Immigrants to Freedom; Jewish Communities in Rural New Jersey since 1882

xiii, [3], 424 pages. Preface by Moshe Davis. Illustrations. Map. Footnotes. Appendix. Tables. Notes. Bibliography and Sources. Index. DJ has wear, soiling, tape residue, tears and chips. Sticker removal scuff inside front cover and on fep/rep. Minor page soiling noted. Previous owners embossed stamp on half title page. This is one of the Regional History Series of The American Jewish History Center of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Joseph Brandes, Ph.D.,Emeritus Professor of History, William Paterson (State) University, visiting Professor at New York University, and Research Associate at the American Jewish History Center. Member of the editorial board of American Jewish History Journal. Author of Herbert Hoover and Economic Diplomacy (University of Pittsburgh Press (1962), named one of the year's ten outstanding books from University presses by the American Scholar (1962-'63). An almost unknown chapter in the story of U.S. immigration and social history opened in 1882 with the creation Southern New Jersey of Alliance, the first rural Jewish settlement in the New World. Escaping from the pogroms of Eastern Europe, disillusioned with the poverty-ridden slums of the big cities, and inspired by popular leaders such as Michael Bakal and Moshe Herder who taught the dignity of manual labor, four hundred Jews chose to become American farmers. Thousands more followed, to settle within the triangular district bounded by Vineland, Millville, and Bridgeton, all searching for individual transformation as well as group transplantation, all seeking to disprove the stereotype of the Jew as small trader and middleman. Their successes, failures, conflicts with the urban Jews of nearby New York and Philadelphia - these are the fascinating subjects of this intimately written history.…