JULY 17. 19M
THE CANADIAN JEWISH BEVIEW
JEWISH FARMING IN AMERICA
(Continued from Page Four) the last fifty years from fifty per cent to about fourteen. The reasons that influence non-JewiBh farmers to move to town influence also the Jewish farmers. These are primarily economic. In the case of Jews thi9 process is bound to be even faster because Jews are more connected with the town and its kinds of occupations than the farmer who was born and raised on the farm. For most Jews, leaving the farm for the town is only a return. Yet, it is revealing that the proportion of Jewish farmers to non-Jews in farming increased twofold in the last ten years and is now about one per cent of the total American population engaged in farming (Jews number about three per cent of the population).
Jewish farmers, as a rule, do not leave their farms because they neglected them or were unable to manage them. Jewish farms in southern New Jersey (and in other parts of the country) are among the best. Jewish farmers are no less industrious than others, and are often more progressive and flexible in their farming methods than their non-Jewish neighbors � a fact widely recognized by non-Jewish experts in the field. (The above-mentioned New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture has written: "The many Jewish farmers in New Jersey have been among the most enterprising people in American�agriculture^'^ -
Sixth: it is interesting to note that many of the new buyers of farms are also Jews, and in spite of the bad economic situation in farming, have decided to take this
step. The motive of getting rid of the big city's rush and bustle and of the "rush-hour subways," to live in the country, plays its role in these decisions, but the main reasons are economic. (This rule has, of course, its exceptions.) People who settle now on farms are, for the most part, newcomers whose economic opportunities in town are limited, or they are "marginal" types of the town's economy. The locai real-estate brokers have a maxim that buyers come not necessarily when farming is good but when business in town is bad.
It is possible that in Argentine or in Biro-Bidjan the main reason for leaving farming was the low standards of living in the villages, being far from centers of Jewish life and having limited possibilities for children in these outlying places, but in most centers of American Jewish farming these factors do not exist or they play �a-minor role. It is,-therefore, fair to assume that the basic "reason for settling on, or leaving, a farm is economic; that the factor of not being accustomed to this kind of work is secondary and is quickly overcome when the economics of farming are inviting; that the increase in specialization and mechanization in farming will bring about a gradual diminishing of the differences between farm and non-farjn occupations; and the specific problems of Jews in regard to farming will gradually lose their importance.
However, as long as the economic situation in farming remains precarious, and as long as the situation in American farmii
n in American farming-generally forces out, year after year, hundreds of thousands of people from farms, it is impossible to come to any conclusions about the unfitness of Jews for
farming, even if � hypothetically � a day may come when no Jews will be left on farms. Turning now to another question: is there Borne relation between Jewish farming and anti-Semitism (or anti-Jewish attitudes)? Does the fact that a certain region has a number of Jews engaged in farming have a bearing on anti-Semitism or does it make the non-Jews friendlier to Jews? Settling Jews on the land was undertaken in many - countries partly because of criticism voiced by many Gentiles that Jews avoided farming because they disliked the heavy work. Behind the attempts at colonization was the belief that the "normalization" of the economic structure of the Jews was the best answer to anti-Semitism.
In the vicinity of Vineland, N. J., the majority of the Jewish population is engaged in farming. Vineland is one of the very few places in the United States where a visitor coming to town by bus or car, will see on the mail-boxes in the outskirts many names like flnlriatpjn �nd Finkelsteln and in the business center many names like Mori and Johnson.
Has this fact an influence on the non-Jewish farmers? It is, of course, impossible to answer such a question with scientific certainty but to a certain degree an illuminating answer may be found in a poll made by the writer of this article among forty inhabitants of Vineland. The poll >vas conducted among representatives of all groups of the population, mostly QlMij^f^mers^!Kha.haye.-
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an intimate knowledge of the community and its inhabitants. The interrogator chose for his poll people of intelligence, capable of objective judgment.
The first question asked was: did you hear about. anti-Jewish attitudes at the time when the first Jewish settlers arrived here in 1882? Only four of those asked knew about such attitudes, though in the local press of that time one can find sporadic signs of such attitudes.
The second question was: what
was the attitude towards the later waves of immigrants (from Hitler Germany) in the years 1933-1955? Sixty per cent answered that the attitude was unfriendly, thirty per cent that it was neutral, and ten per cent did not have any knowledge in that respect.
This difference in attitude can only be explained by the fact that the first settlers were poor and had with their own hands to make farms out of uncultivated land in-order to eke out a miserable living for their families, whereas the later immigrants came with some means of their own. They also received financial help from relatives and from the Jewi3h Agricultural Society and, for the most part, were able to buy existing farms and houses. Many of them were able in a short time to enlarge their farms and make them more attractive and this aroused a certain envy on the part of the old-timers.
To the question whether the local non-Jews had a friendlier attitude to Jewish farmers than to other Jews, fifty per cent of the interrogated answered yea; -thirty per cent answered that the attitude was rather unfriendlier; and twenty per cent maintained that the attitude was the same.
To the question whether there was more anti-Jewish feeling in Vineland than in other places, twenty-five of those questioned answered that in their opinion the situation was the same as in other localities and the rest thought the feeling towards Jews was friendlier than in other "^laws7~lirany_IrT"the last category added, however, that in their opinion the ethnical structure of the population (a majority are Italians) accounted for it.
A full ninety per cent of those questioned maintained that the fact that so many Jews engaged in farming in the locality had no influence on the question of anti-Semitism. Some of them thought that though in some cases the attitude to Jewish farmers was a little better than towards other Jews, the attitude to Jews gen-
erally would not be altered by that.
Another question was: is the attitude of non-Jewish farmers to their Jewish neighbors influenced by their being good or bad managers of their farms? Eighty percent answered that, there was a connection but that the better the Jewish farmers were the unfriendlier was the attitude to Jewish farmers as a group. Poor. Jewish farmers who struggle for survival often arouse sympathy; success-ful farmers, on the other hand, often provoke envy and a critical attitude.
The attitude to individual Jewish farmers, however, is strongly influenced by the personal virtues or faults of the farmer, by the number of years he has been on the farm, and by the number of years he has been in the country. A non-Jewish farmer who has increased his farm tenfold i8 in� their eyes a symbol of American initiative;-a Jewwhrj-has^sccom^" piished the same is appraised negatively.
The answers to the questions show that � at least in this locality � the kind of occupation-the�
easier livelihood � simple, human envy.
The conclusion of the writer then, on the basis of the survey and observations made, is that an increase in the number of Jewish farmers in America would not alter materially the attitudes of non-Jews towards Jews in America. Many Jews in America, however, feel that the status of the Jews in this country would be higher if more Jews were active in farming. It is certainly true that if such an opinion is widespread among many Jews � whether or not this belief is sound � it has a definite psychological significance, and the increase of the number of Jews engaged in farming would, no doubt, improve J�wl8h status in their own_eyea�
This article is from the Jewish Frontier.
Jews are engaged in does not play a substantial role in. the attitude towards them. Essentially, it is the same towards Jews engaged in farming as to Jews engaged otherwise.
Personal observation by the writer confirms the above conclusion. It was observed that non-Jews became critical when they heard that Jewish newcomers were going into farming and not into some urban business. It was as if they feared an 'MnvasioiroT" farming by people who never had anything to do with it." Many non-Jews prefer that Jews go into "Jewish" lines. The attitude to the Jewish merchant and middleman is critical not because he is not productive enough but because there is a widespread conviction that he is making a better and
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