http://www.jbuff.com/c031804.htm
In... 1900, there were 5,737,372 farms in America and the average farm had 146 acres. Since then, the average farm size has increased enormously as corporate farming has displaced the farm families of earlier years.
Among these farmers were Jewish immigrants from Russia. Thus, in 1884, the British Lord Moses Montefiore sponsored a group called Am Olam (Eternal People), which established seven Jewish agricultural colonies in Kansas. These communities were called Beersheba, which already existed for two years, Lasker, Montefiore, Leeser, Touro, Gilead and Hebron.
Beersheba was the first of these colonies founded in 1882. They built sod houses, sod synagogues and schools in which children studied during the day and adults at night.
By the spring of 1883, Beersheba had more than 200 acres in production. Nevertheless, the community failed in 1886 because creditors reclaimed their livestock and their tools.
Then the newly founded Hebrew Union Agricultural Society assisted Eastern European Jews to establish agricultural careers. Other states also participated in this experiment, including Utah, Colorado, North Dakota, Oregon and Michigan. There was also a Jewish agricultural settlement in Sicily Island, Louisiana which a flood wiped out and there was a Jewish agricultural settlement in Oregon which was liquidated for debt in 1882.
The Ad Olam group had hoped to establish a home for the Jewish people fleeing the Russian Empire by the thousands and, after the accession of Alexander III to the throne of Russia in 1881, by the millions. Alexander III was a vicious bigot who blamed the murder of his father on “the Jews” because the killer, not at all Jewish, had a Jewish girlfriend.
Montefiore was another Kansas agricultural settlement begun by Jewish immigrants in 1884. The colony included 15 families. Yet drought defeated this colony as well, as many of its members moved to Lasker, which had been founded in 1885. Yet, by 1890, even Lasker was abandoned because drought had made farming impossible.
Both Gilead and Hebron had somewhat more success. Both colonies lasted from 1886 until 1895, when all the Jewish families had left. Jewish farming in Kansas came to an end by the beginning of the twentieth century. Today, there are a number of Jews in Kansas who descend from these farmers. Senator Arlen Spector of Pennsylvania was born in Kansas.
Thanks for the education, and just when I thought I knew everything. That was very interesting. It also shows human hubris and stupidity, re the banks conficating the means by which their loans could be repaid, are nothing new.