“THE JEW STORE”

Glasses on book

By Harvey Tobkes

I thought many of you viewers would appreciate this heart-warming, simple, fast-reading story titled, The Jew Store, by Stella Suberman, a book I just finished.

It is a rare story about good and decent people (no sex, no dirty words); try selling a book these days with those two limitations.

It is an intimate look into the lives of a displaced, Russian immigrant who lived in New York with his family, but then moved to the South in the 1920’s to find his fortune in a town where Jews were unknown and unwelcome. He opens a dry goods business called, “Bronson’s Low Priced Store.” Most southern towns of any size had at least one such enterprise, almost always owned by a Jew in those days, and the townspeople always referred to it as the Jew Store, hence the title of the book.

America was more peaceful then, but much more prejudiced, and the Ku Klux Klan reigned. You become so fond of the The Bronson family that you wish for their happiness, as they struggle and use a fine, dry, humor to overcome obstacles and problems all outsiders faced.


About this entry