Well, of course, what you're trying to do is lay a modern, politically-correct template over a paradigm that wasn't always so politically correct.

The answer to your question is: a store founded by Askenazy Jews, dating back to a time when different ethnic groups in NYC and across the USA still had quitre rigid differentiations and "monolithic" presences.

Saks, Sakowitz, Bendel's, Neiman-Marcus, are but a few department stores founded by American Jews, when department stores were considered "acceptable" avocations by a racially-intolerant America.

Not pretty, perhaps.

But I think MAD MEN is trying to show that these racial striations were still very much visible in the USA by the early-1960's.

I think Matt Weiner was trying to delicately, but pointedly, show how America has often tended to have an unspoken-but-pernicious "caste" system. Whereby SUPPOSEDLY the richest black man in America was still somehow socially inferior to the poorest, stupidest white person. Or in Don's and Rachel's case, the way Rachel--- despite having successfully helmed a major NYC corporation--- is still seen as a "Jewess" from the POV of Don and his ilk.

NYCGuy, I suspect you're making an arch, self-consciously thorny observation in order to spur some heated commentary. But if you're not, you're due for some study of how different clans fought for respect and recognition in the first half of the 20thc in America.

An authentic Jewish department store requires you to present your foreskin for admission.

Rachel's store is patterned on Abraham & Straus. However, hers was not on Lexington across from Bloomie's. It was on 57th between 5th and Park, across from Bonwit Teller.

stocky said: Rachel's store is patterned on Abraham & Straus. However, hers was not on Lexington across from Bloomie's. It was on 57th between 5th and Park, across from Bonwit Teller.

A&S was in Brooklyn. Shopped with Mom there as a kid. Later shopped at the Hempstead, LI branch after Mom learned to drive and bought a car...a '53 Chevy Bel Aire.

Her store was not like Abraham and Strauss. She had an upscale store more like Saks. And you'll recall that she told Don that he knows where her store is when he said he'd have a look at it, 'One block over and a dozen up" so it's near Tiffany, Chanel, Christian Dior. Don's office is about 45th and Madison. I'd guess that her store is Bergdorf Goodman which is right there because the inside in MadMen did look a bit like the old Vanderbilt mansion that is now the store.

Rasputin has the right of it. The description is accurate if you're reading it from a 1960 perspective and likely it was deliberately done that way to help cue the viewer that they're entering another time, place and cultural norm. One where a big deal will be made of the fact that Rachel is Jewish and her department store is thought of as Jewish--whether it really is or not. One where the caste system of ethnicities was still so solidly in place that even in NYC, Don Draper can say that he's never had a Jewish client and knows nothing about Jews or Judaism.

In fact, it's the whole point of that first episode. Rachel wants her department store to NOT be seen as a Jewish store. She wants to be sure that people think of her store as on par with Saks and Nieman-Marcus--which might have been founded by Jews but by the 60's were viewed only as great department stores.

When she comes to SC, Don gives her a spiel about money-saving "coupons" and she takes it as the bigoted insult it is. Rachel comes to SC to erase that misconception that her store is only for old Jewish women; Don's attempt to maintain the stereotype infuriates her. She sets him straight very quickly, and in this intolerant time, when SC has to reach down almost to the mail room to find someone Jewish working for them, Rachel starts to teach Don about letting go of such ingrained cultural biases.

There is, by the way, a great visual joke in that first scene with Rachel. After having made a big deal over the fact that they're meeting a Jewish client, and trying to find someone Jewish who works for them to sit in on the meeting so the client will feel comfortable, what elegant refreshment do they serve? Shrimp cocktails. They look delicious and likely she doesn't keep kosher, but in our here-and-now, where businesses know the client down to their food allergies and whether or not they're vegan, that would never happen.

No you are all off track. The author was right. A jewish dep't store is where you go to buy a Jew. I bought a bernie madoff, but had to put him on lay-away. I also got a Rod Carew and a Sammy Davis Jr. years ago.

Cultural observer Leo Rosten points out that there are more Jews in greater New York City than in Tel Aviv.

Thus Sterling-Coo's gaffes are not insubstantial.

Given this, it further cements the wry observation a number of us have had about Sterling-Cooper in our posts here: that, despite their best intentions, they are always slightly "behind the curve" of successful thought and practice, evinced in the Mencken subplot and in others.

