Beth Wenger - Jewish Americans: Three Centuries of Jewish Voices in America

North America, as we know for millennia has been populated by ethnic groups looking for a new place to live.  Beginning in the early 17th Century and through the present time Jewish people from around the world have seen North America as a favored place to live and in waves of migration over time have come here to make a new life as part of the American fabric.  In the winter of 2008 the Public Broadcasting System presented a major six hour television series:  “The Jewish Americans:  Three Centuries of Jewish Voices in America.”  A companion book to this series with the same name as the series, written by Beth Wenger, the Director of the Jewish Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania, is a collection of first person stories about lives of American Jews who maintained their own culture as they became part of the American culture.  Our visit with Beth Wenger in January 2008, by phone from her office at the University of Pennsylvania, began when she described the distinctions and similarities of the Jewish American experience as compared to other immigrant group.

 

Originally broadcast January 30, 2008.

 

The book she recommends is “The Yiddish Policeman’s Union” by Michael Chabon.

Click here to begin listening. 

Michael Shuman - Keeping the Culture of Small Towns

Years ago, before the myriad of things to buy were as available as they are now, retail businesses were most often locally owned and operated, often for generations.  This all began to change in the middle of the last century, as many of the items in the Sears Catalogue became available in towns and cities across the nation for consumers to feel and touch.  But it wasn’t until approximately 25 years ago when Wal-Mart, Target and other big box stores appeared nationwide in small communities, to the detriment of locally owned businesses and the social and economics benefits those businesses provided to their communities.

 

Michael Shuman, an attorney and an economist, is the author of “The Small-Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses are Beating the Global Competition.”  This book addresses the issues and problems of locally owned businesses and how they can successfully compete with the big box stores owned by corporations foreign to the region. 

 

We began our conversation, which occurred on January 21, 2008, when I asked Michael Shuman to describe how a corporation comes into being as a basis to understand some of the problems of locally owned businesses in competition with the big box stores. 

 

Michael Shuman is the author of “The Small-Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses are Beating the Global Competition.”

 The book he recommends is “The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work,” by John Gottman. Click here to begin listening.