ABSTRACT
To look at the lives of the Jews of Newark and the surrounding communities is to take a trip through American Jewish history. Their dreams, hopes, aspirations, and the lives they led typify the experiences of Jews in cities throughout this country. By allowing the people to speak for themselves it tries to bring to life the essence of what it meant to live in Newark, but it also makes use of documents, correspondence, newspaper articles, and novels about the community in order to understand it better. As elsewhere in the Eastern United States, Sephardic Jews were among the earliest settlers in the Newark area. In industry and business too, Newark made its mark: Bamberger's, Ronson Lighter Company, Pathmark, Home Depot, Alpine Lace, and so on. Newark faced a particular challenge in establishing itself as a community—the fact that New York City lay just across the Hudson River.
