Shylocks to superheroes: Jewish scrap dealers in Anglo-American popular culture

Abstract

For centuries, Jewish entrepreneurs have worked in the second-hand goods economy. Closely allied with pawnbroking, dealing in second-hand goods made it possible for Jews, often forbidden from owning land or joining craft guilds and unions, to earn a living in much of Europe. As Jews left eastern and central Europe for England, the British Commonwealth, and the United States, they took their knowledge of second-hand goods with them and built on established peddlers’ networks to create businesses that dealt in scrap materials like metals, paper, rags, and hides. From that foundation, Jewish scrap dealers came to deal in military surplus, used and new furniture, and auto parts. Although underappreciated and obscured in the present day, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the figures of Jews who dealt in second-hand goods loomed large enough to appear in popular culture in literature, on stage, and on screen, both films and television. Even comic books – a literary genre shaped by Jewish entrepreneurs and artists – got into the scrap.