H eadlines
Birmingham: A Captivating Southern Crossroads
T RAV EL
JEFF AND VIRGINIA ORENSTEIN |
JE FEATURE
Note: We recommend that
travelers should continue
to follow current Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention
guidelines and check with
each mode of transportation
and specific venue of interest
for current information before
traveling. Check birminghamal.

org/travel-update/. BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA
is an intriguing microcosm of
the contemporary American
South. A city of many facets, it
is a wonderful place for
travelers to explore in depth.

With a regional popula-
tion of 1.15 million, it is the
49th-most populous urban
area in the United States. It
possesses an extraordinarily
interesting combination of
modern commerce, museums,
candid recognition of its
checkered history and a
commodious contempo-
rary evolution of traditional
southern hospitality.

From the post-Civil War
Reconstruction era until the
middle of the 20th century,
Birmingham was the indus-
trial hub of the South. When
its steel industry declined,
Birmingham was forced to
modernize. Today, its economy
is a locus for rail commerce,
health care, banking, primary
and fabricated metals manufac-
turing, tourism, distribution,
financial services and emerging
high-tech, enhanced by the
influence of the University of
Alabama at Birmingham.

Birmingham does not
ignore its history. It honors
its industrial history with the
restored Sloss Furnace histor-
ical site and statuary at Vulcan
Park. But the most prominent
part of Birmingham’s histor-
ical consciousness is its honest
recognition of its checkered
history of segregation, racism
and attempted suppression
of the civil rights movement.

Far from ignoring its past of
Ku Klux Klan bombings, the
brutality of Safety Director
Bull Connor against civil rights
marchers and the racial strife
of the 1960s, Birmingham
has memorialized them with
a beautiful Birmingham Civil
Rights Institute museum and
an impressive interpretive
park in what is now known as
the civil rights district, now a
national park.

Southern hospitality is
also alive in 21st-century
Birmingham. The city offers
The Sloss Furnace National Historical Landmark is a restored blast
furnace and steel-making facility showing a typical Birmingham industrial
complex at the height of the steelmaking era of the previous century.

Courtesy of the Greater Birmingham Convention and Visitors Bureau
14 AUGUST 26, 2021
interesting museums, commo-
dious lodging with beautiful
boutique hotels and contempo-
rary lodging palaces and a lively
culinary scene. It lives up to its
billing of itself as the “dinner
table of the South.” The town
abounds with great restaurants
up and down the price and
food choice spectrum.

Before You Go:
• birminghamal.org/
• theculturetrip.com/north-
america/usa/alabama/ articles/the-top-10-things-
to-do-and-see-in-birming- ham-alabama/
• planetware.com/
tourist-attractions-/ birmingham-us-al-b.htm
• suburbanturmoil.com/
things-to-do-in-birming- ham-alabama/2021/04/30/
Tour guide and historian Barry McNealy in front of an impressive sculpture
in the Birmingham National Civil Rights District
Photo by Jeff Orenstein
Getting There:
Birmingham can be easily
reached by highway, air or train.

• By car, Birmingham is at
the junction of Interstate 20,
Interstate 65 and Interstate
59. Railroad Park is a popular venue for concerts, hikes, picnics and train-
• By air, the nearest airport is watching in the heart of Birmingham’s downtown.
Photo by Fred Tucker
Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International
Airport (BHM), 6.9 miles away.

Highlands Bar and Grill This Destination at a Glance:
Over 50 Advantage: Great
• By train, the Amtrak
or other award-winning
food, an easy pace and history
station is centrally located
restaurants less than a half-mile from • A visit to Railroad Park, a galore
Mobility Level: Moderate.

downtown’s Railroad Park.

delightful urban oasis
There are some hills and
• Mobile is the nearest cruise
steps. port, normally served by If You Have Several Days:
When to Go: The shoulder
Carnival, 257 miles away. • Vulcan Park and Museum
Check with Carnival dates • Barber Vintage Motorsports seasons of spring and fall are
best. Summers are hot and
for resumption of cruises
Museum from Mobile.

