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Federation of Jewish Farmers

by · February 18th, 2009
Farmer's Markets, Farming, Food History, Jewish Culture, Most Inspiring Posts, New York

Federation of Jewish Farmers

A friend just sent me the link to this picture. The caption reads: New York. October 13, 1909. The Federation of Jewish Farmers of America exhibit at the Educational Alliance building, East Broadway and Jefferson Street. 8×10 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection.

Anyone know anything about the Federation of Jewish Farmers, that was apparently active enough in 1909 to host an exhibit???

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7 Responses to “Federation of Jewish Farmers”

  1. Arieh Lebowitz Says:
    February 18th, 2009 at 11:33 pm

    There’s an excellent brief item that I shall reproduce, best read at the source, which I give at the end.

    “The Federation of Jewish Farmers, founded in 1909, brought together 13 existing associations of Jewish farmers under one umbrella. According to the American Jewish Archives:

    In its first year, the organization held an agricultural fair during the week-long fall harvest holiday of Sukkot. In later years, the annual conventions offered farmers an opportunity to exhibit their products, and they continued to take place during Sukkot. The federation also gave Jewish farmers more purchasing power, starting a bureau to give liberal credit to farmers who needed more help, and offering good prices on seeds and farming implements to those who needed them.

    SOURCE http://jcarrot.org/american-jewish-farmers
    {Ha!}

    I’d also looking here:
    http://www.google.com/search?h.....=f&oq=

  2. Arieh Lebowitz Says:
    February 18th, 2009 at 11:47 pm

    In the American Jewish Year Book {1917-1918), page 336, says that the FEDERATION OF JEWISH FARMERS OF AMERICA was organized on January 20, 1909 — so it’s likely that the photo was taken during the founding convention. Its offices were at 174 Second Avenue, in New York City.
    Its “Eighth Annual Convention, Nov. 27-Dec. 2, 1910, New York City,” but this somehow doesn’t add up. Perhaps they meant 1918?
    The AJYB said that it had 1235 members, and 59 societies.
    PURPOSE: To advance the interests of Jewish farmers.
    OFPICBHS : Ely Greenblatt, Botsford, Conn. ; Vice-Pres., I. D. Wolf, Centervllle Station, N. Y.; Sec, J. W. Pincus, 174 Second Av.; Treas., P. Abelson, 200 Fifth Av., N. Y. C.
    I am sure that there are a dozen or so at least articles on this organization – and others waiting to be written – as well as the Jewish Agricultural Society { see interesting article in the March 14, 1938 issue of Time Magazine, fortuitously online here http://www.time.com/time/magaz.....37,00.html – and also the mor recent article, “Finding (Jewish) Roots,” in the February 2009 issue of Hadassah Magazine, also happily online here: http://www.hadassah.org/news/c.....ture_2.asp }

    Anyone interested in additional leads for amateur / light and serious / academic research, just drop me a note.

    >> Arieh Lebowitz, COmmunications Director, Jewish Labor Committee

  3. Arieh Lebowitz Says:
    February 20th, 2009 at 9:28 pm

    There’s an excellent brief item that I shall reproduce, best read at the source, which I give at the end. “The Federation of Jewish Farmers, founded in 1909, brought together 13 existing associations of Jewish farmers under one umbrella. According to the American Jewish Archives: In its first year, the organization held an agricultural fair during the week-long fall harvest holiday of Sukkot. In later years, the annual conventions offered farmers an opportunity to exhibit their products, and they continued to take place during Sukkot. The federation also gave Jewish farmers more purchasing power, starting a bureau to give liberal credit to farmers who needed more help, and offering good prices on seeds and farming implements to those who needed them.”
    SOURCE http://jcarrot.org/american-jewish-farmers
    {Ha!}I’d also looking here:
    http://www.google.com/search?h…..=f&oq=

