A small percentage of Jews who migrated to America from Europe moved to the Southern United States, and an even smaller percentage of these Jews chose to move to the small towns of this area due to the lack of a Jewish community there. Although these smaller towns did not originally have a well established Jewish community, Jews did move there, established a successful life for them and their families, and made an important impact on the towns in which they lived.
Jews in many European countries were not allowed to own land and therefore, had little to no farming skills and experience, but rather were involved in retail (Sheskin). As a result, when Jews migrated to these small southern towns in the early 1800s, they either became peddlers or opened family owned and run “Jew Stores”. The Subermans from Stella Suberman’s memoir The Jew Store, which we read in our course, are one example of a family that moved to a small southern town to open a Jew Store. Suberman tells about her experience in a family with a Jew Store in a small town in Tennessee. These were great opportunities for new Jewish immigrants to begin their lives in America and make a successful living for their children. |
Shortly after their arrival, Jews were playing a huge role in the economy of these small towns and the non-Jews often attributed the economic success of their towns to the Jews. One such example is in Port Gibson, Mississippi, where Jews were peddlers. Upon the town’s commerce competition with surrounding communities, the Jews rose up and contributed greatly to the town’s success.
“Newspaper advertisements were filled with names like Bernheimer, Marx, Meyer, Cahn, Traxler and Ullman” (Applebome). Overall, the Jews in these small towns were often admired for the positive impact they had on them. In one small town after another, Jews owned the most important establishments in the community. Louis Schmier a history professor at Valdosta State College in Georgia admits that even though there was some anti-Semitism, “the majority of the Christian population admitted their Jewishness and almost demanded it of them”. In his book, he tells the story of a Jewish businessman in Unadilla, Georgia who kept his store open during the Jewish holidays. City officials were upset that he did so and as a result, the mayor of the town passed an ordinance demanding that he close because “if he was going to be accorded the respect of being a Jew, he had to act like one”. |
“You won’t have non-Jews growing up around Judaism. I have found in my travels, people have expressed to me: ‘We really missed them. They were so involved in things. Our community is poorer without them.’”
In the late 19th century, Jews began playing a profound role in the political life of these towns as well:
Photo Source: Stella Suberman's The Jew Store Source: Applebome, Peter. "Small-Town South Clings to Jewish History." The New York Times. The New York Times, 28 Sept. 1991. Web. 21 Apr. 2017. Source: Weissbach, Lee Shai. "East European Immigrants and the Image of Jews in the Small-Town South." American Jewish History 85.3 (1997): 231-62. JSTOR [JSTOR]. Web. 14 Apr. 2017. Word Count: 559 |