This is grist for plenty of humor and story-generation within the MM plot, no doubt pointing up, as mentioned above, real gaffes that took place in the careers of real "Mad Men" back when postwar consumer tastes were just being codified and exploited...

P.S. Do you suppose "Mencken" is a subtle allusion to H.L. Mencken, the notedly acerbic social commentator of midcentury?

@ thirteen

It was also wickedly funny in that shrimp cocktail scene, the way the mail boy they dig up from downstairs is-- bless 'im--- quite nebbishy-looking. Even in the best of scenarios, he likely wouldn't have given Rachel much confidence.

He doesn't even know why he's been invited, but he knows he sure wants to finish his bloody mary, haha.

rasputin: Weiner makes all the Jewish men look nebbish. The mail room boy, Rachel's husband, even the nasty comedian (Don Rickles?) And in NY very few Jews except the ones in beards and long coats worry too much about what is kosher assuming they even know all of the 100's of rules. If they were even taught them they certainly forgot or didn't think they were important and few Jews could even tell you what fish is or isn't kosher.Even really well know ones like not eating pork is not strickly observed. A Jew may not eat a pork chop but yet will eat bacon. Even food that is acceptable as kosher like beef, lamb etc must still be certified as kosher and I don;t know of any Jews who would ask in a restaurant if the steak they ordered is kosher.

AMC Moderator -
An observant Jew would either ask or more likely, go to a restaurant known for adhering to kosher rules. In NYC, there are many.

In S4, MW could easily introduce as the new art director, a non-observant Jewish man with an English last name. Which happens when a Jewish woman marries a gentile. As I understand, the child, by Jewish law, is therefore a Jew.

My point was that there are not many Jews who really observe the dietary laws outside of the Hasidics and Orthodox and they won't work on friday night or Saturday either.

@Maddict123@7:56AM: Exception to "Weiner
makes all the Jewish men look nebbish." Not George Rothman. Not Tilden Katz - (despite the fact that he wasn't the looker that DD is, he knew how to conduct himself with ease in an awkward social situation, and is probably very intelligent). I doubt that "nebbish" is quite descriptive of Bobbie's husband either. The mailroon clerk, perhaps.

@Thirteen: Good catch about the shrimp cocktail -- which Rachel Menken put her cigarette out in at the end of the meeting.

Also, didn't Don first stick his hand out to the mailroon clerk, thinking that he was the Menken Dept. Store head honcho? (Since there were only two strangers standing there and the other one was a woman, naturally Don thought it was the mailroon nerd). That was another visual joke. Roger had to quickly correct Don.

Btw, here's a link to a nice short article about MM S3 and its fans, if you haven't already read it:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/11/DD8R1AHMO1.DTL

@TakeFive: "Also, didn't Don first stick his hand out to the mailroon clerk, thinking that he was the Menken Dept. Store head honcho? (Since there were only two strangers standing there and the other one was a woman, naturally Don thought it was the mailroon nerd). That was another visual joke."

Indeed, and it spoke louder than words in plunging us right into 1960! In fact the show moves us through three "caste" assumptions (sic): (1) the black waiter who almost gets in trouble with his boss just talking to Don, (2) Don's distaste for having a Jewish client, (3) Don's assumption that the client is the man (nebbish or otherwise). Bias against race, religion and gender ;-)

Which shows us not only the assumptions of the time period, but of the "club" that Don belongs to where 99% of the clients he'd meet (company owners, movers and shakers) would be white, protestant and male.

But there's more to this than putting us in that time and place. Rachel changes her mind about Don and becomes attracted to him when he makes a comment that she recognizes as coming from an "outsider" to that rarefied world rather than an "insider." Someone more like her than she originally thought. And the whole tale of Season 1 shows us, little by little, the truth about Don. That he is an outsider trying to pass as an insider.

Which makes the conclusion of Season 3 all the more interesting as Don's journey over these three years concludes in him embracing his "outsider" or rebel status, finding a place there with other rebels, and giving up on the desire to be an "insider."

@Maddict: You miss the point about serving a shrimp cocktail to Rachel. No shellfish, no pork are two biggies of Jewish dietary laws adhered to by many Jews even if they're not Orthodox. Serving up a shrimp cocktail at a meeting with a Jewish client was in bad taste, and demonstrated that SC didn't even act on what they knew about Rachel (Jewish) in picking out refreshments, let alone go as far as most businesses would now and finding out her personal food tastes.

