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The beloved piece of Americana started with a Russian immigrant's foundering tobacco business before becoming a cultural icon in the US and as far away as Israel
The Jewish history of Bazooka bubble gum
This article originally appeared on The Nosher.
Chew on this: One of America’s most iconic gum brands was originally a Jewish-owned tobacco business.
In 1891, Morris Chigorinsky emigrated from Russia to the United States, where in the early 1900s he assumed control of the American Leaf Tobacco Company. But by 1938 by then Chigorinsky had changed his surname to Shorin the business was flailing. His four sons decided to save the family from certain penury by starting a new penny candy business, Topps Chewing Gum Inc., with the name borrowed from an eponymous Chattanooga candy company they purchased.