Comments, October 2026

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Balloon Man At Cadwallader Park (Abramavitz)

 

 

Judy was a neighbor and I played basketball with Tal at the JCC

Benjamin Racusin

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I heard that Tal Brody went to Harrison Elementary School. Played Basketball in the alley . His Father Max had Colonial Hardwa…

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Trenton Jewish Homecoming Program Updates!

1) "My Uncle the Balloon Man of Cadwalader Park" Donny, Barry and Audrey Abramowitz will share their favorite memories of their Uncle Mendel Manny Abramowitz. Here's an excellent FB post https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1MD17yC7Sd/

2) Rabbi Benjamin Adler of Adath Israel will share intriguing factoids and curious trivia about Jewish Trenton

3) The caterer and Cobblestone Creek need the final headcount by 10/19 so please submit your RSVPs VERY SOON.

… See more

Linda Stewart Mihokposted toTrenton Memory Lane

J͏a͏n͏u͏a͏r͏y͏ ͏1͏1͏,͏ ͏2͏0͏2͏1͏

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UPDATE....... thank you to Manny's nephew!Benjamin Racusin for the correct information. Manny passed in 1983.… See more

 

David Joseph Kleinposted toTrenton Jewish Historical Society

October 9 at 1:42 PM

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Did you meet or know any of these Trentonians?

Dave Sherwood

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Judy was a neighbor and I played basketball with Tal at the JCC

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Benjamin Racusin

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I heard that Tal Brody went to Harrison Elementary School. Played Basketball in the alley . His Father Max had Colonial Hardwa… See more

David Joseph Klein

AMAZING NEWS! SAVE THE DATE!! November 1, 2026 at the Cobblestone Creek Country Club, Rt. 206, Lawrenceville.… See more

Admin

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Let's welcome our new members!

Juliette Elb

Arthur Finkle

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Sandi Levy Goldberg

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This school started on Market Street, known as Talmud Torah. Then Dr. Herzl Zion Hebrew School occupied the building around the 1940's. I still have this booklet they gave to the students. Do you remember them moving to West State Street?

Murray Gendzel

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The school started at Market Street and Cooper Street where the Mercer County Detention Center was later located. Then it moved to the JCC on Stockton Street where Trenton City Hall is located. Then it moved to West State Street location, not far from Junior 3. I was a student at all three locations.

 

Barbara Joan Hawley-Burke

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I went to Hebrew school that was located on Bellevue Avenue

 

Comments, April 2026

 

 

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Bil Mate

Gail Farber Holling

 

 

 

Lisa Kaye

 

We associate the settling of the American frontier with pioneers in covered wagons and cowboys fighting Indians. We less frequently identify it with the peddlers and merchants who sustained the early settlers, shared their hardships and improved the quality of their lives. Starting in the 1840s, Jews from German-speaking lands seeking opportunity in America chose the difficult life of a peddler. They trudged America from rural New England to Gold Rush California.

In his “Reminiscences,” Isaac Mayer Wise, the founder of Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, unsympathetically recalled that, by 1846, there were different classes of German-Jewish peddlers already established in America:

(1) The basket peddler—he is altogether dumb and homeless;

(2) the trunk-carrier who stammers some little English, and hopes for better times;

(3) the pack-carrier, who carries from one hundred to one hundred and fifty pounds upon his back, and indulges the thought that he will become a businessman some day.

In addition to these, there is the aristocracy, which may be divided into three classes:

(1) the wagon-baron, who peddles through the country with a one or two horse team;

(2) the jewelry-count, who carries a stock of watches and jewelry in a small trunk, and is considered a rich man even now;

(3) the store-prince, who has a shop and sells goods in it.

Wise observed of these peddlers, “At first one is the slave to the basket or the pack; then the lackey of the horse, in order to become, finally, the servant of the shop.” Despite its constraints, for most peddlers owning a store seemed far better than trudging the roads.

Abraham Kohn’s experiences in rural New England were typical of the travails facing back packing Jewish peddlers. Beyond the risk of theft, loss, accident or illness, peddlers fought against the weather. In winter 1842, trudging near Lunenburg, Massachusetts, the recently arrived Kohn noted in his diary, “We were forced to stop on Wednesday because of the heavy snow.” He continues:

We sought to spend the night with a cooper, a Mr. Spaulding, but his wife did not wish to take us in. She was afraid of strangers, she might not sleep well; we should go on our way. And outside their raged the worst blizzard I have ever seen. Oh, G-d, I thought, is this the land of liberty and hospitality and tolerance? Why have I been led here?

The incident ended happily. “After repeatedly pointing out that to turn us forth in a blizzard would be sinful, we were allowed to stay. She became friendlier, indeed, after a few hours, and at night she even joined us in singing.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old Post Office, 1891

 

 

New Jersey State Fair