conference@jewishfarmernetwork.org

love this version of the calendar! First time I'm seeing it.

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I have ancestors from that part of Ukraine who who were sharecropping farmers on treaty 4 territory in so called Canada with land from the Jewish colonization agency which also helped colonize parts of palestine, Brazil, and Argentina. Does anyone here have ancestors who are connected to the JCA / now doing decolonization work? I also would love to learn more about the JCA if you could share more in your presentation, thank you!

I farm in East Haddam, CT - the town right next to Colchester

@Ian I know a tiny bit, namely I have ancestors also from that part of Ukraine who were brought (supposedly via the Bund) by the JCA to a chicken farm near Akron, NY

I know someone Jewish from RI who grew up near a Jewish chicken farm

there was someone I farmed with a decade ago who grew up on one of the last Jewish chicken farms in Petaluma, ca

I know these stories of chicken farmers also, from my time in CT/NY. Neighbors whose parents came to be chicken shochets and then opened a small little inn in Sharon, CT.

my grandpa likes to say that underneath the paved major roads in LA you'll find feathers from all the Jewish chicken industry...his high school job was plucking!

Comrades and chicken ranchers-by Kenneth Kann

That's hysterical, Jack.

My dear uncle Lenny and grandma Sherry grew up on #7 Sonnenfeld colony and he was telling me recently about their sukkos celebrations

Hannah Blazer of the Winchevsky Centre in Toronto gave a talk about this at Limmud last year

My zaide grew up working in his uncles chicken shop in St Catherine’s a few hours outside Toronto

I know St Cats Jews! Are you still in the area, Noah?

Nearby Georgetown today is Bela Farm, a Jew-ish farm connected to Shoresh

I've learned about the town of Sosua in the Dominican Republic where refugees from Nazi Germany were welcomed by Trujillo to promote white colonization efforts to suppress black Haitian population in the DR. I think this agricultural colony also had a quick decline....it was a hard place to farm and people came with few ag skills.

The JOFEE gathering a few years ago at Walker ranch was just a few miles from what was the Petaluma Jewish farming community.

@paul yes I’ve been to Sosua and had a long wonderful conversation w the first Jewish person born there post nazi holocaust, there’s still a Jewish community there

My impression is there was a massacre of Indigenous people that took place in the area before my ancestors arrived in territory 4 and wondering if that was a theme in land that was taken / given to Jews by the Jewish colonization agency?

Drop any questions you have in the chat for the Q&A

Can you recommend any resources for learning about Mizrachi and Sephardi farming history?

This has been so fascinating, thank you so much. I just wondered if you could say anything about Jewish farming in the UK? I know there were Kibbutz-training farms for those preparing for Aliyah but would love to learn more/ know where best to look!

do any of these communities still exist?

Are there any records of jewish farming communities outside of Lviv, Ukraine?

Would these farming communities serving the greater community, or just their Jewish community?

@Ian: is the Jewish community in Sosua still involved in ag as far as you learned?

Wow!

Please share resource folder. Thanks so much!!

That was amazing!

Thanks for a great presentation!

Thank you!

fantastic presentation! thank you!

https://sites.rutgers.edu/jewish-agriculture/

For folks in the chat who know about their own family history related to farming — I’m curious how you learned about your family’s connection to farming? Any resources that were especially helpful in finding that information?

There’s a really significant history of Jewish farming in the American South—from Jews working on and running plantations to Jewish agricultural colonies like Sicily Island, Louisiana. Can you comment on the connections or disparities between those southern Jewish agricultural histories and the colonies you’re researching?

Can Jonathan speak a bit to the religious identity/practices on these farms? Is there any evidence of the sort of re-interpretation of textual agricultural laws like shmitah and yovel that we are seeing in contemporary diasporic Jewish farming?

There were Jewish ostrich farmers in South Africa

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12sTwDXDdNrnn8X3vnS7VbigPzsobOFOd?usp=sharing

You talked about how the Jews and Tartars developed ties of mutual aid and cultural sharing. Where else did that happen? Could you say that there was point in the development of such relations where the situation crossed over from the Jews being an unwitting arm of colonizers to being allies of the indigenous people?

Here's the resources folder!

I’m also curious to better understand the impact of the May Laws on Jewish farming in Russia in the late 19th c

My great-grandfather was a butcher in Philly and my other great-greatgrandfather was a milk and egg wholesaler in NY. I wonder if they ever sourced from these farms

*other great-grandfather

I wonder why they failed while Kibbutzim in Israel didn't

Herscher, U. D. (1981). Jewish Agricultural Utopias in America, 1880-1910. Wayne State University Press.

I am curious about the balence between "back to the land" which seems focused on cultural revitalization of the community, and the importance of improved agricultural techniques and technology, and cooperative marketing (and funding) which seems more focused on economic revitalization of the community. it seems that due to economic development, people moved away from ag and then lost the cultural/history aspect. Do you see this balence still being managed today? Thank you for such an informative presentation.

Herher's book tells of the short-lived failures Jonathan just mentioned

Related to the current question, does anyone know if the Alliance Colony Reboot is still happening?

Yes Alliance Reboot is thriving and expanding

Very cool, thanks!

Alliance Reboot. (n.d.). Home. Retrieved October 28, 2021, from https://www.acreboot.org/

Signup for Alliance Reboot weekly email. Amazing Dvar Torah each week

The Alliance Heritage Center. (n.d.). The Alliance Heritage Center -. Stockton University. Retrieved December 4, 2021, from https://stockton.edu/alliance-heritage/

halacha-rabbinic Jewish law

taking care of animals doesn't violate shabbat

halachically shmita only applies in Israel, so it seems unlikely to me that orthodox/frum people at least back then would have tried to adapt it in the diaspora - I think that's more of a project that comes out of a Judaism that's particularly open to ritual creation. but I don't have specific research or knowledge about this

jews love to be deep in the reeds

the reeds, the weeds, etc

Good point Sarah/Soup 😊

Hello Shoshana...you are doing a Fab job !!!! Thank you

thank you so much

Thank you all! Ya’asher Ko’ach!!

Kol Hakovod

thank you shoshana and Jonathan!