Riverlands Jewish Archive

04/21/2026

This past weekend our JHF Professor Dr. Riggio Quevillon and his graduate student Logan Nicoulin (pictured) traveled up to the Indianapolis JCC to help the Indiana Jewish Historical Society scan and digitize materials from their offices! 📄🤎

All told, they collected over 5,000 items from across the state of Indiana, which will soon be added to the Riverlands Jewish Archive! ✨
Riverlands Jewish Archive Indiana Jewish Historical Society

04/20/2026

Did you know that the PlayStation 2 can be utilized as a digitization device? Spending the night pulling 6+ hours of oral history interviews off of dvds using the only thing in my house that still plays dvds. I wonder if my department chair will let me retroactively expense the cost my dad paid for this in 2002 as an archival cost...

04/06/2026

03/31/2026

We made the WKU newspaper! Caroline did a wonderful job with the article and the photos are top notch!

Food, photos and lighthearted chatter filled the air in the Honors College and International Center multipurpose room Friday as attendees gathered for “Cooking up Community: Jewish Cookbooks is the South.” The WKU History department hosted its annual student showcase and guest speaker presentati...

03/30/2026

Were you not able to make it to the archive dinner? No worries, we have the video of Jesse Kellar's talk on Friday on our YouTube channel! Follow the link here:

https://youtu.be/sr_6hRM2-nM

(yes, I know the audio isn't the best, I'm still learning my videography skills 😳)

03/29/2026

03/27/2026

Big Red seems floored by the wonderful work our students did on the Karp & Abrahamson exhibits at our archive dinner!! Which Big Red should be, they did great work!!!

03/27/2026

****LOCATION CHANGE: NOW at Mahurin Honors College!
📚🍽️ Join us TONIGHT for this year’s Archive Dinner & Exhibition on Friday, March 27th for an evening that brings history, food, and community together.

Enjoy a catered dinner by Wes from The Jewish Cowboy (yes—it’s as exciting as it sounds!) followed by a talk from Jesse Plichta-Kellar (Auburn University) exploring how Southern Jewish cookbooks shape community and identity. 👨‍🍳🌟

✨ Plus, explore special exhibitions featuring:
- Our growing community cookbook collection (now over 40!)
- Newly donated archival materials
- Restored and digitized glass slides

This event is open to the public, so invite friends, family, and anyone who loves history, food, or archives. We can’t wait to see you there! 💚

03/23/2026

Today's post is a real treat, but also a teaser for an amazing upcoming project. This past week in Little Rock we began digitizing one of their many vinyl recordings of Rabbi Ira Sanders (who served from 1926-1963). These recordings exist on 16" vinyl records and were recorded from his weekly radio show. Given the outdated format they are recorded on (and the fact that a 16" turntable has not been produced since the early 1960s), these recordings have not been heard in generations. We are fortunate enough to have the capability of digitizing them and ensuring Rabbi Sanders' brilliant legacy can live on for future generations:

This is a preview of the extensive audio we are digitizing of Rabbi Ira Sanders, the leader of Congregation B'nai Israel from 1926 to 1963. Recovered from 1...

03/20/2026

The health & wellness tourism that flocked to Hot Springs, Arkansas directly led to the creation of the Leo N. Levi Hospital at the beginning of the 20th century. Rabbi Frank Rosenthal recognized the need for a public hospital to serve the many poor Jews who came to Hot Springs for medical treatment. The cause gained the support of regional chapters and the national B’nai B’rith in 1900. It would be 10 years later that the Leo N. Levi Memorial Hospital Association took shape and began to raise money for a Jewish hospital. An act of congress provided a portion of the hospital’s land, as well as the right to use the thermal waters. The hospital opened in 1914 as a state-of-the-art facility with an initial capacity of 60 beds. Leo N. Levi Memorial Hospital was the first national Jewish hospital specializing in rheumatism and blood diseases. Although it was funded by B’nai B’rith and had a kosher kitchen, it accepted patients of all backgrounds and a majority of its patients over the years have not been Jewish.

03/19/2026

Congregation B'nai Israel has long attracted a membership around the state, and their cemetery is of particular interest to Jews in smaller towns who may not have access to consecrated space nearby. Thus, many Jews from rural Arkansas relied on B'nai Israel for their end-of-life needs. One of these men was Adolph Goldsmith, who bought and sold farmland across southwestern Arkansas. Despite owning a plot in Little Rock during the 1930s, he ultimately was buried in the "Hebrew Section" of State Line Cemetery in Texarkana after his death in 1942.