Roads Taken: The Great Jewish Migrations to the New World and the Peddlers Who Forged the Way

摘要

They are ubiquitous in the opening chapters of almost every history of Jewish community in the Americas and in the opening chapters of every history of old-line synagogues: peddlers, Jewish men who spent their time carrying their peddler's pack, or if they were lucky, traveling with a horse and a cart, going on their appointed rounds, befriending their mainly female customers, selling their wares, collecting their payments for items purchased on credit, making whatever sleeping arrangements they could on the road during the week, returning home for Shabbat, and often serving as pillars of their fledgling communities.