The Jews of Hamblen County, Tennessee: Morristown’s Bible-Belt Symbiosis of Industry, Culture, and Faith

During the Great Depression, a wave of innovative businessmen descended into the hills of East Tennessee and, together with the mountain men and women of Morristown, forged the most successful industry of its kind in the history of the United States. The Jewish families of these Hamblen County industrialists, nurtured by the partnerships and affections of their Christian brothers and sisters, developed the cultural landscape, bolstered infrastructure, and bore witness to the end of segregation while maintaining their own religious identities. Most importantly, they took care of each other while demonstrating the social responsibility of tikkun olam that resonates today. Gary Gerson grew up in these friendly folds, and while researching his own family’s origins and relationships long after the Jews had gone, he discovered a broader love story in this Judeo-Christian symbiosis, the lovely remaining fragments of Morristown’s mid-century economic and artistic partnerships woven together here, as comforting as an Appalachian quilt.