Could Peddlers Have Been Among the First Jews in Vermont?

Amy E. Rowe's article "A Trace of Arabic in  Granite" in the summer/fall 2008 issue of the Vermont Historical Society journal Vermont History includes the following:

This description shared by a second-generation man in his seventies from
Barre, Vermont, was repeated in one form or another by the majority of
the Lebanese with whom I spoke. Some versions of this story note that it
was a Lebanese banker or merchant, others that it was a Jewish wholesaler
who got the new arrivals into the peddling trade.

 Although Rowe's reference is to peddling around 1908, bringing Lebanese families into Vermont, I've wondered whether it might be a shadow of how Jewish peddlers reached the Green Mountain State in the 1800s. I'm looking for more information that could fasten onto this thread.

I note here that there's a report of James Guild leaving Tunbridge, Vermont, in 1818 to become a peddler; I found the material in a Mecklenberg (NC) Historical Association newsletter. I'm just placing threads here for future consideration -- there's no suggestion that Guild was Jewish (from the material in the newsletter, I'm pretty sure he wasn't). But I suspect that as we keep looking at peddling in Vermont, we'll find time periods when it was carried on by members of particular ethnic groups. I think it will be worth investigating reports of "gypsies" arriving in town, too.

The photo below is from Hartford, Connecticut, in 1912; the label is:

“Charles Street Chicken Market”

Jewish Street peddlers on Charles Street Market, Hartford, July 25, 1912

(The Connecticut Historical Society)

Jewish Community and Congregations in Burlington, Vermont

Good news! The Carolyn and Leonard Miller Center for Holocaust Studies, in collaboration with Vermont Public Television, is preparing a documentary called "Little Jerusalem," exploring this vibrant neighborhood of Burlington through the years. I look forward to seeing the TV presentation, whether later in 2011 or in 2012.  From the Miller Center's Spring 2011 newsletter:

The Miller Center is serving as a sponsor of an upcoming television documentary to be produced and aired by Vermont Public Television (VPT). ... “Little Jerusalem” will depict the rich history and everyday life of Burlington, Vermont’s ultratraditional Jewish community. From the late 1800s until World War II, it was clear that the 40-square-block neighborhood known to its residents as “Little Jerusalem” was unlike any other in this or any American city. By 1940, Jewish immigrants throughout America had generally assimilated into the wider fabric of culturally pluralistic community life. But, whether due to their geographic isolation from mainstream America, or an inherent need to stave off the loss of their cultural identity, the residents of Burlington’s Little Jerusalem managed to maintain their traditional life. By tying together the stories with artifacts, maps and city directories, along with synagogue records, the documentary will reconstruct the rich and multilayered fabric of the community, running the gamut from religious practices and observances, to growing up in the shtetl, to patterns of occupational transformation and economic development.

Photo by Merle Kastner

Here are some quick notes on current Jewish congregations in Burlington:

Ohavi Zedek, 188 North Prospect St, www.ohavizedek.org -- founded by 18 people in 1885. Current building dates to 1952.

UVM Hillel, 461 Main St, www.uvmhillel.org

Chabad of Vermont, 57 S. Williams St, www.chabadvt.org

Ahavath Gerim, Orthodox community.

Congregation Beth Yishra, 168 Archibald St, traditional conservative/egalitarian.

Temple Sinai, 500 Swift St, South Burlington -- www.templesinaivt.org -- congregation formed in 1966 by 12 families. Found its permanent home in 1985.

Looking for Their Footprints

Prof. Robert S. Schine

Thanks to the website "Documenting Maine Jewry," I'm looking for evidence of Vermont's earliest Jewish communities and their continued life into the 21st century.  A good place to start is with the recently released images of the pinkas of the Poultney, Vermont, congregation from the 1800s: http://americanjewisharchives.org/publications/journal/PDF/2008_60_01_02_doc_schine.pdf. This comes to us through the work of Robert S. Schine, Silberman Professor  of Jewish Studies at Middlebury College.