Vermont Book Shop owner Becky Dayton will join retired Middlebury College Professor Margaret "Peggy" Nelson for a discussion of her forthcoming book, Peddlers, Merchants, and Junk Dealers: Jewish Life in Small-Town Vermont.

Showcasing the largely unexplored history of Jews in very small towns like Middlebury and Vergennes, Peddlers, Merchants, and Junk Dealers is a novel account of Jewish community and belonging in rural communities such as ours. The book features the stories of the Fishman and Lazarus families, among others, and connects them to a wider pattern of settlement and integration into predominantly Christian communities across northern New England and New York State. Interviews with descendants of the men who trekked their wares across mountain ranges—on their backs or with rickety wagons through mud and snow—and the women who married and bore their children enliven the pages of this scholarly, yet immensely readable history.

Books will be available for purchase and signing. Light refreshments will be served. 

All are welcome. Free.