“After all, the chief business of the American people is business,” famously observed President Calvin Coolidge in 1925. “They are profoundly concerned with producing, buying, selling, investing and prospering in the world.”
As are the American people, so are many American Jewish people. Many Jewish immigrants came to this country precisely for this reason; and many Jewish individuals have devoted their lives to this purpose in diverse ways.
Such is the theme of the next Jewish Museum Milwaukee exhibit, “From Pushcarts To Professionals: The Evolution of Jewish Businesses in Milwaukee.”
Beginning Sunday, Aug. 18, and running through Dec. 1, the JMM exhibit will display the stories and varieties of businesses that Jews built and operated in the Milwaukee area.
“From the fruit and vegetable filled carts pushed down cobbled streets to major corporations, this exhibit will explore the nearly 170-year history of Milwaukee Jewish business and its diversity through moving stories, artifacts and oral histories,” states the JMM’s description of the exhibit.
Museum curator Molly Dubin said the exhibit will showcase a wide variety of items, many loaned or donated from families and family archives.
There will be photographs of business both displayed on the walls and in albums visitors can leaf through; business promotional materials — “every kind of giveaway you can imagine” — plus incorporation documents and stock certificates.
Moreover, visitors will be able to hear oral history interviews done specially for this exhibit, and those who are interested in sharing their or their families’ stories about business activity will have opportunities to do so.
Cost for JMM admission that includes special exhibit entry: Free for members. Non-members: $6 adult; $5 seniors; $3 students; $15 families. Call 414-390-5730 or visit JewishMuseumMilwaukee.org for further information.
In addition, there will be special events to go with this exhibit. They include:
• “Milwaukee Jewish Businesses Bus Tour with Historian John Gurda” on Monday, Sept. 16, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.
Gurda is the author of “One People, Many Paths: A History of Jewish Milwaukee.” A coach bus will take him and participants from Bayshore Town Center Park and Ride to a variety of Jewish businesses and the sites of former companies.
Cost: $45 for members, $55 for non-members. Sign up with a friend and each of you will save $5. RSVP by Monday, Sept. 2, by calling 414-390-5730 or signing up at JewishMuseumMilwaukee.org.
• “Built on Scrap,” a lecture by Prof. Jonathan Pollack of the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, on Friday, Oct. 11, 11:30 a.m.
For industrial Midwestern cities like Milwaukee, scrap was central to Jewish economic activity. Jews’ success in this business helped them build Jewish communities.
Pollack earned his doctorate in history from UW-Madison. In 2007, Pollack shot a short documentary film, “Built on Scrap,” about Jewish scrap-dealing in Madison. He is working on a book that explores Jewish scrap dealing internationally.
This program is part of a collaboration with the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies. Cost: Free for museum members, $5 for non-members. RSVP requested by calling 414-390-5730 or signing up at JewishMuseumMilwaukee.org.
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