Customer Reviews

COALFIELD JEWS: An Appalachian History

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The author asks in the intro - do we need yet another "Jews leave New York, head to the country, assimilate/don't assimilate; are/are not accepted;" story? Is it that different from the NJ farmers or the Plains states dry good retailers?

Personally, I think the story is worth while, but as she points out, this gives you a whole other perspective on the live and business of mining. THAT story has been told from the Company POV and the miners' POV (and the miners' wives POV).

But "Which Side Are You On" wasn't clear cut for the local Jewish retailer. They were in competition with the Company Stores, and the miners were thier customers - but they were business people and realized too that if the Company wasn't making a profit, in the end they too would be out of business.

So it gives a rare glimpse of that conflict - not from a neutral or detached POV - but from a complex POV. And for all that, yes, I think it's a Jewish story worth telling too.

Deborah Weiner tells the fascinating and little-known story of the Jewish communities that once flourished in the coalfields of West Virginia, Kentucky and southwestern Virginia. Weiner displays a deep understanding of the hardscrabble mining communities she describes and provides us with additional evidence of the region's complexity and cultural heterogeneity. The story of the Jews who settled in the hills and valleys of coal country is a testament to the diversity of the heartland and a valuable contribution to our knowledge of immigration and American cultural and economic history.

So how could I not like a book that I'm skimming and run across a picture of my mother as a child? More important, the overall theme of "networks" is a useful construct for describing the Jewish community. With the creation of Facebook, thinking about these social networks prior to the internet is a useful exercise beyond playing Jewish geography.