Since the earliest days of the British fur trade, Jewish pioneers have made Michigan their home. This text captures the struggles and triumphs of Michigan’s Jews as they worked to establish farms, businesses and synagogues, sparking commercial and residential development throughout the state, and even into the far reaches of the Upper Peninsula. Cantor celebrates both urban and rural immigrants, who supplied essential goods and services to those in lumbering, mining, and automobile manufacturing. The book also deals honestly with questions of anti-Semitism and prejudice. Cantor’s book shows how, in the quest to build strong communities, Jewish residents also helped create the foundations of the Michigan we know today.