The museum display tells the story of, among other things, how South African Jewry helped to build the city of Johannesburg, which remains home to a large Jewish community. There is also the story of those who chose to go a different route and fanned across the country into the small rural communities. Known as smouse (or peddlers), they travelled in wagons with goods for sale and many settled in these tiny towns and villages that once had thriving Jewish communities (although this is no longer the case).