• The Birmingham Botanical humid, and winters, though
generally mild, can be cold.

Gardens Where to Stay: The
Must-Sees for a Short Trip:
• Birmingham Museum of
downtown Tutwiler Hotel is
• The Civil Rights District,
Art both elegant and convenient.

Kelly Ingram Park and the • Rufner Mountain
Many other national chain
adjacent Birmingham Civil
Rights Institute
Ginny O’s Tips for Dressing: hotels in several price ranges
• The Sloss Furnace National As a business center, dress is are in the vicinity.

Special Travel Interests:
Historical Landmark
not overly casual during the
• The 16th Street Baptist day. People dress for dinner at Civil rights and industrial
Church and the historic upscale restaurants, although history l
Bethel Baptist Church
a coat and tie is not necessary.

• A gourmet meal at the Tourists should think neat Jeffrey and Virginia Orenstein are
Hot and Hot Fish Club, resort casual wear.

travel writers from Sarasota, Florida.

JEWISH EXPONENT
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



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The historic Bethel Baptist Church, bombed
three times during the civil rights struggle in 1960s
Birmingham and still standing, was the headquarters
of fi ery preacher and civil rights leader Rev. Fred
Shuttlesworth. Photo by Jeff Orenstein
This sculpture in Kelly Ingram Park depicts the
brutality of Bull Connor’s police against civil rights
marchers, including children.

Photo by Jeff Orenstein
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Jewish Birmingham
The statue of Vulcan, Roman god of fi re overlooks Birmingham at
Vulcan Park.

Photo by Art Meripol
This sculpture in Kelly Ingram Park in the Birmingham Civil Rights
District memorializes the four young girls killed when the 16th Street
Baptist Church was bombed in 1963.

Photo by Jeff Orenstein
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM BIRMINGHAM HAS THE LARGEST Jewish community in Alabama. About 6,300 of
the approximately 10,000 Jews who call Alabama home reside in Birmingham, according to
jewishdatabank.org. Most live on the city’s south side and are reasonably well-integrated into
the city’s civic and business life.

When the city was established in the 1870s, Jews were among its fi rst settlers. However
Jewish communal life did not begin to develop in earnest until 1882, when Birmingham had
a total population of about 3,100. Jewish merchants started most of Birmingham’s department
stores, and Jews entered many other phases of civic life. In the fi nancial panic of 1893, the
Steiner brothers of Steiner Bank kept the city from going bankrupt.

In the 1920s, antisemitism fl ourished in the region, and the Ku Klux Klan presence in
Birmingham grew to more than 20,000 members. Th e Klan’s anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic
rhetoric, as well as its violent tactics, caused alarm among members of all three congregations.

A bomb with enough dynamite to level a city block was discovered outside Temple Beth-El
in 1958. It had malfunctioned just short of detonation. White supremacists also threatened
numerous local Jews who spoke out on behalf of civil rights, and much anti-racial integration
literature and sentiment was overtly antisemitic. Th ough they had a lot to fear, many local
Jews worked behind the scenes to end racial strife and change the city’s form of government
in the 1960s.

Despite its small size, the Birmingham Jewish community maintains fi ve congregations
and supports several Jewish institutions, including a Jewish Federation, a Jewish Foundation,
the Levite JCC, the N.E. Miles Jewish Day School and a Jewish Family Services organization.

Th e Deep South Jewish Voice newspaper started publication in 1990 and is now Southern
Jewish Life Magazine.

Th e three historic congregations (Reform Temple Emanu-El and Orthodox congregations
Knesseth Israel and Temple Beth-El) continue to prosper, and they have now been joined by
a Chabad Center in Mountain Brook and the Or Hadash Humanistic Judaism Congregation,
which meets in members’ homes. ●
— Jeff and Virginia Orenstein
JEWISH EXPONENT
AUGUST 26, 2021
15