56 October 3, 1975
AgimmiPummi -THr NIRO IT JEWISH
- NEWS
A Bicentennial Feature
Trials and Accomplishments of Jewish Farmers in U.S.
In 1837, a small group of
New York Jews formed the
Jewish Agricultural Settle-
ment, and purchased 485
acres in New York's Ulster
County in the Catskill
Mountains.
They called it Sholom,
and it marked the first Jew-
ish farming community in
the United States.
They drew up plans for a
synagogue, and consecrated
land for a cemetery. But un-
fortunately their settlement
coincided with the hard
times of 1837-40, and in 1839
they appealed to the Span-
ish Portuguese Shearith Is-
rael Congregation of New
York for aid in building
their synagogue.
Shearith Israel didn't
happen to have any sur-
plus funds at the time, and
colonists were obliged to
complete the edifice out of
their own slender re-
sources.
The land bought by the
new settlers was practically
all virgin. It had never be-
fore been brought under the
plow.
At the same time, they
had to find some means to
earn a livelihood. Some en-
gaged in small home crafts,
some in peddling, others in
tailoring and shoemaking.
One of them, Joseph
Davis, opened up a general
store and lunchroom in the
new village.
Another of the settlers,
Solomon Samelson, acted as
the rabbi and shochet.
Sholom prospered for a
while, but for a while only.
The soil was poor and
rocky, the winters long and
arduous and the growing
season short.
Markets for their prod-
ucts were far away.
In 1842 nine out of the 12
holdings were reclaimed
by their original owner,
while three settlers, Ig-
natz Newman, Joseph
Davis and Zion Bernstein,
still hung on.
In 1851 these last three
founders of the colony sold
their lands and returned to
the city.
During the 1880s, after
the outbreak of pogroms in
Russia caused a large influx
of Russian immigrants to
America, more than 16 Jew-
ish farming communities
were established. They were
located in Louisiana, Ar-
kansas, Kansas, the Dako-
tas, Colorado, Oregon and
New Jersey.
Only the New Jersey co-
lonies, close to New York
and Philadelphia, lasted
more than a few years.
Ratifying the American Constitution
BY DAVID SCHWARTZ
(Copyright 1975, JTA, Inc.)
Now that we are through
observing the Jewish New
Year, it may be proper to re-
call an event which also oc-
curred in September, which
opened a new American
world. The big meeting at
Philadelphia which framed
the American Constitution.
We still have the same
Constitution, with added
admendments, but it was a
very different world then.
Today there are some 200
million people in the United
States; then there were
some four million. Four mil-
lion people spread over 13
different nations.
There were many other
differences, but there was
one similarity to present
day conditions. The problem
of the Middle East troubled
the country then, as it does
today.
The so-called Barbary
states—Tunis, Tripoli,
Algeria and Morocco—
were in the habit of seizing
the crews and passengers
of ships going through the
Mediterranean and hold-
ing them for ransom.
John Adams, the first
American Ambassador to
England, came to grips with
that problem and it was the
chief problem facing Jeffer-
son, Ambassador to France.
Most of Jefferson's time was
spent in trying to ransom
Americans taken captive by
the Arabs.
Jefferson, addressing his
fellow envoys, urged the or-
ganization of an interna-
tional fleet to end the pir-
acy. All the nations agreed
to it except America.
The U.S. held back not be-
cause it did not approve of
the idea, but because the
measure required that the
U.S. should supply one frig-
ate for this international
naval force and Congress
knew from past experience
that getting the individual
states to appropriate money
was next to impossible.
It was this impotence of
Congress which was one of
the reasons for calling a
Constitutional convention.
It wasn't easy to get the
states interested. The first
invitation sent out was
almost completely ig-
nored.
Then Alexander Hamil-
ton had a bright idea. He
suggested that the states be
invited to send delegates to
a convention to consider in-
ter-state trade. Everyone
was interested in more
trade. After the delegates
gathered, they decided to
enlarge their agenda.
