Few Southern cities have been a richly blessed by the contributions of their Jewish communities as Charlotte. In honor of Jewish Heritage Month, Henry Bemis Books is pleased to offer a work from our Carolinas/Regional collections:
Morris Speizman, This Week’s Miracle (Charlotte, NC: Heritage Printers, 1968). LOC 68-29086. A well-written series of short essays on life and business. Valuable as a portrayal of the now-vanished textile industry economy in the Southeast. Speizman was a friend and correspondent with Charlotte author and editor Harry Golden; his papers are in the UNC-Charlotte library. Paperback, 8.5” x 5.5”, very good condition, 118 pp. Inscribed to legendary Charlotte actress Gladys Levitan and her husband, Jack. HBB price: $25.
According to the company’s history, “David Speizman, a Jewish Polish immigrant, emigrated from Lodz in 1905, bringing with him his family's experience in spinning, weaving, and finishing fabric. In the early 1920s, he founded the David Speizman Co. in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, after switching from peddling housewares to selling mill supplies and used weaving machines. In 1936, he sent his son, Morris, south with $2,000 to open a branch of the company in Georgia, where most of the country's weaving was done. However, Morris Speizman settled in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his pregnant wife, Sylvia, who was too tired to move on. Later that same year, he founded the Morris Speizman Company, Inc. and eventually moved into an old textile mill at the corner of North Graham and 5th Streets, an historic green office-factory-warehouse building with needlehooks painted on one outside wall.
“Few southern textile mills would deal with a Jewish northerner during the Great Depression, so Morris Speizman started selling sock knitting machines. The machines then weighed about 250 pounds, and to test their quality, buyers sometimes would lift them a few inches and drop them. Originally Speizman's business efforts were focused entirely on the purchase and sale of secondhand hosiery mill machinery. In 1939, Spiezman purchased excess equipment--about 700 machines of all types--from a Kenosha, Wisconsin, mill with the help Charlotte's Commercial National Bank. Selling about 30 of the machines to a customer in Canada, Speizman netted about $28,000 on the deal. After World War II, the business expanded to export rebuilt machines to Latin American, Cuba, and Europe. Speizman installed a rebuilding shop and thereby helped to establish the hosiery industry in Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela. During the late 1950s, he expanded operations to include importing new equipment from Europe. In the early 1960s, he opened Morris Speizman Ltd. in Canada.” The company successfully reinvented itself during the collapse of the Southern textile industry and continues to operate in Charlotte.
“Few southern textile mills would deal with a Jewish northerner during the Great Depression, so Morris Speizman started selling sock knitting machines. The machines then weighed about 250 pounds, and to test their quality, buyers sometimes would lift them a few inches and drop them. Originally Speizman's business efforts were focused entirely on the purchase and sale of secondhand hosiery mill machinery. In 1939, Spiezman purchased excess equipment--about 700 machines of all types--from a Kenosha, Wisconsin, mill with the help Charlotte's Commercial National Bank. Selling about 30 of the machines to a customer in Canada, Speizman netted about $28,000 on the deal. After World War II, the business expanded to export rebuilt machines to Latin American, Cuba, and Europe. Speizman installed a rebuilding shop and thereby helped to establish the hosiery industry in Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela. During the late 1950s, he expanded operations to include importing new equipment from Europe. In the early 1960s, he opened Morris Speizman Ltd. in Canada.” The company successfully reinvented itself during the collapse of the Southern textile industry and continues to operate in Charlotte.
In addition to his business, Speizman was very active in the Jewish and civic communities. As an author, he wrote This Week's Miracle, Our World To Come (Charlotte: Graham Publishing Co., 1975), The Jews of Charlotte (Charlotte: McNally & Loftin, 1978), and Some Things I Wish I Had Said--And Some I Did! (Charlotte: Graham Publishing Co., 1983). He died in Charlotte on July 25, 1987 and was buried in the Hebrew Cemetery. His home, a celebrated Modernist residence on two acres, was designed by Ida Webster and built on two acres on Colville Road in 1950. Acquired after Speizman’s death by Bank of America chair Hugh McColl, the property was sold to his son in 1999. The house was demolished and three modern mansions were built on the land.
Henry Bemis Books is one man’s attempt to bring more diversity and quality to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg market of devoted readers starved for choices. Our website is at www.henrybemisbookseller.blogspot.com. Henry Bemis Books is also happy to entertain reasonable offers on items in inventory; for pricing on this or others items, kindly private message us. Shipping is always free; local buyers are welcome to drop by and pick up their purchases at our location off Peachtree Road in Northwest Charlotte if they like. #MorrisSpeizman #Carolinas #JewishHeritageMonth #Book of the Day #RareBooks #HenryBemisBooks #Charlotte
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