FEBRUARY 23 • 2023 | 55

barrels. A film clip shows a 
busy street on the Lower East 
side that’s lined with pushcart 
vendors. In one scene, a 
policeman intimidates a vendor 
to get him to move his cart. 
Eventually, these immigrants 
opened their own restaurants, 
serving the foods from their 
homelands. 

Joel Russ, original owner 
of Russ and Daughters on the 
Lower East Side, sold smoked 
fish from a pushcart until he 
opened his own shop in 1914. 
The restaurant was passed 
down from generations and is 
still a popular Jewish culinary 
takeout shop and restaurant 
today. 
During World War II, New 
Yorkers sent American soldiers 
Jewish deli food in the mail. 
Delicatessens and kosher 
butcher shops had heavily 
promoted the idea of sending 
hard salami to Jewish service 
members during the war. The 
slogan “Send a Salami to Your 
Boy in the Army” was originally 
developed by Sixth Avenue 
Delicatessen waiter Louis 

Schwartz but was used by other 
delis including Katz’s — which 
proudly displays the slogan to 
this day. A reproduction sign 
of that ad can be seen at the 
exhibit. There’s also a letter on 
display from a soldier stationed 
in Italy writing to his fiancee 
about the salami his mom sent 
him.
After the war, Holocaust 

survivors and refugees relocated 
to the United States, and 
delis were a lifeline as they 
acclimated to a new country. 
The establishments provided a 
livelihood and purpose for the 
immigrants. 
In the heyday of the deli, 
many establishments became 
icons and tourist attractions. At 
one point, there were thousands 

of Jewish delis in New York. 
Celebrities frequented these 
Jewish eateries and sky-high 
sandwiches were even named 
after them. The famed Reuben’s 
Restaurant offered a Frank 
Sinatra (cream cheese, tongue, 
bar-le-duc, sweet pickle on 
whole wheat) a Ray Bolger 
(turkey, tomato and crisp 
bacon) and a Judy Garland 
(Nova and Swiss cheese), 
among many more celebrity 
tailor-made sandwiches. Their 
1952 menu is on display.
Although Manhattan 

MANUFACTURERS, 45 E. HOUSTON STREET, C. 1900/ PATRICIA D. KLINGENSTEIN LIBRARY, NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Detroit Jewish 
Delicatessen 
History 
According to Catherine 
Cangany, executive 
director of the Jewish 
Historical Society of 
Michigan, the first 
Jewish deli in Detroit 
was operational in 1904 
by Charles Simons. 
Simons lived above his 
deli at 1507 Woodward 
Ave. The following year, 
Isadore Lichtenstein was 
operating a deli at 319 
Woodward Ave., before 
going bankrupt in 1908. 
There’s a record of a 
deli opening in Grand 
Rapids in 1905, and one 
in Kalamazoo in 1909, 
but the owners are not 
known. 
“The Detroit Yiddish 
Directory lists one 
unnamed delicatessen 
in 1907 — probably 
Lichtenstein’s. Lefkovsky’s 
was a well-known Jewish 
deli that first appears in 
the 1909 city directory,” 
reports Cangany, “along-
side Meyer Davis and 
Nathan Brodder’s deli 
at 514 Hastings St. The 
well-known Boesky’s 
Delicatessen was 
operational by 1920.” 

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the United States 
experienced an influx of Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants 
from Central and Eastern Europe. As they settled into their 
new homeland, many of these immigrants began to sell 
food in their communities, starting businesses that grew 
into the restaurants we know today.

IMAGE PROFESSIONALS GMBH / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

Some delis followed their customers to the rapidly expanding suburbs, 
while others remained in historically Jewish urban neighborhoods 
as new immigrants moved in, often from Latin America and the 
Caribbean. Although New York City remained the epicenter of Jewish 
deli culture, new delis opened across the United States in fast-growing 
cities in the American South and Midwest.

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