Society Wrestles with Many Problems in Aiding Jewish Farmers Here

Wrestling with problems of finance, land-hungry Jewish farmers’ sons and inexperienced German refugees, the Jewish Agricultural Society made substantial progress in 1937 in aiding the 100,000 Jews living on farms throughout the United States, its 38th annual report indicates.

The Society, whose general manager is Dr. Gabriel Davidson, continued its work of settling Jews on farms, providing advice and information, seeking farm employment for young Jews, and conducting the wide variety of activities that have made it a significant force in the Jewish back-to-the-land movement.

An increasingly serious problem was provided by the second generation of Jewish young men raised on farms. Anxious to strike out for themselves, wishing in some cases to marry, they find insufficient promise in the paternal homestead, are perplexed because they have no training for the city, and yet can see only remote possibilities of rising to independent farm operation.

“With more of them reaching maturity, this problem will assume larger dimensions.” Dr. Davidson warned in his report. “Much splendid material has already been lost. Farmers who come up from the ranks add strength and vitality to the Jewish farm movement.”

Seeking to aid German refugees — which problem also “promises to claim increasing attention” — the Society provided information to 111 of them in its office, corresponded with numbers in Europe and succeeded in establishing eleven families on farms.

Since its founding, the Society has granted 12,313 loans aggregating $7,513,000 to Jewish farmers in 48 states. Its farm Settlement Department last year gave advice to 947 desiring to go into farming. In the past twenty years, 20,336 applications were received by the Society for advice. The Society has been responsible in one way or another for the establishment on farms of 10,000 persons in fifteen states since the war.