Lévy et les vaches

“Which market are you off to this morning? Saverne or Nancy? – Saverne. – You’re only saying Saverne, so I’ll think you’re going to Nancy. But I know you’re really off to Saverne. No use in trying to trick me!… You think I’m a goy or what?!” I often heard this well-known Jewish story from my paternal grandfather, Edgar Lévy, who had made it his own as being part and parcel of the daily business of his corporation: the Jewish animal traders from Alsace-Lorraine. In the local dialect, the goys, or non-Jews, called a trader a Viehjud, which literally means “the Jew with the animals” (or sometimes Kühjud'”the Jew with cows”). Like his ancestors since the 17th century, my grandfather continued the Jewish family tradition of animal trading at Phalsburg, on the Alsace-Lorraine border. In 1950, when the trade was at its height, my father, who had never shone at school, went into the profession for ten years under the guidance of his father and his uncle. My father, who quit the profession forty years ago, is now retired. It was with his help, experience and memories that I wished to tell the story of the corporation.