Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE August 22, 1986
The Southern Israelite
The Weekly Newjpoper for Southern Jewry
Since 1925
Vida Goldgar
Editor and Publisher
Leonard Goldstein
Advertising Director
Luna Levy
Associate Editor
Eschol A. Harrell
Production Manager
Lutz Baum
Business Manager
Published every Friday by The Southern Israelite, Inc
Second Class Postage paid at Atlanta, Ga (ISSN 00388) (UPS 776060)
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Southern Israelite. P O Box
77388. Atlanta. GA 30357
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 77388, Atlanta, Georgia 30357
Location: 188 15th St., N.W., All., Ga. 30318 Phone (404)876-8248
Advertising rates available upon request.
Subscriptions: $23.00, 1 year; $41.00, 2 years
Member of Jewish Telegraphic Agency; Religious News' Service;
American Jewish Press Assn.; Georgia Press Assn.; National Newspaper Assn
The
Southern Israelite
A Prize-Winning
Newspaper
Better Newspaper
Contests
Vida Goldgar
Of Jews on the farm
Make your voice heard
In some of the political races, last week’s primary contests
were decisive. In others, a return to the polls on Sept. 2 will be
necessary to decide the runoff races.
Taking into consideration the generally poor turnout for the
primary, it is expected that the Sept. 2 showing will not draw
hordes of voters.
Regrettably, there is another factor that could lower the count.
The runoff elections take place the day after Labor Day weekend,
a time when many take that extended last-chance-of-summer
holiday. In some cases, college students will have headed back to
school as well.
Neither of these reasons—nor any other—means you cannot
vote. If you will be away, we urge you to vote an absentee ballot.
Absentee ballots will be available a week to 10 days before the
election at court houses and other selected places. However, those
who will be out of town before the ballots are prepared need not
lose their vote.
A letter sent to the Voter Registration office of the appropriate
county requesting a ballot be mailed to an out-of-town address is
the answer.
The following information must be included: political party
of your choice; name as it appears on voter registration card and
local address; birth date; mother’s maiden name; reason for
requesting absentee ballot; address to which ballot should be
mailed.
It really isn’t difficult and insures that your voice will be heard
even if from a distance.
Here in the Southeast, we’ve probably paid more
attention to the plight of the farmer during this
summer’s drought than ever before. We ve praised the
Midwestern farmers who have
shipped feed for “Southern" cattle
without. I suspect, remembering
that the Midwestern farmer has
had problems of his own tor tar
longer; problems not caused by
vagaries of the weather but eco
nomics. These problems have given
rise, in some farfetched way, to anti-
Semitic acti\ ities.
Farming is rarely thought of as a “Jewish” occupa
tion. Oh, sure, now and then we read of a dairy farm in
New England owned by Jews, or a Western ranch or
whatever. The reason we read of them, is their rarity.
But an exhibit which is going on through early
November at the American Jewish Archives in Cin
cinnati, tells a different story. Its organizers hope that
that the exhibit will “add balance to the image of the
American Jew now available to many farmers whose
contact with Jews and Judaism has been minimal, at
best." They sent me a fascinating catalogue prepared
for the exhibit with some incredible photographs ot
American Jewish farmers, long ignored in the history
of American agriculture.
The rest of this column gives you information
straight from the catalogue.
The first known mention of a Jewish farm colony
in America came in 1783 when an anonymous letter to
the president of the Continental Congress proposed
settling 2,000 Jews from Germany on the land.
About 35 years later, another attempt was made,
this time by a Philadelphia Presbyterian, to encourage
European Jews to come to America to establish Jew
ish agricultural settlements along the Mississippi and
Missouri Rivers.
Not all this was altruistic. Indications are that the
intent was to instruct these Jewish immigrants not
only in “husbandry” but in the Gospels, thus saving
their souls. Those attempts didn’t last long.
Actually, the first Jewish farm colony in America
was started in Alachua County, Fla., in 1820. under the
direction of Moses Elias Levy. By 1832, there were 50
families but before much longer all had returned to
their homes up north.
