The Jew Store, Stella Suberman

In the South during the 1920’s, Stella Suberman recalls in her family memoir, every small town had a “Jew store,” which sold dry goods and odds and ends. In Concordia, TN, this was Bronson’s Low-Priced Store, owned and operated by Suberman’s father, whom she calls Aaron Bronson. A Russian immigrant with a young family and ambition to become a salesman, Bronson made his way south, searching for opportunity. Ultimately, he built a life for himself, his wife and his three children in a place where they were the only Jews. There was a lot to contend with: the local big-shot, Tom Dillon, who had no use for Jews; the ever-present threat of the Ku Klux Klan; the nagging question of what to do about a bar mitzvah for 13-year-old Joey. But there were also the kindnesses of the spinster Miss Brookie Simmons, the excitement of the wild auction held to save the town during the Depression and, after years of hard work, success, as Bronson’s modest store became a town fixture. Like the store, which is practically a character in its own right, the people in “The Jew Store” linger in the mind (Review by Marisa Kantor Stark, NYT, 1998).