It has been said that
Hamilton knew Hebrew.
One legend has it that he
could recite the Ten Com-
mandments in Hebrew. Al-
len McLane Hamilton, a
descendent of Hamilton, in
his biography of his famous
ancestor, denied that. Ham-
ilton was familiar with He-
brew, but he does say that
Hamilton had studied Jew-
ish history and marvelled at
Jewish survival.
Hamilton once wrote:
"The progress of the Jew
from earliest history to the
present time has been so en-
tirely out of thee -course of
human affairs as to lead to
the conclusion that it is the
effect of a great Providen-
tial plan."
Hamilton had a half
brother, Peter Levin, who
was half Jewish, the
THOMAS JEFFERSON
offspring of his mother's
Jewish marriage.
There were no Jews at the
Constitutional convention.
There were only between
three and four thosand Jews
in all the states and maybe
the Jews figured since Ham-
ilton, who knew Jewish his-
tory, was there it would be
all right.
However, one of the books
of the Bible played a part in
ratification of the Constitu-
tion by the states.
When the question of rat-
ification came before the
Massachusetts convention,
one delegate, who was a
preacher, said he would not
vote in favor of any Consti-
tution which did not men-
tion the name of God. Then
one of the pros answered the
preacher, saying that one of
the books of the Bible didn't
mention God.
"Show me a book of the
Bible that doesn't and I
will vote for the Constitu-
tion." So the book of Es-
ther was produced and the
preacher delegate voted to
ratify.
Philadelphia staged a
mammoth parade to cele-
brate the final ratification
of the Constitution. The
Pennsylvania Gazette, writ-
ing of the parade, said that
the most inspiring part was
the walking arm in arm of a
rabbi with a Christian min-
ister. It said this was a prac-
tical demonstration of the
freedom of religion which
the new Constitution guar-
anteed.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON
The unfortunate results
of the early Jewish coloni-
zation efforts served to fo-
cus thought on the necess-
ity of guidance and
direction to replace plan-
less drifting.
Interested Jewish leaders
presented the need to Baron
Maurice de Hirsch, the Jew-
ish philanthropist, who had
already provided endow-
ments for Jewish coloniza-
tion in various parts of the
world.
The Baron de Hirsch
Fund was established in the
U.S. in 1891. The promotion
of agriculture was but one
of the items in the Baron de
Hirsch Fund's program and
it was soon necessary, in
1900, to establish the Jewish
Agricultural Society.
The Society guided the
farm buyer and protected
him against fraud in his
farm purchase, finding
farm employment for Jew-
ish youth, extending credit
in the shape of farm loans,
making available informa-
tion on a wide range of mat-
ters pertaining to the tech-
nical and business sides of
farming, fostering agricul-
tural cooperatives, publish-
ing an agricultural maga-
zine in Yiddish, sending
field instructors from farm
to farm, awarding scholar-
ships and granting loans to
agricultural students and
maintaining a rural sanita-
tion service.
The Society's long-time
President, Gabriel David-
son, annually cited statis-
tics to show the massive
growth of Jewish farms in
the United States during
the first 30 years of this
century.
The Jewish Agricultural
Society estimated that be-
tween 80-100,000 Jewish
farmers worked the land an-
nually.
One of the earliest Michi-
gan experiences was with
the ill-fated Bad Axe Colony
Vineland, N.J. (1882), and
the all-Jewish town of
Woodbine, N.J. (1891),
survived into the 20th Cen-
tury. Their staples were
vegetables, especially
sweet potatoes and small
fruits.
Early in the 20th Cen-
tury, both Vineland and
Woodbine unfurled the ban-
ner of "Chickenville," joined
later by Jewish farm com-
munities in Toms River and
Farmingdale, N.J.
GABRIEL DAVIDSON
in Michigan's Thumb area.
