Este blog fue creado para recopilar y contar las historias de los agricultores judíos que Baron Maurice de Hirsch supported in both North and South America and the follow-on stories of their descendants worldwide as well as some other stories of Jewish farmers in the Americas. See our posts on Jewish farmers in Brazil, Canada, the Catskills, Connecticut, and New Jersey and many others – check the menu drop downs under the title image.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Baron Maurice de Hirsch, the builder of the Vienna-Constantinople Railroad, and his friends, sponsored the settlement of Eastern European Jews in many lands. They spent the equivalent of $2 billion in today’s dollars, working primarily in North and South America. See more details of this background aquí
Maurice de Hirsch Vanity Fair July 26, 1890, National Portrait Gallery, London
We present written works and visuals depicting the original immigrants and we relate the achievements of the descendants of these immigrants. And there are many achievements. Our forebears were courageous and ingenious people as are their grand and great-grandchildren.
Esperamos que nos envíe sus historias y permiso para publicarlas. Hacer clic aquí to contact us. And if you have a particular question about this immigration phenomenon, let us know. We will research the answer and maybe even write an in depth post or make a post from a story you send us.
MÁS SOBRE BARON HIRSCH
Para toda la historia, lea la historia oficial de la Asociación de Colonización Judía del Barón Hirsch, Un brazo extendido.
For information on Baron Hirsch’s work in the United States through the Jewish Agricultural Society see this post by Professor Emeritus of North Carolina State University, Gary Moore.
aquí you can find over 50 different books on the life and work of Baron Hirsch.
Además, mira esto Breve resumen del trabajo del barón Hirsch con agricultores judíos.
Here is a short summary of Baron Hirsch’s life, “A Prince Among Men” written in 1931 upon the 100th anniversary of his birth.
aquí is a 1910 report from the U.S. Government on “Hebrews in Agriculture”. including many of Baron Hirsch’s projects.
Hacer clic aquí for a list of the archives worldwide of Baron Hirsch-related documents, including correspondence with individual immigrants.
Thanks also to Robert H. Gillette for providing so much information about the Hyde Park Farm for Jewish refugees in his bookthe Virginia Plan, William B. Thalhimer and a Rescue From Nazi Germany.and toMichael Caplan for his documentary film Stones from the Soil, which follows his search for the Gross Bressen farm in Germany, where many of the refugees who later settled in Virginia in the 1940s had trained.
Do click on the links below for much much more, and fascinating, information.
Virginia’s First Jews
As related in the Jewish Virtual library, “The Jewish experience in Virginia dates back to Sir Walter Raleigh’s ill-fated Roanoke Colony, then a part of the Virginia territory when Joachim Gaunse, a Prague metallurgist, landed with Raleigh in 1585.”
A few other Jews trickled in. Among the most notable, Jacob Myer accompanied George Washington in his 1754 expedition across the Allegheny Mountains. Dr. John de Sequeyra, of Williamsburg, was credited by Thomas Jefferson with introducing the custom of eating tomatoes and Commodore Uriah P. Levy of New York purchased and began the first restoration of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in 1836.
Virginia Seeks Immigrants
After the Civil War had so devastated much of the South, the Commonwealth of Virginia, looking at least in part to replace the free labor of slaves, decided to include increased immigration in its recovery plans.
This 1868 article describes Virginia’s efforts to recruit immigrants at Castle Garden in New York (the forerunner of Ellis Island).
On February 5, 1866 the legislature passed ‘An Act to Incorporate the Virginia Land and Aid Immigration Company….To purchase or lease lands in Virginia, to be resold or relet to immigrants; [and/or]To act as agents for the sale or leasing of lands, in Virginia, to immigrants.
