Our Worthy Townsmen: The Forgotten Lives of Mount Vernon Ohio's Jewish Families 1847 - 1920 - Lois K. Hanson

They came for the American Dream. They came for freedom, safety, and opportunities they could only imagine in their mother country. They eschewed large cities where they would have found religious support--a synagogue or temple, a Jewish burial society, a Jewish cemetery, and a kosher butcher. They braved the religious wilderness and settled in Mount Vernon, Ohio where they made personal and economic decisions about how to practice their religion publicly and privately.