One of my favorite stories I’ve written since joining the Jewish Light dates back to 2021, when I stumbled onto the story of Sol Star, a Jewish founder of Deadwood whose life helped shape the Wild West. I loved the reporting. I loved the headline. I thought it was a great piece.
Almost no one read it.
So, when I recently came across a new story in the Forward by historian Austin Albanese about why so many small-town Jews were buried in big cities, I stopped. As I read, I kept thinking about Sol Star and wondered if Albanese’s work finally explained the why behind a detail that always felt curious…