“By May of 1866 the [Company] was advertising in the Richmond Examiner that it was sending a Director abroad to secure tenants and laborers.”1
Waterview Colony for Russian Refugees
From an article describing the life in the Waterview colony from the Baltimore Sun of April 9, 1883. Read the whole article aquí. (Zoom in)
In the early 1880s when the great wave of Russian Jewish emigrees began, Joseph Friedenwald, a German Jewish Baltimore businessman, bought 783 acres at Waterview in Middlesex County, Virginia, on the banks of the Rappahannock River, where he settled 72 Russian Jewish refugees. They were to raise tobacco, corn, oats, wheat and rye. But the settlement seemed to disband after only two years.2
Then in 1908, Rabbi Leonard Levy, Chairman of the Jewish Agriculturalists‘ Aid Society, bought 2000 acres near Richmond, planning to settle Russian Jews as farmers.3 But it seems that never happened.
Hyde Park Farm
The Thalhimer store in Richmond, Virginia. See a video on the history of the 26 stores aquí.
The approximately 30 young Jews that came to Hyde Park had been students at the Jewish Emigration Training Farm at Gross Breesen on Germany’s then eastern border, a farm that was the property of a wealthy Jewish landowner. The farm was part of a movement to give young Jewish Germans skills they could use after emigrating, or as hoped by some, to change Jewish occupations in the hope that they would be more acceptable to other Germans. Read all about Gross Bressen in this article by Heidi Landecker, the daughter of a Gross Bressen participant who then went to Hyde Park Farm in Virginia.
The Gross Bressen Experience
Curt Bondy
Gross Bressen was led by the forward leading psychologist Curt Bondy4 who was recommended for the post by the famous Jewish philosopher Martin Buber. In the evenings, after the students spent the days learning farming skills, Bondy taught crucial subjects, resilience, mindfulness and the importance of strong characters,
Jewish men captured on Kristnacht, Nov. 9, 1938, line up at Buchenwald’s special camp set up for these mass arrests. photo from U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Life at Gross Bressen was almost idyllic until November 9, 1938, Kristalnacht. On that night the German SS raided the farm and carried off most of the students and Bondy himself to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp.
Members of the Gross Bressen group left for Australia, Palestine, Kenya, England, Argentina and Hyde Park Farm in Virginia. It wasn’t easy to obtain U.S. visas. At that time, those who couldn’t offer proof that they could support themselves were barred entry and those who came with the promise of a job were barred entry as well. So Thalhimer gave each refugee a share in the Hyde Park farm making them self supported investors.
In 1941 Thalhimer had a major heart attack and for financial reasons Hyde Park Farm had to close. Almost all the young men joined the U.S. Army. Because of their native German and their deep understanding of German culture, many became spies for the U.S., many joining the famous Ritchie Boys, a secret U.S intelligence corps. Members interrogated prisoners and performed counter-intelligence duties. Some even convinced German soldiers to surrender.
Other Hyde Park participants went on to work as counselors and farm hands at the Carson College Orphanage near Philadelphia.5 After the War many Hyde Park participants received university educations with funds from the G.I. Bill.
Bondy Publishes First Studies of Concentration Camp Prisoners
Through Thailhimer’s friendship with the president of William and Mary College, Bondy had already become a professor at the College’s Richmond branch, the Richmond Professional Institute (RPI). In 1943 he published some of the first studies on the behavior of prisoners in concentration camps.6. Following WW II Bondy returned to his native Hamburg, Germany where he continued his academic career.4
Hyde Park Alumni
For first hand accounts of the lives of many Gross Bressen alumni following WWII, including those that had been at the Hyde Park Farm, see this article which describes letters written by the alumni. To read the letters themselves, some in German, some in English, click on the original document under Source in the right hand corner of the page and then you can download all the letters.
The documentary film Stones from the Soilincludes interviews with many of the Hyde Park alumni describing life at Gross Bressen.
In his second book, Escape to Virginia, From Nazi Germany to Thalhimer’s Farm, Robert Gillette tells us the story of two Hyde Park participants, Eva Jacobsohn Loew y Werner “Tom” Angress from the time they first heard of Gross Bressen through to their lives after WW II. With a Ph.d from U. of California, Berkeley, Werner became a distinguished history professor at SUNY Stony Brook University. Eva became a registered nurse, married another Hyde Park participant, Ernst Loew, and together they ran a dairy farm in Hampton, Connecticut where she served on the school board. Ernst also became a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve.