Later efforts were made in Warwarsing, N. Y., and
near Chicago. Still, the stereotype of the Jews as
urban dwellers clung. Jews were just as determined to
prove the stereotype wrong, and Jewish agriculture
continued to be promoted, especially in the Midwest.
Baron Maurice de Hirsch, convinced that the
“Jew, so long denied the privilege of owning land,
could win for himself peace and independence, love
for the ground he tills and for freedom; and he will
become a patriotic citizen of his new home,” financed
colonization projects not only in the United States
and Canada, but in Argentina.
Even so, in a society which valued individual
enterprise, collective farming didn’t have much of a
chance, Jewish or otherwise. Hirsch’s Jewish Agricul
tural Society turned its direction to the individual
farmer.
New Jersey drew a sizable number of Jewish
farmers. In the late 1930s and early ’40s, according to
the catalogue, German Jewish refugees from Hitler
formed a sub-community of chicken farmers. These
and others had no previous experience, but by trial and
erior, by reading books and consulting their neigh
bors, they helped make New Jersey the egg basket of
America.
There’s more to the exhibit, which has over 150
items. This is just a taste, so if you happen to be in
Cincinnati, stop by. It’s a different view of the Ameri
can Jew.
An optimistic view
by Stanley ML Lefco
Charles Silberman in his book,
"A Certain People,” has been cri
ticized for portraying the growth
of the Jewish community in too
glowing terms. It appears that most
sociologists and analysts see the
American Jewish community nu
merically declining as a result of
assimilation and intermarriage.
In his chapter on intermarriage
and the growth of the Jewish popu
lation, Silberman declares that the
birthrate is high enough to keep
the Jewish population at about its
current size. On the issue of inter
marriage, he writes that it seems
unlikely that intermarriage will lead
to more than a slight reduction in
the number of Jews, and it could
well bring about an increase. From
the view of Jewish law, he defines
intermarriage as a marriage between
a Jew and someone who is not Jew
ish at the time the wedding oc
curs.
Some statistics have shown a
fivefold increase in intermarriage
in approximately the last 10 years.
Silberman takes exception. “Hu
man beings do not normally alter
their behavior that rapidly, espe
cially in so crucial—and sacred —
an area of life as marriage.” His
calculations show that “roughly
one Jew in four now marries some
one who had been gentile at birth."
Between 1971-81, he claims the
intermarriage rate grew- by one
point per year, reaching a level of
24 percent by 1981. Assuming the
same growth for the last several
years, he argues that the increase is
a far cry from those citing figures
of 40 to 60 percent. In fact, he
writes “there is reason to believe
that the increase has about run its
course and that it may stabilize
around the current level.”
Citing figures from Canada,
where statistics on mixed mar
riages are available on an annual
basis from the government, he notes
that the proportion of Jewish wom
en marrying non-Jews has already
dropped.
Good news for Jewish women
Silberman asserts that “over the
next decade there will be a surplus
rather than a shortage of Jewish
men of marriageable age, which
means that a larger proportion of
Jewish women are likely to marry
within the faith.”
What about intermarried cou
ples? He states that 20 percent of
gentile-born spouses convert to Ju
daism. Conversionary couples are
twice as likely as mixed marriage
couples to raise their children as
Jews. They are also expected to
have 70 percent more children. The
net effect is that half the children
born to intermarried couples are or
will be raised as Jews. Therefore,
the intermarriage rate is a wash;
i.e., it has no effect at all on the
number of Jews.
Silberman goes so far as to claim
that if mixed marriage couples
raise their children as they say they
will, intermarriage would lead not
to a reduction in the number of
Jews but to a gain of more than 40
percent. “If half the children of
intermarriages are raised as Jews,’
he argues, “there will be no net
reduction in the number of Jews,
no matter how high the intermar
riage rate is.”
In 1977 Elihu Bergman, then
assistant director of the Harvard
Center for Population Studies,
wrote, “When the United States
celebrates its tricentennial in 2076,
the American Jewish community is
likely to number no more than
944,000 persons, and conceivably
as few as 10,420.” Silberman would
probably not disagree more.