Honestly, I think a lot of this is more an urban vs. rural issue rather than a purely north vs. south one. There has been a strong Jewish community in many southern cities for generations. My grandfather (a Reform Jew from Ohio who went to Wharton for his undergraduate studies) went to law school in Birmingham a century ago, and his cousin’s son was a prominent rabbi in Charleston (SC) for many years.
I’m not gonna lie, when the very friendly woman who got in touch with me last year about a possible sublet in rural Alabama for my son’s co-op job used the phrase “jew her down” to suggest I negotiate with the owner of the property on price, I was a little taken aback. But I also would be lying if I said I’d never heard that phrase used by some of the non-Jewish friends I grew up with in a non-Jewish area of suburban Philadelphia. (The term, odious as it is, is really no more or less offensive than to "gyp"or “welsh on” someone, is it?)
Humility and an appreciation of of the local culture will serve you well wherever you go – north, south, east, or west and overseas as well.