ZEB VANCE STANDS IN FRONT OF THE CAPITOL
A massive monument and statue of Zebulon Baird Vance, the governor who championed the Jewish people, greets visitors to the North Carolina state capitol in the center of downtown Raleigh.
JUDAIC ART COLLECTION OF THE NORTH CAROLINA MUSEUM OF ART
The NC state art museum has assembled an array of historic and contemporary pulpit, life cycle and holiday objects funded by Carolina Jewish and non-Jewish families, businesses and institutions. Free admission. Wednesday-Saturday 9-5, Sunday 10-5, closed Monday and Tuesday. 2110 Blue Ridge Road, Raleigh.
Strangely the Raleigh Jewish community came to life because of a family that had abandoned its faith.
In 1869 the tiny Raleigh Jewish population approached George Washington Mordecai to buy land in Oakwood Cemetery, hoping he would not forget his heritage. For $218.75 they obtained a 35 by 125 foot plot to bury their dead.
A century earlier Moses Mordecai had moved to the Colonies from Germany in 1760, one of the first 300 Jews in America. His son Jacob was a leading American Jewish scholar living in Warrenton, NC. Jacob's oldest son, another Moses, married the granddaughter of the founder of Raleigh. From then on the family were active Episcopalians.
Today Mordecai Plantation includes the 1785 family mansion, President Andrew Johnson's 1797 birthplace and other historic buildings. From the NC capitol building in Raleigh drive north on Person street which becomes Wake Forest Road. Turn left oin Mimosa street. Open Tuesday-Saturday 10-4. Adults $6, children $4.
When Terry Sanford became its president, Duke University wiped out its Jewish admissions quota and its Jewish enrollment increased from a handful to one-third of the student body. Sanford is buried in Duke Chapel. Duke hosts a chair in Jewish studies and maintains Jewish archives. East and west campuses are both near Main Street, US business route 70, in downtown Durham.
$80 million from Leon Levine and the late Doris Duke went into these 520,000 square feet of laboratories, classrooms, conference rooms, the 300-seat Love Family Auditorium and the dining commons. The center houses the Nicholas School of Environment, the Medical Center Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, the Developmental, Cell and Molecular Biology group of the Trinity College department of botany and zoology and other new facilities that keep Duke University in the forefront of science in the South.
Insurance magnate Maurice Sabbath is personally pouring $100 million into the new American Hebrew Academy at its 100-acre Greensboro campus. He explains, "I'm teaching the future leaders of the Jewish community across the United States and elsewhere." Construction continues on the school which opened in 2000 for an eventual enrollment of 800 students. Architect is Aaron Green, protege of Frank Lloyd Wright. Recruitment will intensify in North and South America. Seventy students are now enrolled in grades 9-11 taught by faculty drawn from Greensboro's top high schools, the U.S. and Israel. Students pray with their own choice of Reform, Conservative or Orthodox prayer books. At the junction of Hobbs and Jefferson roads.
The world's largest maker of denim textiles for blue jeans is Cone Mills, founded in 1891 by Moses and Ceasar (sic) Cone in New York. They invested in three mills in Greensboro and soon controlled a large share of the Southem cotton industry. At their peak they employed 6,016 in the Carolinas making denim for all the famous jeans brands. During World War II Herman Cone leased 512 acres in Greensboro to the U.S. that became the Overseas Replacement Depot with 30,000 soldiers, many of whom settled here. Visit the stunning new Cone Mills world headquarters at 3101 North Elm street in Greensboro.
The Moses Cone Health System has built a world reputation in oncology, cardiology, neuroscience, trauma, primary angioplasty and women's care. Its cluster of three hospitals at 1200 Elm street in Greensboro contains 986 beds. A gift from Bertha Cone to honor her husband.
The new 64,000-square-foot Blumenthal Jewish Nursing and Rehabilitation Center is the pride of Greensboro-region professionals and families. The 154-bed facility offers 134 nursing beds and 20 assisted living accommodations. Situated on its seven-acre site at 3724 Wireless Drive, it continues the dream of Dick Blumenthal who founded the original facility.
A synagogue in the front serves 50 persons. The kitchen is kosher.
Sally and Max ”Mack” Sands lived in this Greensboro home while their only son Marvin attended UNC Chapel Hill. After WWII Marvin founded Canandaigua Industries to sell bulk wine to bottlers in the East. To meet demand for table wines, he bought two NC scuppernong wineries in Onslow County and Manteo, NC, and added Tenner Brothers operations in Patrick, SC, in 1965. One thing led to another. Today big-board Constellation Brands is the world’s largest wine company doing $3.5 billion a year worldwide out of Fairport, NY. Son Richard Sands runs the show. Their wine, whisky and water brands include Manischewitz. 3300 Starmount Drive, corner Beverly Place.
Abe Blumenthal opened his working class ready-to-wear store at 358 South Elm Street in Greensboro in 1926. It's still there, thank you, with son Bob running it. They did well, building a home on their 48-acre spread south of the city. They named it Piney Lake and donated it all to UNC Greensboro. Now it's UNCG Piney Lake Summer Camp where K-5 youngsters study outdoor environment. At 4016 Blumenthal Road that runs from Pleasant Garden Road to US 421.