The Jewish pedlar: An untold criminal history

by Tony Kushner

Overview

An imaginative investigation into a historical crime that sheds new light on Jewish history.

In 1734 a pedlar turned smuggler named Jacob Harris slit the throats of three people in a pub in Sussex. This triple-murder, for which he was hanged and gibbeted, remains the most violent crime ever committed by a British Jew. Yet today it is all but forgotten.

In The Jewish pedlar, Tony Kushner goes in search of the enigmatic Harris. Digging into a remarkable range of sources, from law records and newspaper reports to ballads and folktales, he follows the traces of Harris’s legend across three hundred years of British history. In doing so, he reconstructs the world of Jewish pedlars and criminals across many continents. The lives these figures eked out at the margins of society paint a picture of persistent antisemitism – but also of remarkable integration.

Intellectually bold and deeply humane, The Jewish pedlar takes a new, grassroots approach to the history of Jews in the modern world, shedding light on everyday lives from the Enlightenment to the Holocaust and beyond.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781526178015
Publisher:	Manchester University Press
Publication date:	05/20/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	344
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Tony Kushner is James Parkes Professor of Jewish/Non-Jewish Relations at the University of Southampton. He is the author of numerous books, including Journeys from the Abyss: The Holocaust and Forced Migration from the 1880s to the Present (2017) and Anglo-Jewry since 1066: Place, Memory and Locality (2009).
Tony Kushner is Professor in History and director of the Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations at the University of Southampton

Table of Contents

Part I: The evidence
Introduction
1 Jacob Harris and the murders of 1734: the archive
2 Folklore and naming: in search of Jacob Harris
Part II: The long eighteenth century
3 Jacob Harris in early modern Jewish history
4 Jewish criminality
5 The Jewish pedlar
Part III: The nineteenth century
6 England
7 The British Empire
8 Ireland and Scotland
Part IV: The twentieth century and beyond
9 The global Jewish refugee crisis
10 The Holocaust and culture wars in Sussex
11 Jacob Harris in the long twentieth century
Conclusion
Index

Editorial Reviews

'A fascinating example of the new kind of social history of Jews and migration that Kushner has helped pioneer during his long career.'
The Jewish Chronicle

'A wonderful read! A topic too often neglected and brought to light with drama, sensitivity and rigorous scholarship. Essential for a full understanding of the contemporary Jewish world.'
Harry Freedman, author of Shylock's Venice

‘The Jewish pedlar tells the riveting story of Jacob Harris, whose turbulent life became the stuff of legends and ballads. It also challenges any idea you may have had about what a Jew is or can be.’
Miri Rubin, author of Cities of Strangers

‘This innovative and readable history of crime is Kushner at his best. Weaving the seemingly smallest local detail into global historical themes, he offers an analysis of Jacob Harris that not only shines light on a marginalised personal and local history but explains how stories grow and change over time and place. Through Harris, Kushner brings to life the story of the Jewish pedlar, of Jewish/non-Jewish relations, and the history of racism and colonialism.’
Gavin Schaffer, author of An unorthodox history

‘Compelling, rewarding, filled with telling detail and provocative insight, The Jewish pedlar reveals an unexpected and adventurous story. A single notorious crime remembered across four centuries of ethnic and colonial history – Kushner’s account ranges from obscure life story to transnational trade networks of diasporic experience.’
Peter Leese, author of Migrant Representations

‘The past is never dead. Unveiling layer upon layer, Tony Kushner makes this abundantly clear as he explains why the life and crimes of an eighteenth-century Jewish pedlar, Jacob Harris, are worthy of contemplation. Beautifully written. A tour de force.’
Milton Shain, author of A Perfect Storm: Antisemitism in South Africa

'The Jewish pedlar not only provides an illuminating viewpoint of this overlooked part of British history but is also engaging to read. It uncovers the various threads with a scholarly balance that neither sensationalises nor falls prey to nostalgia. Tony Kushner's refreshing approach widens the scope for subjective stories to emerge while providing the important wider context.'
Mia Spiro, Senior Lecturer in Modern Jewish Culture and Holocaust Studies, University of Glasgow

‘Professor Kushner's newest book is path-breaking both in its methodology and in its scope. It is a carefully researched quest for the historical Jacob Harris, a Jewish pedlar who was convicted and hanged for a triple murder in eighteenth-century Sussex, and a thoughtful reflection on how the themes of Jewish criminality and Jewish peddling have resonated in British culture since then.’
Todd M. Endelman, author of The Last Anglo-Jewish Gentleman

‘The eighteenth-century Jewish pedlar at the centre of this rollicking book could scarcely be more different from those few who developed into retail barons. This is not a dry, dispassionate study of Jewish pedlars, as might be assumed. It concerns one in particular who is better understood – in this masterful telling by Tony Kushner – as integral to a largely hidden “criminal history”. It’s a mighty good one, at that.’
Michael Berkowitz, Professor of Modern Jewish History, UniversityCollege London

‘Beginning with the fascinating story of an eighteenth-century Jewish pedlar and murderer, Tony Kushner brings new insights to Jewish history that extend over centuries and continents. The Jewish pedlar is a remarkable achievement.’
David Feldman, Director, Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism

'It was a riveting read, beautifully written, and made the incredibly difficult task of balancing antisemitism with integration (while retaining the human element) seem effortless.'
Dean Irwin, Visiting Fellow in Anglo-Jewish Medieval History, Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies

From the Publisher