Born in 1886 in Aleppo, Syria, Isaac Shalom immigrated to Manhattan's Lower East Side in 1910, starting as a textile peddler like many of his fellow countrymen. A successful salesman, he soon became a supplier to other Syrian Jewish immigrants. At the end of World War I, when immigration to the United States reopened, he was able to send for his family. He married Alice Chabot and founded I. Shalom & Co., which soon became the leading manufacturer of men's and women's handkerchiefs and accessories.

As New York's Syrian Jewish community prospered, moving across the river from Manh…