Seymour Atlas

The Rabbi with the Southern Twang Seymour Atlas

A seventh-generation rabbi born in Greenville, Mississippi, raised in the nearby town of Greenwood, but then educated at the Yeshiva Torah V'Das and Chafetz Chaim in New York, Rabbi Seymour Atlas came back to the South in 1943, to serve as a pulpit rabbi. With his characteristic wit, charm, and insight into Southern life and human behavior, Rabbi Atlas describes the trials, tribulations, adventures, and oddities but also the tremendous excitement of his whirlwind journey through five different Jewish communities of the South: Greenwood, Mississippi (1943-1946); Montgomery, Alabama (1946-1956); Bristol, Virginia (1956-1959); Birmingham, Alabama (1959-1962); and Little Rock, Arkansas (1962-1970). When his children went to college in New York, Rabbi Atlas searched for a pulpit closer to them, and was delighted to find one in Wildwood, New Jersey (which was technically "Southern" in that it lies south of the Mason-Dixon line). Rabbi Atlas remained in Wildwood for 20 happy years until his retirement in 1990. As a current resident of Hollywood, Florida, and active member of the Young Israel of Hollywood, Rabbi Atlas is a popular speaker and teacher, and is known for his Kiddush with the Southern "twang."