You can tell a Jewish traveler by the way he checks into a hotel room, unpacks and automatically skims the local phonebook for Jewish names and places.

His sense of history takes him to the nearest synagogue, where he looks for familiar names on the memorial plaques. His optimism shows when he sits down in a kosher restaurant and hopes to bump into a friend of a friend.

When he looks at his U.S. map, he may be wise enough to discover the Carolinas, where Jewish population is generally enjoying healthy growth. Yet to thousands of Jewish travelers the Carolinas are unfamiliar territory. Motorists speed from New York to Florida, stop overnight at South of the Border, and are greeted in Miami with two questions: "So which way did you come?" and "How long did it take you?"

This modest website may change all that.

Within the 85,829 square miles of these two states lie treasures for Jews of all ages, persuasions and personalities. Many of the following destinations — numbering almost 200 — come as refreshing surprises even to Jewish people born and living in North and South Carolina.

There are unbelievable stories (try "Jewish Refugee Farmers in Van Eeden"), touching spots (try "Small Towns, Big Hearts"), surprises (try "Duke University Under Terry Sanford") and oddities (try "Palestine, Jerusalem and Jews Quarter Island"). You can find places where Jews gave to the communities they loved and places where communities honored the Jews they loved.

When you opt to see all or most of these destinations, think about at least two days each in Charlotte and Charleston. Then drive the corridors from Charleston to Wilmington and from Raleigh to Winston-Salem. Finally, cover the mountains from Blowing Rock to Asheville and on to the Spartanburg area.

Many Jewish travelers collect temples. They do not feel complete unless they look inside the houses of worship in the cities they are visiting. They would do well in the Carolinas. For the first time all Carolina synagogues are listed together here, and all are worth a visit any day of the week. They contain religious, historic, sentimental, educational and art objects to delight the soul.

And friends.