This Book recounts Sol Shulman’s seventy-year business career in Appalachia

Jews in Appalachia? Who knew? Read about this amazing man who came to Sylva, NC, (current pop. 2200) at the age of 19 during the depths of the Depression and started a store that his first visitors—a “welcoming committee” of men from the town—said would never last. Were they wrong! Schulman’s Department Store lasted, with Sol running it for all seventy years.

While this book is very much an ode to the extraordinary Sol Schulman, it also provides a window into the marginalized Jewish culture that at first blush seems to be far distant from the main streets of Appalachian life. In so doing, Sol Schulman and authors Schochet and Fahrer serve to dissipate long-held myths and stereotypes relating to Jewish culture in the Appalachian region.—Ron Pen, Associate Professor, University of Kentucky; Director, John Jacob Niles Center for American Music

With great humanity, The Man Who Lived on Main Street reveals how a business can give so much back to its customers . . . It documents the ways an outsider became a welcome part of his community.—John Cohen, documentary photographer, filmmaker and musician

This collection of stories represents the best kind of history—history that has meaning to us all, enlarges our view of the world, and warms our heart.—Marcie Cohen Ferris, Assistant Professor, UNC-Chapel Hill; Associate Director, Carolina Center for Jewish Studies

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