From Gillette’s the Virginia Plan, and other sources noted below we can learn about the lives of several other Hyde Park alumni. (Discussed in alphabetical order of surname.)
During WW II Ernst Cramer became a member of the U.S. Army’s secret spy corps, the Ritchie Boys. Ernst landed on Omaha Beach three days after D-Day . He interrogated German soldiers and wrote propoganda leaflets that were dropped over Germany. After the war Ernst returned to Germany where he became one of the leaders of the Axel-Springer News Conglomerate, founded in 1946 to reinstate a free press in Germany. For his efforts to support the new German democracy, Ernst was awarded one of Germany’s highest medals, the Federal Cross of Merit with Star and Band
Fallen Dream by Friedel Dzubas, 1958.
Friedel Dzubas became a very important abstract artist and studio mate of the well known artist Helen Frankenthaler. Dzubas’ work is in the collections of the Whitney and Guggenheim museums and many other prestigious institutions. See a video on Dzubas’ life aquí.
Hans George Hirsch spent the war years in the U.S. Army interpreting for German prisioners and then teaching farm management techniques to convalescing U.S. soldiers. After WW II he received a Ph.d in agriculture from the University of Minnesota and then joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture and eventually the Department’s Foreign Agricultural Service. An interview with Hans Hirsch about his whole life can be heard at this link.
Harvey P. Newman, né Neustadt, also served in the U.S. army during WW. II and then also made a career in the U.S. Foreign Agricultural Service. Read more about him at this link to the Center for Jewish History archives.
Soldiers, Journalist, and Dairy Farmers
Isidor Kirshot served in the U.S. Army in Northern Africa during WWII. He then remained in the army for his whole career, retiring as a colonel.
Marianne Regensburger returned to Germany after graduating on a scholarship from the Quaker institution, Earlham College. Marianne’s niece gives us an overview of her life aquí.
In Germany Marianne became a noted journalist. In 1962 she “converted from Judaism to Christianity…, not least because of her experiences with the Quakers in the United States during her emigration. In the final years of her life, she was a committed Christian pacifist who regularly participated in peace demonstrations such as the Easter Marches.”7
Luise Tworoger spent most of her life in Southern Florida. Luise was a teacher and served on the board of Peace Place- A Living Experience.8 Peace Place was a non-profit that fostered the inclusion of human rights and conflict resolution in educational settings.
Luise and her husband George Tworoger, also a Hyde Park participant, owned Expert Dairy Products in Miami. George was a director of the Florida Association of Milk and Food Sanitarians.9
And Even More Hyde Park Alumni
If you would like to learn about other Hyde Park Farm alumni, here is a partial list of the participants.10 Just google their names and out will come their stories.
Ginsberg, Louis. The Jewish Colony at Waterview, The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Oct. 1958. pp. 459-462. If you register for a free jstor account you can read this article online at the link under the title in this footnote. [↩]
This lecture will take you into the remarkable stories of the Bronfman and Grossinger families, along with hundreds of thousands of other Jewish immigrants, who got their starts thanks to the billions of dollars Baron Maurice de Hirsch dedicated to giving “a portion of my companions in faith the possibility of finding a new existence.”
From the pampas of Argentina to the rolling hills of southern Brazil, across the United States, and onto the windblown prairies of Canada, his generosity opened doors and transformed countless lives.
His philanthropy founded the New World’s second largest Jewish community in Argentina, sparked multibillion dollar fortunes in Brazil, introduced the first bathroom showers and the first farmers’ credit unions to the United States, helped Saskatchewan and Alberta avoid annexation by the United States, and played a key role in the development of the Jewish Catskills.
Merrie Blocker is a retired Foreign Service Officer having served in Latin America, Romania, and Central and Southern Asia, including serving as Director of the U.S. Cultural Center in Buenos Aires and Public Affairs Officer in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
In Argentina and Brazil, Merrie learned of the Jewish agricultural colonies sponsored by Baron Maurice de Hirsch. Then while translating On a Clear April Morning, an autographical novel by an immigrant to a Brazilian colony, she began to research the impact throughout the Americas of the Baron’s philanthropy on the lives of hundreds of thousands of Jewish immigrants.
