Jew Store (40 page)

10. Reba and Aaron were in conflict over leaving Concordia. Who did you end up siding with, and why?

11. Did the account of how Aaron left Russia and came to America trigger any stories you may have heard from your own family?

12. How do you feel about Stella Suberman's use of racial slurs within the text? Why do you think she chose to use derogatory terms rather than more appropriate contemporary language? What might this have to do with the title of the book?

The Peddler's Grandson: Growing Up Jewish in
Mississippi
, by Edward Cohen

The Provincials: A Personal History of Jews in the South
,
by Eli N. Evans

Insecure Prosperity
, by Ewa Morawska

The Slow Way Back
, by Judy Goldman

S
TELLA
S
UBERMAN
was born in a small Bible Belt town in Tennessee to which her family had come in 1920 to open a dry goods store, the “Jew store” of the book's title. Her teen years were spent in Florida, where she attended Florida State College for women (now Florida State University) and the University of Miami, studying English literature and art history.

From 1946 to 1966, she lived with her husband and son in Chapel Hill and Raleigh, North Carolina, serving as publications chief for the North Carolina Museum of Art and as book reviewer for Raleigh's
News & Observer
.

In 1966, she returned to Florida as the administrative director of the Lowe Art Gallery of the University of Miami and as a staff book reviewer for the
Miami Herald
.

The Jew Store
was selected by the National Women's Book Association as one of five recommended books for 2000 and was a selection of the Jewish Book Club. Suberman has been featured on NPR's
Talk of the Nation
and C-SPAN's
Book TV
.

We hope you enjoyed
The Jew Store
. Other books of Jewish interest published by Algonquin include the following:

•

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on the Moon
by Joseph Skibell
(ISBN 1-56512-179-1)

“A haunting novel, intensely imagined . . . and a significant contribution to the ongoing literature of the Holocaust.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred “An unlikely page-turner.”
—The New York Times Book Review

Complimentary reader's guide available.

•

The Essential Klezmer, by Seth Rogovoy
(ISBN 1-56512-244-5)

“Incredibly detailed and comprehensive . . . this book is a lot more than ‘essential'!” —A
RLO
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UTHRIE

“All-encompassing, critically astute, and unfailingly enthusiastic.” —Newsday

•

The Medic, by Leo Litwak (ISBN 1-56512-305-0)

“A book for the generations. In lean, quick, and ultimately eloquent prose Leo Litwak tells the truth about WWII. He speaks with a young man's toughness about events as they were.”
—E
ARL
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, author of New
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