because we were going
to frame it and hang it somewhere.
But it was like we never could figure outhow to frame it in such a way
that you had the front and the back.
And it was like, okay,so we just never did it.
I felt like we had a sweet wedding.
It was us.
It was not ostentatious.
(14:48):
It was what we could do within our budget.
And it checked off all the marksthat we needed to check off.
Now, inside the invitation,that is the invitation that Irvin Elaine
sent out to family and friends like that.
When my parents got married,a lot of my mother's family didn't come.
(15:11):
For some, it was just too far to schlep.
For others, it was the venue,a baptist church, or the fact that a
priest was marrying them and not a rabbi.
But like my mother said,no rabbi would marry them at the time.
Still, when they did get married,the family wanted to celebrate.
So my grandmother snatchedthe wedding dress.
And later that year, when my parents drovenorth for passover, she threw
(15:33):
them a surprise wedding reception.
My parents were so delightedthat I was getting married.
You know, they did nothave a lot of money.
And when my sister,my oldest sister got married, they had the
funds to give her a really nice wedding.
(15:55):
The sit down dinner at a hotelwith a rabbi, the whole business.
There were five more of us to get through,but they were happy to be there.
My youngest sister and my youngest brotherwere the only ones
of my siblings who came.
None of my aunts or uncles came.
(16:15):
And I knew it was because we were beingmarried in a church
instead of a synagogue.
I didn't think aboutthat until much later.
Somewhere along the process,during the reception or whatever, your
mother changed out of the wedding dress.
Everything's cool.
And grandma, your mother.
Grandmother tookthe wedding dress with her.
(16:35):
But she said is.
She said, let me take this.
I'll take it home, and I'll haveit cleaned and packaged for you.
Well, that's not exactly what she did.
What she did was she went and gota mannequin from her cousin's store
at a clothing store, and she put the dresson it because she had asked me, she said,
will you wear your dress for reception?
(16:58):
I said, no, because the reception is over.
And so she put the mannequin in the house,in the basement because she had
the reception at homeand put my dress on the mannequin
so everybody could see my dress.
Then somehow I'm wearinga suit, all right?
(17:18):
I have a gray suit that I bought at valuecity it was cheaper than renting anything.
All right, so I had a suit,and I got somehow talked into,
or I was told, put your suit on.
So I'm wearing my wedding suit.
There's the dress that I'm standingbeside, but my wife is not in the dress.
And that was an interestingphotos of this.
(17:41):
I don't know.
I don't think so.
I hope not.
Hope there are.
Seriously now, mind you, we took in.
A lot of gifts.
Oh, yes, a lot of gifts.
Yeah.
Everybody who didn't cometo the wedding, probably you.
(18:07):
There's an ongoing question in americanJewish life, and it's an incredibly
important part of understandingthe next phase of my family story.
The question is, what counts as small?
For starters,the american Jewish community is,
by definition, small,but no one can quite agree how small.
That's because since the 1950s,the United States census
(18:28):
hasn't asked about religion.
So the Jewish community has been leftto figure out for itself just
how many Jews live in America.
The best estimate that we have comesfrom Brandeis University,
which in 2001 estimated that Jews,adults and children, make up about
2.4% of the total us population.
(18:49):
So, like I said, small.
But of course,America is a large and diverse
country with lots of places to live.
And like a lot of minority groups,american Jews tend to congregate
in a few places in the south.
Well, there are more Jewish adults livingin Chicago today than in Kentucky,
Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas,Louisiana, North Carolina,
(19:12):
South Carolina, and Georgia combined.
And nationwide, nine out of ten Jews livein 20 states,
which means that the remaining 10%of the american Jewish population
is spread out across 30 states.
When I spoke with Dr.
Boxer from Brandeis,he told me about how he defines a small
(19:32):
Jewish community and about how and whysmall communities function so differently
in his personal and professionalexperience from large communities.
So, as with everything in Jewish life,this gets complicated in a hurry,
and it all really depends on how youdefine large, and it's more
of a continuum than a binary.
(19:53):
And you're referring to the other 30states as small Jewish population states.
But among them, among those 30 statesthat you mentioned are places like
Minnesota, Kentucky, and Wisconsin.
And it's true that for large parts of eachof those states, the Jewish
community is extremely sparse.
But the Twin cities is one of the largestJewish communities in the country.
(20:15):
Louisville, whose 2021 to 22 communitystudy I personally directed,
offers a lot more Jewish resourcesthan the rest of Kentucky.
And so Jewish life is very differentin Louisville than it is in a place
like Bowling Green, where you grew up.
