Live Long Enough

Not long after I returned from the service and my time in California I read in the Letters To the Editor department of the local newspaper a letter from an irate lady bemoaning the fact that "We" have built the community and the Jews have moved in.

Of course my family was in the fourth generation in the town and my interest in the participation of Jews in the community has abides to this date.

In the early days of the town it was the jumping off place for miners, herders and anyone heading for northrtn Idaho and Montana. Many scions of San Fancisco Jewish families came to W. W.

The first department store in the state and for many years the longest surviving one was started by a Jewish family who also participated in forming a major bank and newspaper.

Now I get an e-mail asking for information about a pioneer family in the area, a very prominent one. The writer says he is doing a geneology study and finds that this family has hidden its Jewish origins.