Tom Kinsella

The print catalog accompanying the exhibition Growing American: The Alliance Agricultural Colony in South Jersey, detailing the history of the Alliance Colony, the first successful Jewish farming community in America. Explaining the origins of the colony, established in 1882 outside of Vineland, New Jersey, this catalog chronicles the development of the colony as it matured into the three close-knit communities of Norma, Alliance and Brotmanville. Topics include the Russian pogroms of 1881-1882, Jewish aid societies, cultural pastimes, and more. The exhibition, curated by the Alliance Heritage Center, Noyes Museum of Stockton University, and the South Jersey Culture & History Center, was on display at Kramer Hall, Hammonton, New Jersey, from October 1, 2021 to February 4, 2022.

At the opening of the twentieth century, Jewish farming communities were firmly established in southern New Jersey, stretching from the Alliance colony, six miles northwest of Vineland, to Woodbine, sixteen miles west of Ocean City. Eastern European Jews, escaping Russian pogroms of the 1880s and 1890s, founded Alliance, Rosenhayn, Carmel and Woodbine, along with other smaller, evanescent communities. This republication of a 1901 report prepared by the Bureau of Statistics of New Jersey briely describes the founding, development, and contemporary condition of each colony.

Contemporary descriptions of the Jewish farming communities of southern New Jersey dating from 1882 to 1907. The colonies of Alliance, Rosenhayn and Carmel are the focus of this work.