SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — “Sharing Stories of the Crossroads” is an Ozarks-based history-themed radio show on KICK 92.3 FM & 1340 AM.

Host John Sellars spoke with Dr. Mara W. Cohen Ioannides, an English professor at Missouri State University and author of several historic and fiction books. She wrote a new book about the Jewish community in the state of Missouri.

“We’ve talked about… the involvement of the Jewish community and the city of Springfield and how they were really the drivers of commerce in the early part of the 20th century,” said Sellars.

Today there are about 75 families that are participating at the synagogue in Springfield according to Sellars.

“It’s a pretty good group… a tremendous history and names of people who have been involved in businesses here over the last 200 years,” said Sellars.

In addition to writing historical fiction about the Jews of Greece, Ioannides is the co-director of the Telling Traditions Project, which has a mission to preserve the history of the Jewish people of the Ozarks and does research on American Haggadot.

She also created a documentary called “Home, Community, Tradition: The Women of Temple Israel.”