Jerry Sternberg, who liked calling himself the oldest native-born Jew in Asheville, died on December 25 at 93. Not just the Jewish community mourned his passing, but the city at large expressed its respect and affection. “A Treasure Lost” headlined a memorial tribute in the Mountain Xpress, a local Western North Carolina weekly. “One of a kind,” was another lament.
Jerry was a man of character, in both senses of that word. With his signature Stetson and western attire, he commanded attention. He filled any room that he entered. Outspokenly Jewish, his friendships knew no distinction of religion, race, class, or age. His philanthropies helped bring Asheville not only a JCC and Beth Israel Synagogue, but also supported community theater, Helpmate and United Way, Planned Parenthood, and Pisgah Legal Services. He was widely known for his columns in the Mountain Xpress where he enjoyed playing the contrarian, describing himself both as a “flaming liberal” on social issues but a Scrooge on finance and property rights. As Asheville developed, he identified with the industrial “River Rats” who often contended with the environmental “Riverlinks,” a name which evoked to him “some kind of sausage made from catfish.” The rivalry didn’t stop Jerry from befriending the Riverlink director and supporting revitalizing efforts. When the Mayor proclaimed Jerry V. Sternberg Day on December 7, 2020, his ninetieth birthday, he declared it the most “exciting news” that he had heard since he was told of Pearl Harbor.
Beyond his writings Jerry became a star when Jewish Heritage North Carolina filmed “Down Home: Jewish Life in North Carolina.” He explained on camera, “I’m very much a Jewish Southerner. I love the South, and they’re my people.” A masterful, inimitable raconteur, he recalled as a youth collecting dead cows and mules for his father’s tannery and stretching them into hides. He escaped to Chapel Hill and then the Navy. He returned to Asheville and inspired by his grandfather’s business slogan—“We Buy Anything and Sell Everything”—was sufficiently successful as an entrepreneur and real-estate developer to ensconce his beloved family in Seely’s Castle, a prominent hilltop Asheville landmark that had served as an early UNC-Asheville campus. He would later deed it to a non-profit.
More recently, Jerry presided over luncheon gatherings of the Alta Cockers, Jewish native sons and daughters of a certain age. They met not at one of Asheville’s nouveau eateries but at down-home joints like the Appollo Flame. There he was among his own, friends from childhood whose parents had worked with his parents to create an enduring, vibrant Jewish community. They’ll continue to meet in his honor.
His memory will be for a blessing.
“A Jew in Asheville” Mountain Xpress columns are available online at https://mountainx.com/author/jerry-sternberg/. At https://gospeljerry.com/, you may wish to watch Sternberg’s recent talk, “Tales of Asheville from an Ol’ Jewish Country Boy,” cosponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies at UNC Asheville and Carolina Jews for Justice. At that site, you can also obtain, for a charitable donation, his collection, The Gospel According to Jerry 90th Birthday Edition.
