Professor Marni Davis (University of Georgia) got the idea to write her Ph.D. thesis –subsequently a book – on the relationship between American Jews and Prohibition when, as a graduate student, she came across a newspaper caption to a picture showing Jews in front of a saloon. The paper – dating back to the 1920s –highlighted how Jewish immigrants in Atlanta constituted a high percentage of saloon owners.   As Professor Davis stressed during a recent conference at Georgetown University, between 1920 and 1933 discussions about Jewish involvement in the production and trade of alcohol – in particular whiskey – were quite frequent.   Why were Jews attracted to the alcohol market in the United States?   First, the majority of Jews living in the U.S. at that time were Eastern European immigrants who had been involved in the “spirits” business...

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