Dr. Sheila Keiter, Judaic Studies

My family on both sides came to America before World War II, so we were spared the destruction of the Holocaust. This is a photo of my great grandfather, Manes Tuller, outside his general goods/grocery store on Mermaid Avenue in Coney Island, NY. You can see from the phot that he was proud of the store. For many immigrant Jews in America, it was quite an achievement to own a store. But the Depression hit the family pretty hard. They lost the store and had to move to Chicago to live with family there. Had they not done so, my grandfather would never have met my grandmother, who was born and raised in Chicago. I like this photo because it places my family so squarely within the stream of the American Jewish experience, and as I teach about that experience, I can directly relate to it through my own family’s history.