Merrie holds a B.A. in American Studies from Reed College and an MFA in Museum Administration from Syracuse University. She lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with her husband, architect Ricardo Merlo, and their golden doodle, Rusty. They have three wonderful children and four marvelous grandchildren.
This is a fantastic group of documents for anyone wanting to know more about the founding of the colonies in the United States and life on those colonies.
Reviewed by Irena Karshenbaum. This review first appeared in the Winnipeg Jewish Post and News. Irena Karshenbaum is a writer, historian and heritage advocate who led a project that gifted one of the last surviving prairie synagogues — the 1916 Montefiore Institute — to Calgary’s Heritage Park. irenakarshenbaum.com
On a foggy December afternoon in 2021, I accidentally stumbled on a fascinating website, La comunidad de agricultores judíos del barón Hirsch. The golden field, on the home page, illuminated by the sun seemed to shine a ray of light into my gloomy living room. As I clicked through the different pages: Argentina, Brazil, USA, I was intrigued to discover that these countries had Jewish farming colonies and that they had received funding from Baron Maurice de Hirsch, one of 19th century’s wealthiest men and the most significant Jewish philanthropist of his time who wanted Jews to become farmers, then seen as the most honourable of occupations, and which, he believed, would be the answer to eliminating anti-Semitism.
Grossingers’ Original Farm in the Catskills
Engrossed by the stories — the Catskills’ Grossinger’s resort had its start as a Jewish farm located on rocky soil that just could not make a go of it as a farm? Who knew? — I noticed conspicuously missing was a page on the Canadian Jewish farming experience. Since most Jewish farms in Canada received at least some financial assistance from the Jewish Colonization Association (JCA), the philanthropic organization Hirsch established, I thought a Canadian chapter was warranted.
I found an email address and wrote away asking if I can contribute a story on Jewish farming in Canada, specifically about a Jewish farming colony in eastern Alberta that was once home to a synagogue — the 1916 Montefiore Institute — which had received $300 towards its construction from JCA.
The first Jews to settle permanently in the vast area that in 1905 would become the Province of Alberta tended to gravitate to the larger centres. In 1889, Calgary, already a bustling town in what was then the Northwest Territories, was in the midst of real estate speculation when the first of these settlers, Jacob Diamond, a Lithuanian immigrant, planted his roots there with his wife, Rachel (born Maria Stoodley).
Edmonton, 300 kilometres north of Calgary, is where Abraham and Rebecca Cristall settled in 1893, anchoring that town’s Jewish community.
Location of some of the Jewish bloc settlements. Excerpted from Journey into Our Heritage by Harry Gutkin, p. 56.
Even though there were independent Jewish farmers working the land in various settlements across the young province, in places like Alliance, Acadia Valley, Cochrane, Rockyford, Okotoks, three Jewish bloc settlements emerged. All three were clustered in eastern Alberta. The independent Jewish farmers and the three bloc settlements — Trochu (1905), Rumsey (1907) and most importantly for our story, the Montefiore Colony (1910) — received assistance from the Asociación de colonización judía, with funds from Baron Hirsch’s bequest.
The clustering of the settlements occurred because Canada at the time espoused a bloc settlement policy. Sir Clifford Sifton championed this policy during his time as Minister of the Interior. The bloc policy allowed immigrants from the same ethnic group to settle near each other so they could create communities of support. Many ethnic groups formed bloc settlements — German, Mennonite, African American, Ukrainian and many others — Jewish included.
The Montefiore Colony
Jewish farmers harvesting on the Montefiore Colony. Credit: Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada.
In 1910, Morris Manolson and Louis Schacter filed for homesteads northwest of the village of Sibbald, located 5 kilometres east of the Saskatchewan border, establishing the Montefiore Colony. Twenty Jewish farmers soon followed.
Sir Moses Montefiore.