  4. Arieh Lebowitz Says:
    February 20th, 2009 at 9:29 pm

    In the American Jewish Year Book {1917-1918), page 336, says that the FEDERATION OF JEWISH FARMERS OF AMERICA was organized on January 20, 1909 — so it’s likely that the photo was taken during the founding convention. Its offices were at 174 Second Avenue, in New York City.
    Its “Eighth Annual Convention, Nov. 27-Dec. 2, 1910, New York City,” but this somehow doesn’t add up. Perhaps they meant 1918?
    The AJYB said that it had 1235 members, and 59 societies.
    PURPOSE: To advance the interests of Jewish farmers.
    OFPICBHS : Ely Greenblatt, Botsford, Conn. ; Vice-Pres., I. D. Wolf, Centervllle Station, N. Y.; Sec, J. W. Pincus, 174 Second Av.; Treas., P. Abelson, 200 Fifth Av., N. Y. C.
    I am sure that there are a dozen or so at least articles on this organization – and others waiting to be written – as well as the Jewish Agricultural Society { see interesting article in the March 14, 1938 issue of Time Magazine, fortuitously online here http://www.time.com/time/magaz…..37,00.html – and also the mor recent article, “Finding (Jewish) Roots,” in the February 2009 issue of Hadassah Magazine, also happily online here: http://www.hadassah.org/news/c…..ture_2.asp }Anyone interested in additional leads for amateur / light and serious / academic research, just drop me a note.
    >> Arieh Lebowitz, Communications Director, Jewish Labor Committee

  5. Scott Hertzberg Says:
    February 21st, 2009 at 9:45 pm

    What a great picture and question. I’ve read a lot of what has been written on the history of Jewish farming in America.

    The Federation of Jewish Farmers was an organization with chapters mostly in the Northeast. The biggest chapters had hundreds of members and were from Connecticut and New Jersey, two states were some Jewish family farms started to thrive after 1900 or so. In 1909, the organization had a few hundred members representing around two thousand people on farms counting children.

    The Connecticut farmers raised vegetables in the towns such as Ellington and Colchester in the still fertile Connecticut River valley. In 1909, the New Jersey farmers in the federation would be from Woodbine and Alliance and smaller Jewish farming communities in the southern part of the state near Vineland.

    I’m not sure but I think the Federation of Jewish Farmers of America only lasted from about 1900 to 1920. During that time individual Jewish farmers were first starting to find success as farmers after a lot of colorful but failed group settlements organized by Jewish charities trying to get recent immigrants out New York City. The generation of Jewish farmers after 1920 was the largest and most successful, made up largely of egg farmers in New Jersey.

    There is a 1938 Time magazine article free online about the success of Jewish farmers in America. It contains the stunning fact that, “In 1900 there were 200 Jewish farmers in the U. S. today(1938), although many Americans have never seen any Jewish farmers, there are nearly 100,000.” The Time article is one of the best summaries of the history and is at http://www.time.com/time/magaz.....37,00.html

    The Federation was not the largest, most long lasting or important organization supporting Jewish farming – that would be the Jewish Agricultural Society (JAS) which existed from 1900 to 1960 or so and gave out thousands of loans to Jewish farmers as well as advice on how to farm. For more information on the federation, the JAS and the whole history of Jewish farmers in American, take a look at the annotated bibliography recently published by my fellow librarian Irwin Weintraub, titled Jews in American Agriculture, An Annotated Bibliography. It’s available on Amazon and summarizes hundreds of books, journal articles and other publications on the topic. Read thru it and be prepared to educate the next person who says American Jews can’t farm. Also there is a 1913 NY Times article about the federation’s convention that year http://query.nytimes.com/gst/a.....946296D6CF

    I am an organic vegetable farmer and a part-time librarian in Maryland. I’d like to work with others to revive the Federation of Jewish Farmers of America. It would be great to have a web site where Jews who grew up on farms or those of us farming today can tell our stories and interact. Maybe the site could be a section of Hazon. Any how, if you are interested let me know at jugbay@verizon.net
    Scott Hertzberg

  6. Sabrina Malach Says:
    April 5th, 2009 at 12:55 am

    This is absolutely fascinating. It would be great to have you guys come to the FOod Conference.

  7. E. D. Coz Says:
    August 18th, 2010 at 11:37 am

    The Birthright promise given to Abraham that his descendants would have many sheep and cattle and much grain was not given by Jacob/Father Israel to Judah but to Ephraim. Most Jews today are not from Ephraim. Most are not even from Judah, but are from Edom or the Khazars. This explains why there are so few Jewish farmers and sheep and cattle ranchers and producers in the world. The great cattle, sheep and grain producers are in the British Commonwealth nations of Great Britain, Austrailia, New Zealand and Canada, and in the United States. That’s probably because that’s where Ephraim is, and Manassah too.

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