Jewish Veterans and War Workers Turning to Farming, Agricultural Society Reports

Jewish war veterans and former civilian war workers make up the majority of American Jews who are now turning to agriculture, Dr. Gabriel Davidson, managing director of the Jewish Agricultural Society, which aids Jews in settling on the land, reported today in the organization’s forty-sixth annual report.

Citing the war record of Jewish farmers, Dr. Davidson points out that not only did Jewish farmers increase production on the land, but that in some eastern and aid-western communities they supplied a higher percentage of soldiers and sailors than the general farm population. A “spot check,” conducted by the Society and the National Jewish Welfare Board in sections of Michigan, Connecticut and New Jersey containing typical Jewish farm settlements, revealed that 7.5 percent of Jewish male farmers between the ages of 18-44 joined the armed services as compared with the national farm average of 6.2 percent.

Dr. Davidson’s report discloses that 95 percent of all Jewish farmers who settled on the land just before World War II and during the war years have remained at their new occupation. The report also declares that the Jewish farm population of nearly 150,000 men, women and children is in “a healthy and prosperous situation.”

The Jewish Agricultural Society has expanded its activities within recent years, Dr. Davidson reveals. During the past year the Society opened a western office in Los Angeles where the Jewish population is growing and “where the outlook for new agricultural settlers is bright.” During the last decade the organization has settled 5,000 people on land throughout the country, and more than $10,000,000 in farm loans have been lent since the inception of the Society, the report said.