By 1914, the Colony had 53 residents. In 1916, the farmers decided that the colony was large enough that they needed a synagogue. To build the synagogue, they applied for and received a loan of $300 from the Jewish Colonization Association (JCA). They raised the remaining $1,200 from community members. Even though partial funding came from Baron Hirsch’s JCA, the colonists named their synagogue the Montefiore Institute, in memory of Sir Moses Montefiore. Sir Moses was an Italian-born, British Jewish philanthropist who had passed away thirty years earlier, in 1886, at the age of 100.
: The Little Synagogue on the Canadian PrairieSigue leyendo →
This post on Jewish farmers on the Canadian prairies was inspired by Land of Hope, the memoirs of Clara Hoffer. In 1907Clara’s husband, Israel, co-founded the Sonnenfeld Colony in Saskatchewan. Clara had lived previously a little further north with her parents in the Lipton Colony, which was founded by Baron Hirsch’s Jewish Colonization Association (JCA) in 1901.Land of Hopewas sent to me by Mark Gardner whose grandfather Aaron and great-uncle Harry also settled in Sonnenfeld. I am very grateful.
Between 1884 and 1912 thirty-one Jewish farming settlements were formed on the Canadian prairies spread out among three western provinces, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. 1 That is quite a hefty figure. Especially, when we remember that farming was not at all a typical Jewish profession where these settlers came from, Eastern Europe and Russia.
But somehow in Canada, things were different. As the Western Canada Director of Baron Hirsch’s Jewish Colonization Association,Louis Rosenberg noted, among all the peoples who settled in Canada, the percentage of those who farmed in Canada is lower than the percentage who farmed in their country of origin. Except for the Jews. By coming to Canada the Jews actually increased the percentage of farmers in their community. 2
And in Saskatchewan where most of the Jewish farming colonies were located, Jewish homesteaders were some of the first in the province. They arrived before the Doukhobors, Russians, Germans, Hungarians, and Ukrainians. “Only the “Mennonites and immigrants from Britain and Iceland,” preceded the Jews.3 In fact, the earliest marked grave in all of the Canadian prairies can be found in the Hirsch Colony cemetery. It belongs to Judah Blank and is dated December 18, 1894. 4
Baron Hirsch Helps Them Out
Baron Maurice de Hirsch
Baron Hirsch’s generosity helped many of these farmers. ( For a thorough discussion of how Baron Hirsch funds came to Canada see Chiel, Arthur (1961) “Agricultural Attempts, “The Jewsof Manitoba, ” University of Toronto Press, 1961. ) Hirsch’s Jewish Colonization Association (JCA) only established two of the colonies, Hirsch and Lipton. But there was not one organized Jewish farming community “in the whole of Canada that [did] not benefit … from the assistance of [the JCA].”5 The JCA helped build synagogues, offered the original capital for cooperatives, paid for teachers and rabbis, and gave out loans at half the usual bank rates, over 2000 loans between 1900 and 1923.6
In fact, when the Regina, Saskatchewan Leader-Post published a story in July 1980 on the Jewish Farming Communities, they chose as their lead photo a portrait of the Baron.
This post is just an outline of this Canadian prairie story and doesn’t cover all of the settlements. There is so much more to tell and so many wonderful sources. So click on all the links in the text and footnotes and enjoy the richness of this history. Note that in footnote nr. 7 you can find a list of major works on this agricultural adventure.7
And if you are looking for information on a particular Jewish Canadian prairie farmer go to the website of the Canadian Jewish Heritage Network and put his or her name into the search bar. You could be amazed by what you find.
The year was 1882 and Sir Alexander Galt, Canada’s High Commissioner (Ambassador) in London was looking to help the Canadian government populate the Canadian West. The West had just become part of Canada a dozen years before. A transcontinental railroad, the Canadian Pacific, was being built, and treaties with the indigenous peoples had made the land available for settlers. Interestingly, the Canadians not only sought to build out their nation. They also wanted to settle the West quickly because they feared that pioneers in the United States would seek to extend the border further north. In addition, Galt had plans to build railroads to hook up with the transcontinental to transfer the coal from his newly purchased mines.
