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Jewish Working Women
Jewish women used skills
they had learned in the Old Country to help support their families in America. Many of their daughters and granddaughters made use of greater educational opportunities to prepare themselves for white-collar and professional careers.
Sewing and selling
Needlework skills and business experience were as useful in the Upper Midwest as they had been in the Old Country. Although this region, unlike New York City, did not have a large garment industry, many women found work in factories and tailor shops. Others clerked in stores or opened small shops with their husbands.
top photo: Simon Schwartz tailor shop, St. Paul, MN, 1917. Sadie (at sewing machine) and Simon (with tape measure) Schwartz help customers at their Rondo Avenue tailor shop. Courtesy of Violet Mekler, Minneapolis, MN.
inset photo: Modelevsky family store, St. Paul, MN, 1926. Everyone helped out in a family-owned business such as this one. Note the contrast between the workaday world of Hilda, Charles, and Zelda Modelevsky and the glamorous trio in the Chesterfield ad above them. Courtesy of Edith Modelevsky Linoff Edelman, Minnetonka, MN.
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