Calling themselves the Pa-
lestine Colony, Hyman Lew-
enberg and 11 other families
purchased 10 adjoining par-
cels of land five miles north-
east of Bad Axe (east of Bay
City).
The group had a hard
struggle because of lack of
farming experience, insuffi-
cient capital and poor land.
The poultry industry was
able to absorb Jewish immi-
grants in the 1930s, and be-
yond World War II, with
new centers in the Lake-
wood, N.J. area, Colchester,
Manchester, and Danielson,
Conn., and Petaluma,
Calif. (north of San Fran-
cisco).
Martin Butz -el, at that
time president of Temple
Beth El Hebrew Relief
Society in Detroit, secured
relief funds for the farmers
from his own group and
the Baron de Hirsch Fund.
More than $3,000 was
raised, and four new fami-
lies joined the pioneers in
1892. According to Huron
County historian Chet Hey,
the Bad Axe Colony at most
numbered 75 members in 21
families. Mike Ellies was
the last to leave, in Decem-
ber 1915.
The synagogue the group
constructed was moved and
remodeled into a farm
home, and the now aban-
doned Verona No. 3 school
was constructed on the site.
Two of the farmers, Hei-
denrich and Malenoff, oper-
ated stores and a salvage
business in Bad Axe for a
number of years, and others
were peddlers in the area.
In the East, however,
the settlements ringing
MARTIN BUTZEL
At the end of World War
II, there were about 20,000
Jewish farm families with
perhaps fewer than half
that number by the late
1960s, mainly because of
trends which have led to a
decline of American agricul-
ture generally down to only
five per cent of the total
population.
Golda's 'My Life' Due Nov. 3
NEW YORK — "My
Life," the autobiography of
Golda Meir, a native Rus-
sian who grew up in the
United States and became
the prime minister of Israel,
will he published and re-
leased by G. P. Putnam's
Sons Nov. 3.
Mrs. Meir traces her life
as American immigrant,
wife and mother, Zionist,
socialist, Palestinian pi-
oneer, diplomat, and states-
woman. She recalls her ear-
liest memories of childhood
in czarist Russia, her fami-
ly's emigration to Milwau-
kee and her first public ap-
pearance at age 11,
organizing a meeting to buy
textbooks for the poorest
children in her fourth-grade
class.
It was through friends of
her older sister, Sheyna,
that her concern as a social-
ist and Zionist developed,
and in 1921, newly married
to Morris Meyerson, she
sailed for Palestine, to ar-
rive at the shockingly un-
derdeveloped Jewish settle-
ment of Tel Aviv.
Mrs. Meir faced the dif-
ficulties of adjusting, not
only to marriage, but to
life on the Merhavia ki-
butz. Her position, first as
kibutz committeewoman
and later in the Histadrut,
brought her face to face
with officials of the British
administration and with
the problems of the Pales-
tinians, both Jewish and
Arab.
She recounts the impact
of World War II on the Jews
of Palestine and her fury at
fellow socialist Ernest Bevin
when as British foreign sec-
retary, he blocked further
Jewish immigration to the
Holy Land.
She describes her political
career as Israel's labor min-
ister, foreign minister, and
finally prime minister,
against the background of
her conflicting roles as wife
and mother.
Mrs. Meir writes not
only about the famous Is-
raelis with whom she
worked so intimately, such
as David Ben-Gurion, Levi
Eshkol and Moshe Dayan,
but also about the world
leaders whom she encoun-
tered, such as President
Kennedy, President
Nixon, Secretary of State
Kissinger, President de
Gaulle, and Prime Minis-
ter Wilson. She also openly
discusses Israel's right to
exist, the saga of the Bri-
tish Mandate, the Arab
question and all that this
crucial issue implies, in-
cluding the problem of the
Arab refugees.
Intensely personal, "My
Life" gives voice to Mrs.
Meir's deepest feelings as a
woman, a wife, and a
mother, and illuminates the
concerns and aims that mo-
tivated one of this century's
most uncommon politicians.