The Jew Store

The Bronsons were the first Jews to ever live in the small town of Concordia, Tennessee-a town consisting of one main street, one bank, one drugstore, one picture show, one feed and seed, one hardware store, one beauty parlor, one barber shop, one blacksmith, and many Christian churches. That didn't stop Aaron Bronson, a Russian immigrant, from moving his young family out of New York by horse and wagon and journeying to this remote corner of the South to open a small dry goods store, Bronson's Low-Priced Store.

Never mind that he was greeted with Danged if I ever heard tell of a Jew storekeeper afore. Never mind that all the townspeople were suspicious of any strangers. Never mind that the Klan actively discouraged the presence of outsiders. Aaron Bronson bravely established a business and proved in the process that his family could make a home, and a life, anywhere. With great fondness and a fine dry wit, Stella Suberman tells the story of her family in an account that Kirkus Reviews, in a starred review, described as a gem...Vividly told and captivating in its humanity.

Now available for the first time in paperback, here is the book that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution said was forthright. . . . not a revisionist history of Jewish life in the small-town South but . . . written within the context of the 1920s, making it valuable history as well as a moving family story.

The author describes her family's life in a small town in Tennessee before World War II, where, as the first Jews in town, they owned a dry goods store and struggled to prosper in a place where Jews were treated as outsiders

The Destination — Avram Plotchnikoff's New Name — A Nice Jewish Girl — For Better or for Worse — God's (So to Speak) Country — Miss Brookie's Cousin Tom — Xenophobia — My Father's Fancy Footwork — Bronson's Low-Priced Store — Green Eyeshades — No Picnic — Opening Day — In Christ's Name, Amen — A Gleam in My Mother's Eye — Two Social Calls — A House and Neighbors — My Mother's Dilemma — Seth's New Job — New York Aunts — The Bar Mitzvah Question — Gentiles — Joey's Homecoming — Miriam's Romance — Aunt Hannah's Wedding — Concordia's Savior — Miriam's Rescue — Push Comes to Shove.