This webinar will explore Jewish life and history in smaller communities across Ohio. Stories will be highlighted from rural areas and small towns across the state. These stories will touch on a variety of topics including the contributions of smaller Jewish communities to the State of Ohio, the current demographic outlook of these communities, and interfaith relationships in small towns. Participants will also engage with the question, what can other civic and faith-based communities learn from the experiences of smaller Jewish communities and why is it important for the memory of Jewish communities to be preserved in places where Jewish populations are today virtually non-existent?

Austin Reid, a native of Lancaster, Ohio has been exploring the stories of Ohio’s smaller and vanished Jewish communities since 2017. His research has been featured in several media outlets including The Canton Repository, Columbus Jewish News, Richland Source, Steubenville Herald-Star, Zanesville Times Recorder, and WOSU.