Although Sue Anne Bangel never met her grandfather, she knew early on that he was the one who founded Nachman's department store, the downtown landmark on 32nd Street and Washington Avenue that drew shoppers from all around Hampton Roads.
A plaque with the image of Sol Nachman, who died in 1929 before Bangel was born, stood inside the entrance to the store, which Bangel passed through countless times as a child in the 1940s.
''Any time you went out of the 32nd Street entrance, it was there, just inside the door at eye-level,'' Bangel said.
The plaque was removed by 1973 when the Nachman family sold the store. But Sol Nachman's image will once again gaze at visitors when an exhibit on Jewish life in Virginia opens Monday in Richmond.
''Commonwealth and Community: The Jewish Experience in Virginia'' will run at the Virginia Historical Society/The Center of Virginia History in Richmond through Sept. 14.
The exhibit, the first of its kind to examine the Jewish role in the growth of Virginia society, addresses issues of assimilation, anti-Semitism, and Jewish contributions to society.
Sponsored by the Virginia Historical Society and the Jewish Community Federation of Richmond, the exhibit features several artifacts from Jewish families on the Peninsula, including the plaque of Nachman.
Visitors to the exhibit will find that Jews have been an integral part of Virginia life since the state's first Jewish congregation formed in Richmond in the 1790s, said James Kelly, assistant director for museum programs. There are now about 9,000 Jews in Virginia.
''The revelation to Jews and to other Virginians will be the degree to which Jews have not stood out of the mainstream in Virginia,'' Kelly said. For example, Jews were no different from most Virginians in their support of slavery, Kelly said. The exhibit includes a life insurance certificate from a Jewish landowner who had slaves.
''A lot of people today believe most Jews in Virginia were hostile to slavery,'' Kelly said. ''Jews were slaveholders just as other people owned slaves. Most Jews in Virginia supported the Confederacy. This comes as a revelation to people who think since Jews were slaves in Egypt that they all would have opposed slavery.''
The exhibit will also describe why there was a concentration of Jewish-owned retail businesses in Virginia, Kelly said. Nachman's Department Store was one of many businesses that Jews started after immigrating to the United States.
''Jews in Europe were discriminated against and not allowed to own land, so farming never really became a Jewish tradition,'' Kelly said.
Bangel, a member of the Peninsula Jewish Historical Society, said she was happy that the museum chose to display the plaque of her grandfather, who was born in Lithuania in 1848, immigrated to the United States and started his first department store in 1893.
''Here was an immigrant family entering the country seeking a place to raise their children, worship where they wanted and improve their lives,'' Bangel said. ''This was a business that he used to try to meet the needs of the community.''
Other artifacts in the exhibit include:
* A 1789 business license of silversmith Isaiah Isaacs, who was perhaps the first Jew in Richmond
* A death certificate of the wife of Rabbi Abraham B. Mirmelstein, the first Jewish spiritual leader in Newport News.
* Handbills of Virginia House of Delegates member Alan Diamonstein and a button from the political campaign of Newport News Mayor Joe Frank.
* WHAT: ''Commonwealth and Community: The Jewish Experience in Virginia''
* WHEN: March 17-Sept. 14 (10 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday-Saturday; 1 p.m.-5 p.m. Sunday)
* WHERE: Virginia Historical Society/The Center for Virginia History, 428 N. Boulevard
* ADMISSION: $4 adults, $3 seniors, $2 children and students