For nearly a decade now, news outlets ranging from The Atlantic to the Forward and The Free Press have reported on the increasing number of Jewish students attending college in the South.

This shift is not unique to American Jews. The five states with the fastest-growing number of applicants are all in the South or Southwest. Most American students attend schools in their own state, but Southern institutions have also seen a surge of out-of-state applications, especially from the Northeast.

Although the uptick began before Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack and the Israel-Hamas war, observers have argued that campus politics now plays a role – particularly for Jewish students, some of whom are avoiding campuses with reputations as hotbeds of activism.

Many Americans seem surprised by the idea of Jewish students drifting south. I direct the Pearlstine/Lipov Center for Southern Jewish Culture at the College of Charleston and am co-authoring a book about the city’s history of East European Jewish migration. If I had a nickel for every time someone responded to my professional title with shock – “There’s Jews in the South!?!” – I could buy a Charleston-priced cappuccino with the proceeds.

Jews have called the South home for centuries. Yet many people struggle to reconcile popular images of the Christian Bible Belt and white supremacist violence with their understanding of who American Jews are and under what conditions they are most likely to thrive.

I like to let the numbers speak for themselves. By the 1820s, approximately 800 Jews resided in Charleston, compared to 550 or so in New York City at the time.

Later on, when Charleston’s economy was in decline, Jews increasingly tried their luck in cities such as New........

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