And we're getting ready to launchthe survey from Milwaukee's
next community study.
And we don't have a population model yetthere, but they're likely
somewhere in the rest of the state.
(20:38):
There's Madison, with several thousandjews, and there are a handful
of communities with a few hundred.
And everywhere else,you're looking at a Jewish household here
and a Jewish household there,and you might be the only Jewish
family within a 50 miles radius.
And that makes for a verydifferent kind of Jewish life.
So the Twin Cities, Louisville, Milwaukee,they're very different from the states
(21:00):
they're in, even though the states they'rein are these 30 states that have
just 9% of the Jewish population.
And that's really the key.
It doesn't matter if your state issparsely Jewishly populated if you happen
to live in the one place in the statewith a big Jewish community.
And the converse is also true.
(21:22):
I grew up in New York state,which has the largest Jewish population
of any state, but the vast majorityare in the vicinity of New York City.
And I didn't live anywherenear New York City.
I grew up in Niagara Falls,where there are literally dozens of Jews
today, not the one and a halfmillion in the New York metro area.
And so where I grew up, in Niagara Falls,with its dozens of Jews,
(21:45):
buffalo isn't too far away, but Buffalois a distinct and separate community.
Jewish life in a small town in ruralKentucky has a lot more in common
with Jewish life in Niagara Falls thanit does with Jewish life in Louisville.
So really, what's the big difference?
It's communal infrastructure basedon the size of the community.
(22:09):
The size of the Jewish community,I should say you might not have any
infrastructure at all in a very,very small Jewish community.
There won't be a local Jewish federation.
There won't be a Jewish day school.
There will be no Jewish family services,no Jewish community center.
There might not be any synagogues at all,or maybe one or even two, but not
multiples of any given denomination.
(22:33):
And that means that you have to be morecollaborative, because you have to mean.
I remember several years ago,I got a call from a reporter who was
asking me about a situation in Des Moines,Iowa, where the local orthodox
synagogue had to sell its building.
But rather than closing the congregation,a reformed synagogue offered
them space in their building.
(22:54):
I can't imagine somethinglike that happening in Boston.
Here they'd either merge into anotherorthodox shul, or they'd borrow or
rent space from another orthodox.
Just it wouldn't be a considerationto move into a reformed
congregation's building.
But in Iowa, where you don't have otherchoices, there's nothing extraordinary
about these very divergent movementscoming together to ensure
(23:17):
that each has a home.
It's just an ordinary way for neighborsto help each other the way
you do in small communities.
(23:40):
I baptize you in the name of the Fatherand of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Let's begin praying.
Almighty God,giver of life, pray for Nathan.
Watch over him, guide him as he grows.
God, grace.
(24:04):
We pray for barkman, Willard.
Help them to love your love,to teach of your truth, to tell the story
of Jesus, that your word might be heard.
Holy God, make us strong enough to do yourwill, faithful enough to do it
joyfully for the sake of Jesus Christ.
(24:27):
Amen.
That's me at the end,punctuating my own baptism in 1985.
My parents held me up as the preacherpoured water over my head.
The second Vaughan child to be baptizedat Central Presbyterian Church
in Louisville, Kentucky.
(24:47):
In the early years of their marriage,my parents found a home at Central Prez,
one where they both felt comfortable,at least to some degree.
At the time, my mother wastrying to check all the boxes.
We went to church, but my brotheralso went to a Jewish preschool.
It seems complicated,but it didn't at the time.
It was just what we did.
(25:12):
So in this photo, it's me and the twoof you in front of a Christmas tree.
So Nathan, you're about eight.
Looks like you're about a year old.
Christmas, 1986.
I would have been exactly a year old.
We had a habit thenof celebrating everything.
We would celebrate Hanukahand we would celebrate Christmas.
(25:32):
We would celebrate,sort of celebrate easter and celebrate,
know, you just ate matzah with butter andthen went to attest synagogue, preschool.
And we celebrated all the Jewish holidays,but we also went to central
Presbyterian Church.
So we were trying to balance and doeverything because we decided that we were
(25:54):
going to be the family that could doeverything and show the world
how we could do it all.
And that was starting to peel away.
The older Benjamin got,the harder it was becoming to do both.
Central had a particular openness.
(26:15):
Well, openness and tolerance.
It wasn't even tolerance.
They had an acceptance for people.
And they also did somuch social action work.
And all of a sudden when we start to startmeeting people, there were the Sinclair
sisters, Marjorie and Gladys.
Marjorie started the social work programat the University
(26:35):
of Louisville back in 19.
Ought, right?
Gladys Guild, organist and sheknew how to play the organist.
