This is an I-Heart podcast.

And we return to our American stories.

And up next, a story from one of the first museums dedicated to Jewish

history and heritage in the United States South, the Bremen Jewish Heritage Museum in Atlanta, Georgia.

The museum's archives contain countless oral and written histories of Jews in Georgia and Alabama.

And we happened to visit when they were celebrating their 25th anniversary and putting on

the Hutzpah exposition, a celebration of Jewish stories from the south.

Here's our own Monty Montgomery with a story.

In Atlanta, Georgia, close to downtown, and right next to the Center for Puppetry Arts,

is the Bremen Jewish Heritage Museum, one of the few museums dedicated to Jewish history

in the Deep South. Here's Jane Levy, the founding executive director of the Bremen, with more.

You know, the Jewish history in this country, most people think of as the big cities of the north.

And so southern Jewish history for people who aren't Jewish history scholars is something of an oxymor.

But how long have Jewish people been in the South and in Georgia?

Here's the Bremen's founding archivist Sandy Berman with the answer to that question.

Since 1733, right after Oglethorpe came to settle the colony, Jews were on the next ship,

and they were at first not entirely welcome.

The charter said, and it was only for Christians.

But there was a physician on board, and there was an illness going around and they needed help.

The physician helped. His name was Dr. Samuel Nunez.

And he was one of this group of Jews who were coming and he helped the colony, saved the colony from all this death.

And they allowed the Jews to come in,

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