Peddlers, Merchants, and Junk Dealers: Jewish Life in Small-Town Vermont

Provides a rare study of Jews in small town AmericaFor many years, histories of Jews in the United States focused on Jewish migrants who settled in large cities.Peddlers, Merchants, and Junk Dealers offers a rare study of Jews in small town America, illuminating the experiences of Jewish families in towns where they constituted one of, at most, a few Jewish families.In particular, the volume explores the occupational niches of Jews in rural Vermont, from peddling to the ownership of junk yards and dry goods stores that were disparagingly known as "the Jew Store."The book also looks specifically at the experiences of Jewish women and children in families headed by men in these occupations.These families lived in communities where they were often isolated from relatives and friends, and without a Jewish congregation.Margaret K. Nelson carefully investigates various aspects of this small-town experience, including how generations of immigrants were regarded by others, how they held onto t