Rosenberg, Louis, (1939) ” “Jews in Agriculture,” in Canada’s Jews: A social and economic study of Jews in Canada in the 1930s, p 218. , Text available at archive.net To use archive.net you need to establish a free account. [↩]
Archer, John, Early Jewish Settlement in Western Canada, Part II, Viewpoint, Vol. 2, No. 4, 1967, p. 4 [↩]
Rosenberg (1939) p 218. archive.net To use archive.net you need to establish a free account. [↩]
Belkin, Simon (1926), “Jewish Colonization in Canada,” in Arthur Daniel Hart, ed., The Jew in Canada (Toronto and Montreal), pp. 486-487 (pp. 506-507 in the digital version. ) [↩]
Major Works on Jewish Farmers on the Canadian Prairies:
Chiel, Arthur (1961) “Agricultural Attempts, “The Jews of Manitoba,” University of Toronto Press, pp. 43- 47,
Belkin, Simon (1926), “Jewish Colonization in Canada,” in Arthur Daniel Hart, ed., The Jew in Canada (Toronto and Montreal), pp. 483-488 (pp. 503-508 in the digital version),
Wolff, Martin. “THE JEWS OF CANADA." The American Jewish Year Book 27 (1925): 154–229. ( see especially Agricultural Colonies pp. 192-198)
Rosenberg, Louis (1939), Jews in Agriculture,Canada’s Jews, Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, pp. 217-225. (This is on archive.net. To use archive.net you need to establish a free account.) [↩]
And Lehmann also provides us an eyewitness view of so much of Baron Hirsch’s life, based on Lehmann’s extensive archival research in Austria, Belgium, England, France, Israel, Turkey, and the United States.
Readers will enjoy this very readable and delightfully detailed text that describes human beings, not just historical figures. We are able to see the building of transcontinental railroads and the formation of huge refugee projects from the details of the daily activities that led to these achievements, as exemplified by the book’s first paragraph ” At seven o’clock one summer morning in August 1895, Maurice de Hirsch, accompanied by his twenty-nine-year-old son Lucien, set out from Boitsfort, on the outskirts of Brussels, to catch the express train to the Belgian seaside resort of Ostend. The reason for that morning’s journey was a summons by King Leopold II, who was eager to convince the prominent Jewish banker and businessman to invest in the construction of a new railroad in the Belgian Congo.” 2
This post contains a short history of the first Brazilian Jewish farming communities supported by Baron Hirsch’s legacy and some references. You can read about eyewitness descriptions of these communities aquí.
Baron Hirsch established the Jewish Colonization Agency (JCA) in 1891 “to assist and promote the emigration of Jews from any part of Europe or Asia… and to form and establish colonies in various parts of North and South America ….”. And during the Baron’s lifetime, the Agency supported farming communities for Eastern European Jewish immigrants in Argentina, the United States, and Canada.
But after the Baron died in 1896, bequeathing seven million pounds sterling (equivalent to $US 1.12 billion in today’s dollars) to the JCA,1 a newly elected board of trustees voted to use some of this windfall to expand JCA’s colonization activities to southern Brazil,2where the JCA purchased land in 1902.3
For those willing to emigrate to these colonies the JCA offered to ” cover travel expenses and provide each settler with 25-30 hectares [60-75 acres] of land, a house, agricultural implements, two teams of oxen, two cows, one horse and an allowance that varied in accordance with the size of the family, payable once it had become self-sufficient.” 4
Philippson (Filipson), 720 miles south of São Paulo
Homesteaders first reached the JCA’s first Brazilian colony, Philippson, or Filipson in Portuguese, in 1904. Philippson was located near the city of Santa Maria in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The JCA had not yet built the houses they had promised, so the thirty-seven families were housed in barracks. It took months for the settlers to be assigned land and, once assigned, they discovered it was very hard to farm.