@Thirteen: "Rachel changes her mind about Don..."
Yes, that is so true that Rachel can suddenly see into Don's estrangment from his life, and she identifies and connects with him because of that.

Your last paragraph sums up the major storyline so well that one might almost wonder where the story goes from here.

Another thought which you triggered is the fact that Roger, Bert Cooper, and Lane Pryce evidently all had the "seeds" within them to be rebels (or outsiders) themselves. But their lives up to December 13th had been played within the system. And all 3 of them had benefited (as had Don) from playing it that way.

Why would Bert and Roger risk so much (financially) by throwing in with Don? (Hopefully they can get a big "bridge loan" from a bank - ha). But my theory is:

For Bert: He's always been an eccentric rebel, (but also priviliged because I think his dad had some money). But it's the fact that he's the type to love Ayn Rand, along with all the reasons he gave to Roger...about how eveything dies if you get out of the game. And he figures at his age he needs to do whatever he can to generate excitment and freshness.

For Roger: Although truly born with the silver spoon, it's his boredom that made him "give up his points and stock" and throw in with the revolution. Had he not begun to be so disillusioned with his child bride, I don't think he would have risk it. So the timing was just right!

Excuse the long exposition; I'm writing all this as it is just ocurring to me...I hadn't actually thought very much about it before this.

Ritt1 In all of Judeo-Christian mixed marriages, the child if not brought up otherwise is the religion of the mother, because we know for sure who the mother is. Can not be 100% on poppa

Thirteen -
As big a faux pas as serving shrimp cocktail was to Rachel, an even bigger one was not having visited the store before making their recommendations in her second visit.

Roger - "Do we have any Jews working here?"
Don - "Not on my watch."

About sums it up. Like the black market, the Jewish market had their own people to do their advertising. Rachel was looking for something new but in the end, went with Grey.

@TakeFive: Good points on Bert and Roger. You're right that Bert, Randian that he is, has been slack about putting his money and person where his mouth is. If he's going to give The Fountainhead away as a life manual, then he's going to have to put-up or shut-up when the moment comes. The end of that book, after all, has the architect blowing up his building rather than having it ruined by lesser men. Bert might have been reluctant at first, but he put up in the end, and I, for one, am proud of him :-D

Roger, as I recall, inherited his part of the business, yes? If so, this might be his way of proving himself. He was pretty well told by the Brits this season that he was viewed as worthless, just a name on the company door; this was a way to prove to all the doubters that they were wrong.

And Lane, of course, wanted to finally stick it to the bosses who kept sticking it to him.

@Ritt1: Oh, absolutely, yes. The shrimp cocktail was just insult added to injury.

Thank you all for your most interesting and well-articulated responses.

Yes, my original question was a bit on the sarcastic side. However, I do still wonder if back in the 1960's or even 50's anyone in NYC thought of stores in terms of who owned them. Like I said, I go back a ways here and I have never heard that term.

I found it particularly odd that it was in the characters description as well.

Having worked in sales and management in a department store in the 1970s, I can offer these insights: The mostly Anglo-Saxon workers disliked the Jews for being Jews. The Armenians, Italians, Polish, German, African Americans, and others were anti-Semitic as well. They were also anti-Arab, anti-East Indian, anti-Asian as well. At one store we had a German tailor who had served in the German army during WWII (who, when pressed, would say he thought Hitler was a "good leader") and a store manager who was Jewish. At another store in the same chain we had a tailor who was a Polish Jew who had his concentration camp number tattooed on his wrist. Many, if not most of the store managers were Jewish. Many of the Jewish looked down on anyone who wasn't. You can imagine the conflicts and occasional "problems" this contributed to. A Jewish store manager once chided me (his assistant manager) for hiring a "Schwartze," (i.e. a Black person). As a rule, in the greater Detroit metropolitan area, the retail clothing business was seen as a primarily Jewish enterprise, sort of a carryover from New York. Overall, I look back on this volatile mix with a certain fondness. I learned to swear in several languages (sometimes within the same sentence), I experienced my first real bagels when the Jewish store manager would bring them in to work on a Sunday morning, and I learned that we don't necessarily have to like each other in order to peacefully (mostly) coexist).