Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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.