She just was so old she couldn't anymorethen there was Professor Extram,
former president of the Universityof Louisville, former this.
And then there was the.
(26:55):
Oh, the husband and wife team.
What was their name?
George and.
Oh, George and Jean Edwards.
He was a professorat Presbyterian Seminary.
Well respected, very knowledgeable,really enjoyed him.
And they were always at the courthouse,out of Vietnam, out of here, out of,
you know, they were always protesting.
(27:17):
Right?
And then Harry and Florenceand the Grammyers were there at the time,
at the Grammyier awardsat University of Louisville.
They were there.
And just goes on and on like that.
Everybody who was in that church,I'm not going to say it was a somebody,
but they had made a marketdistinction on their life.
And so this was not a groupof Bible thumping whatever.
(27:39):
No, this was a fairly intellectual groupof people who would take all kinds
of radical ideas and theywould listen to you.
And we really enjoyed it.
So there was not the Jesus in your face,I'm going to call it.
So we fit in really, really well.
And then she got pregnant.
So the day you were born,I'd say within minutes after I got
into a room, student minister showed upwith flowers at my room wanting
(28:05):
to talk about a christening.
And I was like, what are you doing here?
I had a baby an hour ago.
I'm not going to talk about a christening.
And your mother blows them off.
And then the obstetrician came in,and he was Jewish, and he wanted
to know if we were going to do a verse.
And I'm like, and I didn't have anybodyaround that could help me pull a bris off.
(28:31):
So when the doctor asked me about a brisk.
I was just like,that's not going to happen.
So I said, well, can you just dothe circumcision and say the blessings?
And he just left.
He said, you're not the firstone to ask me to do that.
So, yeah, I can do that.
He was a great guy.
He really was.
He really was.
(28:52):
But anyway, the mainpreacher came back later.
Yeah, Ron Reinhardt came back laterand told us the whole history of why he
would like for us to thinkabout a christening.
What did he say?
It basically came down to this.
The church is so ecstaticthat for the first time in almost 50 years
or whatever, we have a baby born,and everybody thinks it's their
(29:14):
baby and it's not your kid.
And the christening wouldbe for them, not for you.
Well, we kind of said, okay,I was raised Baptist,
so I didn't really know.
Anyway, so you talk to Florence, I think,or whatever, and next thing you know,
Harry and Florence werechosen to be your mean.
(29:34):
They were so very kind.
They were.
They really were.
So at the end of the day, we were bothchristened in the presbyterian church.
Yes.
In fact, Bart Barrettlooked your brother up.
He found the record.
Yep.
Right here.
And I'm sure if he goes a few more yearslater, there, you will be in the books.
Trust me, there weren't that manypeople in the books then.
(29:56):
If you go to congregation, Micah,you both are there recorded
as having your bar mitzvahs.
So things really started falling apartfor the dual religion when we moved
to Bowling Green, because as long as wewere in Louisville,
I think we managed pretty well to playboth sides of the fence because we
had a lot of cultural support, too.
(30:19):
You were getting both piecesof your family religion.
Of course, you had your grandmother, who.
Was indoctrinating you to the max.
Every opportunity.
Every opportunity.
However, I would like to expressone final comment on the religion.
Benjamin, you and I, I had gone and pickedyou up, and I was coming home,
and we got off at the grinstead exit rightthere to kind of go up
(30:42):
to the house, right?
I'm sitting there,and you so calmly looked at me and said,
I'm Jewish, you're not.
And you're about four.
Yeah, about four.
And I kind of looked at you and said,I'm christian, you're not.
That was it.
That was the first time that my brotherposed a blunt question from the backseat
(31:02):
of a car about our family'sreligious identity.
But it wasn't the last.
Soon we'd moved to Bowling Green and leavethe local Jewish community behind.
And eventually we'd have to bridgethe divide that my brother
had so elegantly pointed out.
Next time on 72 miles,my family moves from a large community
(31:23):
to a small community where we struggleto fit in as outsiders and find a new
Jewish community to replacethe infrastructure that we'd left behind.
72 miles features the stories of threeseparate interfaith Jewish families,
two real, one not and one mine.
(31:43):
Together, they trace 150 years of Kentuckyhistory with experiences that resonate
today about being Jewish in America,about being Jewish and being southern
at the same time,and the blending of the two.
So strap in and take a ride with me upand down I 65 or back and forth
on the Ellen railroad.
(32:05):
In the end, the win and the who don't makeas much difference as you might think,
but the where sure does.
My name is Nathan Jordan Vaughan.
It's 72 miles till Kentucky.
Let's get moving.
(32:58):
Our.
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