An elegant photo album I recently acquired tells the fascinating tale of the pioneering efforts of “The Agricultural Jewish Borough of Woodbine, New Jersey, USA,” known at the time as the first Jewish autonomous community since the fall of the second Temple in Jerusalem. Following the devastating pattern of pogroms in the Russian empire in the years 1881-1884, and the encouragement of the Russian government in the blaming of the Jews for their woes, the Am Olam movement was founded. The mission of Am Olam was to establish agricultural colonies in America and encourage Jews from Eastern Europe and Russia to move there and work the land.
In 1891, Baron Maurice de Hirsch bought 5,300 acres of land in Southern New Jersey, in the small enclave of Woodbine, Cape May County. At the cost of $38,000, the land of Woodbine was settled by 300 colonists that very year, led by Hirsch Sabsovich, who went on to become the first mayor of the settlement. Each immigrant family received a farm house and 50 acres of land organized in a grid form. The settlement of Woodbine was to serve as the movement’s flagship project. In just a few years, Woodbine blossomed into a thriving agricultural community. By 1900 approximately 900 people lived in town, 760 of them Jews. In 1920, Jews numbered 825 of the 1,400 residents. Among other achievements, Woodbine was awarded medals for its produce at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900 and the St. Louis World’s Fair of 1904. The present album was given as a gift from a number of Woodbine’s pioneering settlers to Hirsch Loeb Sabsovich, a leader of the “Am Olam” movement and Woodbine’s first mayor, on the occasion of his 25th wedding anniversary, and as a token of recognition for all his efforts on their behalf.
The album opens with a beautiful, handwritten title page bearing a brief dedication encircled by a wreath; three Biblical verses in Hebrew, “A good name is better than precious oil” (Ecclesiastes 7:1), “Enjoy life with the wife whom you love” (Ecclesiastes 9:9), and “Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates” (Proverbs 31:31); and the hand signatures of the ten people responsible for the gift, all of them from among the founding settlers of the Woodbine community, including Herman Rosenfeld, William Leo Lipman, Michael Goodale Lipman, Joseph William Pincus, and others.
The title page is followed by a lengthy, four-page dedication, beautifully handwritten, relating the history of the Jewish Borough: “It is pleasant to recount the great and earnest efforts you made to build up a community out of downtrodden, spiritless refugees […] In 1891 a foundation was laid for a new land, where members of a suffering race could live […] Starting with thirty emaciated, bloodless, little creatures you enjoy now the sight of 560 healthy, cheerful, lively little Americans.” The 44 photographs in this album include the laying of a cornerstone for the agricultural school; the synagogue; the local Borough Council and Board of Education in session (with the American flag and a portrait of George Washington hanging on the wall above them); Woodbine’s volunteer firefighters; the Simchat Torah holiday; the local railway station; children of the kindergarten and school; settlers and their homes; and more. A portrait picture of Hirsch Loeb Sabsovich is pasted onto the back of the final leaf of the four-page handwritten dedication.
