A common shared experience among Jews in communities across the nation is being regaled with stories about immigrant journeys taking previous family generations from the ‘Old Country’ to America.
With little money, but great enthusiasm and ingenuity, many new settlers began their pursuit of a better life as peddlers, whose resourcefulness unknowingly started the green initiative of recycling and the foundation for the highly Jewish-populated scrap metal industry.
In the late 1800s, peddlers in Milwaukee regularly ventured to what was known as Commission Row (now N. Broadway between St. Paul Avenue and Buffalo Street in the Third Ward) to pick up goods from distributers to sell. Their wagons laden with produce or household items, they headed to outlying areas to ply their wares.
Once the merchandise was gone, empty carriages were steered back to the town center, where en route, peddlers found and picked up used and discarded remnants, including scrap metals, which they collected with the idea of selling the materials back to distributers to make a bit of extra money.
The idea caught on, grew and created a niche, which was recognized as an innovative opportunity that would-be Jewish entrepreneurs moved to fill.
The mode of commerce proved profitable and grew, creating the need for wrecking yards (also known as scrap or junk yards) and metal melting and extracting processes including smelting, which separated metal from ore so it could be recycled.
The industry continued to expand at a rapid rate with Jewish-owned and run operations being established across the country.
In Milwaukee, early companies such as Afram Brothers, Bass Brothers, Chudnow Iron and Metal Company, Lincoln Iron and Steel and Midwest Iron and Metal led to additions in the field.
They often were run by subsequent generations, such as the Peltz Group Inc. and United Milwaukee Scrap, LLC, which is still a dynamic part of Milwaukee’s environmentally conscious business landscape.
Today scrap collection and recycling is a vital part of eco-minded activity. It helps reduce greenhouse emissions, conserves energy and natural resources and keeps 145 million tons of material out of landfills.
In reflecting on our immigrant ancestors, we respect the challenges and hardships they faced to provide a better life for their children. We also owe them a debt of gratitude for the tenacity and inventiveness, which unknowingly would contribute to a better life for generations to come.
To learn more about this topic, attend the presentation, “Built on Scrap,” with professor and author Jonathan Pollack on Friday, Oct. 11, 11:30 a.m. at the Jewish Museum Milwaukee, 1460 N. Prospect Ave. Cost: Free for members, $5 for non-members. Register by calling 414-390-5730 or visiting www.jewishmuseummilwaukee.org.
This program is part of a collaboration with the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is being offered in connection with the Jewish Museum Milwaukee exhibit, “From Pushcarts to Professionals: The Evolution of Jewish Businesses in Milwaukee,” on display through Dec. 1.
Molly Dubin is curator of the Jewish Museum Milwaukee.
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