LESSER, Jeff (1991). Jewish Colonization in Rio Grande Do Sul, 1904-1925, São Paulo: Centro de Estudos de Demografia Historica da America Latina, p. 24 [↩]
GRITTI, Isabel Rosa (1997). Imigração judaica no Rio Grande do Sul: a Jewish Colonization Association e a colonização de Quatro Irmãos, Porto Alegre: Martins Livreiro-Editor, p. 19. [↩]
NORMAN, Theodore (1985). An outstretched arm: a history of the Jewish Colonization Association, London: Routledge & K. Paul, p. 90 Also read an account of the status of the JCA in 1906 aquí [↩]
Falbel, Najman. "Asentamiento agrícola judío en Brasil" Historia judía (2007) 21, p. 329. [↩]
Thomas Jefferson by Rembrandt Peale, White House Historical Association
Dreams of turning Jewish tradesmen into farmers date back to the mid-eighteenth century and feature some strange bedfellows. Besides Baron Hirsch, these utopian efforts involved Polish patriots, Russian Czars, German Mennonites, and of course, the Zionists. Like Thomas Jefferson, these Europeans and many other eighteenth-century and early nineteenth-century thinkers believed that “cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens . . , the most vigorous. . . [and] the most virtuous.”1
The idea of turning Jews into farmers to make them vigorous and virtuous was first proposed In Eastern Europe in the mid-eighteenth century when Austria, Germany, and Russia were trying to gobble up Poland. To ward off this national decapitation the Polish government sought to strengthen Polish society. One concern was the large number of non-assimilated Jews who had settled in Poland since the 12th Century because of the relatively liberal environment that allowed them to prosper and practice their religion. Many of the Jews worked for the nobles, managing estates and selling crops.
By the late 18th century, half of the world’s Jews, about 1.5 million, lived in Poland. The Polish bourgeoisie considered this large community of Jews to be unwelcome competitors and the general populous put the Jews in the same basket as the nobles, resenting both. Polish leaders saw these conflicts as one more cause for the weakness of the country. They thought that if Jews would become farmers they would be like everyone else and the conflicts would cease. Plans were drawn up but were never implemented. And Austria, Germany, and Russia did gobble up Poland.
The areas of Poland annexed by Russia are shown in mauve, lilac, and gray.
The majority of the Polish Jews, approximately 1 million, lived in the areas of Eastern Poland that were annexed by Russia between 1772 and 1795. (Listen to a discussion on how this annexation affected these Polish Jews.)
So when Czar Alexander I rose to the throne in 1801 he faced a dual dilemma. First, how could he populate New Russia and Crimea in southern Russia, lands recently conquered from the Ottomans following the Russo-Turkish Wars? In addition, how could the Czar integrate the one million Jews who had recently come under Russian rule through these partitions of Poland?
Where did early 20th Century Jewish shopkeepers earn so much that they wintered in Paris’ most elegant hotel? In Fleischmanns, a summer home for wealthy German-American Jews, founded in the Western Catskills, in 1883 by Charles Fleischmann of the yeast company fame.
These wealthy summer residents drew lots of Jewish entrepreneurs, many of Hungarian origin, who set up stores, hotels, and camps to service this affluent community. Beginning in the second decade of the 20th Century Eastern European Jewish farmers, storekeepers, and summer visitors also added to the area’s population.
Did Baron Hirsch assist these farmers or contribute funds for the synagogue the Fleischmanns’ Jewish community built in 1920, Congregation B’nai Israel? The answer will have to wait until I can visit the Baron Hirsch archives in New York sometime this year. But meanwhile here is some history of this community taken from a presentation at Congregation B’nai Israel I made in July 2021 which you can watch aquí.
How did Fleischmanns become a Jewish village? It all started with Joseph Seligmann, a Jew from Bavaria. He arrived in the US in 1837 at the age of 18. By the late 1870s, he was a multi-millionaire, his family having made a fortune clothing the Union army. Years later they even helped finance the Panama Canal.
In the summer of 1877, Seligmann took his family to Saratoga, NY a very fashionable resort, to stay at the Grand Union Hotel where they had stayed before. But this time he and his family were turned away because they were “Hebrews”. As we shall see, it could be said that this act of anti-Semitism was what caused Fleischmann’s founding.
The Seligmann affair became a major scandal widely reported, including in the NY Times. 1. There was even a song written about it which can be seen in the illustration above. It had a mighty chorus:
“The Hebrews they need not apply; the reason we do not know why; But still they do say, it’s a free country; where the Hebrews they need not apply!“
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