Jewish agricultural colonies in southern New Jersey: The processes of migration, settlement and adaptation

The purpose of this dissertation is to study the processes of migration and adaptation by examining an important cluster of Jewish agricultural colonies, located in Salem and Cumberland counties, New Jersey. Founded in the early 1880s, these colonies grew directly out of the same \u27back to the land\u27 sentiment which led to the establishment of the first modern Jewish agricultural settlements in Palestine. The New Jersey colonies depended on the cooperation of Russian Jewish intellectuals espousing socialist and agrarian ideals, with Western capitalists and philanthropists. In addition, the colonies brought independently organized settlers together with migrants recruited by sponsors. The dissertation analyzes the pre-migration background of a series of immigrant cohorts arriving in the colonies between 1882 and 1910. The changing profile of the settlers, shifting from intellectual, assimilated and idealistic migrants from the southern Pale of Jewish Settlement in Russia, to less assimilated industrial and craft workers of the northwestern Pale and Russian Poland, is identified as a key factor causing a transition from agriculture-based, semi-communal colonies to colonies dominated by single-family farming and industry. The impact of differing origins and goals on the adaptation process for each cohort of settlers is assessed. Pre-migration origins are determined through the use of census records, ship passenger lists, citizenship applications, surveys of descendants, and oral histories. The role of the sponsors is also examined to explain the change in the character of the colonies. The backgrounds and goals of sponsors are analyzed through the use of the records of sponsoring organizations and sponsor correspondence. Actions taken by sponsors to screen potential colonists and to shape funding policies in accordance with their goals are explored, along with specific conflicts between sponsors and colonists. The study\u27s significance lies in the exploration of pre-migration roots and differentiation among groups of East European Jewish migrants; the study of adaptation as a group process; the analysis of an on-going relationship between Jewish immigrants and established Jewish American sponsors; and the basis it provides for a future comparative study of Jewish migration to Argentina and Israel, where agricultural colonization was far more extensive