Peddler's Grandson : Growing up Jewish in Mississippi

Unlike most immigrant Jews, Moise Kahane (whose name was changed to Cohen at the gates of Ellis Island) left Romania to settle not in New York, but in the deep South. A peddler by trade, when Moise married, he secured a legacy of growing up Jewish in a sea of Christianity for his grandchildren. No one was more affected by this than grandson Edward Cohen, who, as a young child insulated by his family, thought everyone was Jewish. Only when he began school during the explosive civil rights era did Edward realize how different he was from the other children in his class. Years later, Edward looked forward to college up north where he knew he'd find other Jews, finally gaining the acceptance he never had. But in a strange twist of fate, once again Edward found himself an outsider--not as a Jew, but as a Southerner. THE PEDDLER'S GRANDSON: Growing up Jewish in Mississippi--a BookSense 76 pick in hardcover that booksellers everywhere embraced--shows so much of what is different between us, & yet, in the end, reveals what makes us all the same.

Edward Cohen was the head writer for Missippi Educational Television, where he wrote and produced several award-winning PBS documentaries. His memoir, The Peddler’s Grandson: Growing Up Jewish in Mississippi, won the awards for best nonfiction of 2000 from both Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters and the Mississippi Library Association. He is a writer and filmmaker living in Venice, California.