Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2020/Spring/Section25/Philip Cohen

Overview

Philip Cohen was a Jewish peddler that lived in the American South.

Background and Early Life

Philip Cohen's father was a Russian-Jewish immigrant who made a living as a peddler in Pennsylvania. He attempted to settle down in Norristown, Pennsylvania and open a business; however, this was short lived as he was forced out of his business by his business partner, leaving him to once again, be a peddler. In the early 1900s, Philip Cohen's childhood was spent in Philadelphia. When Cohen was six years old, his left forearm was cut off by a passing train, while playing on the train tracks. In an interview with reporter Leonard Rapport, Cohen says "We didn't have playgrounds and supervision like now". As a child, Cohen started his Jewish learning by studying the Hebrew language, although that education was short lived. He recalls, "My mother tells me -- I can't remember it -- that once when the Rabbi came to teach me I pulled his beard. After that neither he nor any other Rabbi would come."

Young Adult Life

In the mid-1910s, Cohen started work selling newspapers on boats sailing from Baltimore to New York and Norfolk. He kept this job for 5 years, although it was a personal struggle. In an interview, Cohen says, "I'd get terribly seasick. Every time I'd get off the boat I'd say it was my last time, and then in six months I'd go again". In 1925, soon after he was married, Cohen made his first trip to Palestine on the first ship to fly the Israeli flag (Cohen refers to it as the Jewish flag), the S. S. President Harding, of the American Palestine Line. Cohen did not plan on making Aliyah to Palestine, rather to sell concessions on his own stand aboard the ship such as tobacco, cigarettes, and novelties. His spot on the ship was earned, as he posted a $500.00 cash bond guaranteeing the company twenty percent of the gross receipts. "All the passengers but one were Jewish; some were going to Palestine [modern day Israel] to settle and some just for the trip."

Jobs

In 1927, Cohen, now with no job and little money, asked his cousin for advice. His cousin suggested the idea of starting a business, like his father once did. Cohen agreed and moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina with his wife, to meet his cousin and open the shop. Spring of 1927, the Campus Bootery opened, carrying a line of shoes and with a shoe repair department. His business saw good and bad years, until in 1933, the business went bankrupt. After his failed business, Cohen rented out space in a dry-cleaning establishment in Athens, Georgia, in the attempt to sell mens' furnishings, although this business venture result in another failure.

Homesick for Chapel Hill, Cohen and his family returned. Cohen soon followed in his father's footstep of being a peddler in November 1934. He would leave home for days to weeks at a time, selling socks, safety razors, blades, chaving creams, fountain pens, pencils, and small necessities for men. At first, Cohen drifted over half the State, from Hickory to Little Washington, Morehead City, and Wilmington. In the late 1930s however, he was able to narrow his territory to within a fifty mile radius of Chapel Hill, returning home each night. Cohen relied on the local colleges as a means of support, saying "the slack season is summer, when the markets and colleges are closed."

Family Life

Philip Cohen and his wife had 3 children: 2 sons and a daughter. He lived out the majority of his life in Chapel Hill as a peddler. He and his family lived in a three-room apartment. Cohen was a family man, as he spent most evening at his house, relaxing with his family. The Cohens exchanged visits with the Jewish families of Chapel Hill. Mrs. Cohen was a Girl Scout leader; their daughter was a Girl Scout, and their two sons later joined the Boy Scouts. Both Cohen and his wife were Democrats and strong Roosevelt supporters. Every Sunday morning, Cohen's children would ride the bus to Durham to attend Sunday School at the synagogue.

Cohen admitted to experiencing Antisemitism in his line of work, yet he worked past it, recalling the open-handed friendliness he also experienced. Cohen told an interviewer, "I was in Burlington today and they were asking me where I'd been, why do you stay away so long. It makes you feel good when people ask that. It's nice to see good people in the world too.".

Social Issues

Jewish Peddling during the Great Depression:

The peddling profession was one of few professions that low to middle class Jews could work in during the time surrounding the Great Depression in the United States. All throughout history, Jewish people were excluded from privileges such as the right to own land and join professional guilds due to Antisemitism in some Christian or Islamic societies. This forced many Jews to work as financiers and merchants (such as peddlers). The charisma of the peddlers and the one-to-one interactions between the peddler and customer played a key role in breaking through previous barriers of social, cultural, and religious differences. Hasia R. Diner, in her book Roads Taken: The Great Jewish Migrations to the New World and the Peddlers Who Forged the Way, she reasons “As white men, the peddlers crossed the racial divide, becoming welcome (and respectful) guests in the homes of black families; as foreigners, they broadened the horizons of insular rural America; and as identifying Jews, they facilitated face-to-face religious contact with Christians who had never seen a Jew before.”

The Outside Perspective of Jewish Communities during the Great Depression:

The Jewish community in the United States during the Great Depression had no established infrastructure. The new wave of Jewish immigrants had not been in the country long enough . That is, “except for an aspect of the community which was German, which had come in [… the] 1850s, 1860s, and they were already integrated”, says Arnold Foster, a first-generation Jewish immigrant during the Great Depression. Foster goes on to comment on the social realities of that time, “We Jews and we blacks met the non-Jewish white community during the day, in our businesses, whether we were school teachers, or policemen, or civil service workers, or whatever. When we went home, we went home to our own ghettos. Now, that didn't mean the ghetto was what it is today, a ramshackle, destroyed place that looks like a piece of Germany during the War. It meant that we went back to our own social lives.”