Lafayette -- tolerance?

[Diggit]

Originally Posted by truebluexf

Just wondering what the religious tolerance is like in the area. I'm Jewish, my husband is Christian...there's no crazy KKK action in the area, is there?

GEEZE, NO!!

You want KKK check Vidor TX. LOL!!! If you and your husband are able to tolerate each other, then you will certainly be tolerated in Lafayette!!!

[Wandering_Celt]

South Louisiana is wonderfuly tolerant of almost everyone. Its North Louisiana you have to worry about. Here in the Shreveport/Bossier city area its not so nice. I mean its not KKK kind of stuff but its still bad here. I have many Jewish, Muslim, and Wiccan friends here in Shreveport, and each of them along with myself could relate sad stories about the people here. It seems the first question out of most peoples mouths are "So what church do you go to" and when you tell them your not christian most of the time they respond "oh your a satanist". Their ignorance would really be funny if it didn't scare the heck out of our son.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by DeLaSalle

You mean those "Crazy Cajuns"...Acadiennes...

Lafayette is beatiful AND historic...
99% Catholic, We Accept all...

I guess I would fit in just find. I'm Catholic too.

[bmp_Lafayette]

There is a very small Jewish community in Lafayette and a synagogue. Some of our prominant citizens Herbert Heymann (the performing arts center is named after him), Henri Bendel (yes That Henri Bendel) family, are Jewish. It isn't really an issue. Most Cajuns are pretty laissez-faire about most things. There are no religious tolerance problems that I know of.

I hope you do not have a problem with Muslims. There is a much larger Muslim population here than Jewish. There is a new Mosque near the UL campus, where students from the middle east and indonesia have studied for decades. This is oil country, after all.

With reference to the KKK stuff. I haven't met anyone who will admit to it, but you will always find these types of people no matter where you go. There was a KKK tv program on the open cable channel. The city required them to appear unmasked. I don't know if it is still shown. I doubt any of them has met a Jew.

I will warn you, Jews in lafayette are so rare, many here have not met one. You may get that, "really?" kind of thing. In other words people may be unknowingly insensitive, due to lack of exposure, consider their lack of knowldege before assuming bigotry.

[puffinz]

There is a very nice synogogue in Lafayette. It is located at 603 Lee- Temple Shalom.

Temple Shalom, Lafayette, LA - Home

There is a synagogue in Morgan City and New Iberia. The Gates of Prayer synogogue. I believe this synagogue was mentioned in a David Lee Burke detective novel as well.

Cajun Jews have been in the area for about 350 years... sort of since the beginning... mostly Alsatian-Jews who either came directly from Alsatian of via Nova Scotia. The Anglo's weren't too picky in who they were kicking out from Cape Breton in 1755.

[joebaldknobber]

Originally Posted by truebluexf

LOL Ok, I didn't mean to sound ignorant or anything...I looked around online, and did see a cross-burning somewhere out there that was tried in Lafayette, so I'm not nuts...I know these things happen still here and there. I was pretty certain it would be ok in Lafayette, but I had to check! And hey, my husband is from Tennessee, so I really don't think poorly of the south.

Suffolk County, New York has the KKK wreaking havoc right next door to you.

[hdwell]

Originally Posted by Wandering_Celt

South Louisiana is wonderfuly tolerant of almost everyone. Its North Louisiana you have to worry about. Here in the Shreveport/Bossier city area its not so nice. I mean its not KKK kind of stuff but its still bad here. I have many Jewish, Muslim, and Wiccan friends here in Shreveport, and each of them along with myself could relate sad stories about the people here. It seems the first question out of most peoples mouths are "So what church do you go to" and when you tell them your not christian most of the time they respond "oh your a satanist". Their ignorance would really be funny if it didn't scare the heck out of our son.

Shreveport before WWII supported a large Jewish community with 5 synagogues including Orthodox Jewish; most of the Jews lived in the Madison Park neighborhood. There has always been plenty of tolerance here for those of the Jewish faith. The Jews owned the cities better department stores, bakeries, even restaurants. They were a big part of our community.

Unfortunately, the city of Shreveport fell by the wayside (over and over again) until most intelligent,industrious people left the area and all that is left now is average working people mostly of rural type southern backrounds. Somebody had to come and fill those jobs left unfilled when the others moved on. They did and many are fundementalist, Apostolic faiths who don't really know what they are talking about but rather take the word of some uneducated pastor. I have seen this all my life and simply I ignore them. If you don't want to be queried, stay away from people like that and don't talk to them anymore than you have to.

[puffinz]

I agree with HDwell. I grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas and have heritage from the Alexandria, New Iberia, New Orleans triangle. There is still a Jewish population in Little Rock. Dillards Department store was formally known as Phillips-Blass. Both are notable in the Jewish community. However, a part of what is the demise of Shreveport is also the demise of Little Rock. The homoginization of communities. When local institutions are distroyed or absorbed and no one accesses the skill base remaining, then you are left with a large grouping of lower skilled jobs and a few service related jobs and fewer higher skilled service jobs such as doctors, dentists, vets, etc. Combined with this factor in Shreveport, I believe, is there use to be a large air force base. The services required to support the base usually tend to stabilize a community somewhat.

The Big Box sameness only requires a limites skill set. The Sorting of folks by lifestyle has largely occured in the last 40 years. If your town or city doesn't offer a lifestyle that supports an openness/tolerance then stagnation may arise. I am not speaking in particular about Shreveport or northern LA on the last topic. I would recommend folks browse or read a book called the Big Sort by Bishop.

Alexandria supports 2 synagogues currently. Shreveport supports 2 synagogues as well. There are synagogues in Monroe. Alexandria's support is an oddity in small city America. As i mentioned earlier, there are synagogues in Lake Charles, New Iberia, Lafayette, Mandeville, and two in Baton Rouge. The Metro New Orleans area supports about 7 synagogues.

[hdwell]

^Well said, Puffinz!