Newtown’s Jewish Farmers
By Katharine Dougherty
In the 1880s, Eastern European Jews emigrated to escape harsh anti-Semitic social and political conditions. Violent attacks in Poland and Russia in 1881, 1882, 1903, and 1906 forced many Jews to flee and come to the United States. At the same time, Connecticut farming was facing a downturn. In the last half of the 19th century, Connecticut farmers began to sell their farms seeking greater opportunities for their families. The poor quality of the rocky soil, the opening up of better land for farming in the Midwest, and the loss of family labor to industrial jobs put many local farms out of business. The Connecticut State Board of Agriculture published catalogues listing farms for sale.
The Jewish immigrants found these farms through the help of Baron de Hirsch. Among his many undertakings, Baron de Hirsch, a German-Jewish philanthropist, created a fund in 1891 to assist Jewish immigrants to the United States and South America by providing financing to buy and settle on farms. Connecticut’s proximity to Ellis Island, the immigration gateway of New York City, made the state a good choice for new arrivals. The Jewish Agricultural Society, a subsidiary of the de Hirsch Fund, was formed in 1900 and extended $15 million to 4,900 Jewish families in 41 states. Towns like Colchester, Lebanon, Montville, Vernon, Ellington, and Somers became destinations for Jewish families to begin their lives in the U.S. as farmers. Newtown was the most western part of Connecticut to receive European Jewish emigrants who were launched and supported by the philanthropy of Baron de Hirsch.
Many immigrants had lived in urban communities and had no farming experience. The Baron de Hirsch Fund, the Jewish Agricultural Society, and the Jewish Agricultural and Industrial Aid Society as well as the local and regional Jewish farming societies provided agricultural support, taught them how to farm, and helped them become farmers. If a new Jewish farmer failed after 3-5 years and quit farming, the property was transferred to another Jewish farmer.
In 1906 a small group of Jewish farmers came to the Huntingtown District of Newtown, bought land on Huntingtown and Meadowbrook Roads, and began to farm. They, like their predecessors, found the rocky soil unconducive to market garden produce, but usable for dairy and poultry farming. These early families practiced Orthodox Judaism. Because they came from different countries and spoke different languages, when they met in homes for services, they used the commonality of Yiddish. Their growing congregation became too large for home services and needed its own building. In 1909 Israel and Rose Nezvesky donated land for the building of the first synagogue, Adath Israel, which was built by the congregation at 111 Huntingtown Road. Participating in the funding and building were the families and households of Nezvesky, Busker, Epstein, Garder, Goldberg, Goldstein, Goosman, Kaufman, Nalven, Rosenberg, Schimelman, Schopick, and Sussman. The cornerstone was laid in 1919 and the synagogue dedicated in 1920.
By 1928, the Jewish Agricultural Society estimated that there were 1,000 Jewish Farms and 5,000 Jewish farms families in Connecticut. A 1928 Hartford Courant article credited Jewish farmers for aiding in the revival of “declining rural communities.” Mary M. Donohue’s December 8, 2011 article, “Jewish Refugees Revived Connecticut Farms,” appearing in The Hartford Courant, outlined the establishment of Jewish farmers among the small towns in Connecticut and explained the contributions of organizations like Jewish Farm Associations that acted in support of their members and the communities in which they settled.
In Newtown’s early Jewish farming community, some members also took work beyond the farm to help sustain their families. Some opened a small business like a general store, animal feed store, gas station, cattle trading enterprise, or cider mill. Another source of family income was the taking in of summer visitors from cities like Bridgeport and New York where many in the Huntingtown District still maintained contact with relatives and friends who had not left the cities for the farming life. These summer visitors would get the benefits of a farm life holiday, renting rooms and houses in Huntingtown District, and could worship with Newtown’s congregation.
Jewish farmers in Newtown brought their products alongside non-Jewish farmers to market in Bridgeport each week. The coming of the combustion engine was a boon for powering agricultural vehicles like tractors and combines. Previously, transporting farm goods to market had meant that Newtown farmers’ horse drawn farm wagons carried butter, eggs, cream, milk, and chickens to Bridgeport markets, loading in the early hours of Thursdays for the drive.
The Adath Israel congregation became a Modern Conservative congregation in 1968, by vote of its members. In 2007 the congregation built a new, larger synagogue at 115 Huntingtown Road, near the old synagogue. In August 2019, the month before the synagogue’s 100th anniversary celebration, the building was vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti.
The violence and antisemitism that caused the arrival of Newtown’s Jewish farm families is not something just of the past. Current White Christian Nationalism is a danger. Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry in their 2020 book, Taking Back America for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States, as referenced in an article in The New Republic, define Christian Nationalism as “an ideology that idealizes and advocates a fusion of American civic life with a particular type of Christian identity and culture.” They offer that “Christian nationalists believe that the U.S. was founded as an explicitly Christian nation.” They further explain that “the ‘Christianity’ of Christian nationalism ‘includes assumptions of nativism, white supremacy, patriarchy, and heteronormativity, along with divine sanction for authoritarian control and militarism.’”
Many descendants of the original Jewish farm families who made their homes in and contributed to Newtown in the days of yesteryear and those who by Donohue’s assertion “revived Connecticut’s farms” would have no place in the U.S. envisioned and propounded by the ideology of White Christian nationalism. Neither would Newtown’s Jewish citizens today. Or, the 3.3% of Connecticut’s population (2020) who are Jewish.
The Jewish immigrants found these farms through the help of Baron de Hirsch. Among his many undertakings, Baron de Hirsch, a German-Jewish philanthropist, created a fund in 1891 to assist Jewish immigrants to the United States and South America by providing financing to buy and settle on farms. Connecticut’s proximity to Ellis Island, the immigration gateway of New York City, made the state a good choice for new arrivals. The Jewish Agricultural Society, a subsidiary of the de Hirsch Fund, was formed in 1900 and extended $15 million to 4,900 Jewish families in 41 states. Towns like Colchester, Lebanon, Montville, Vernon, Ellington, and Somers became destinations for Jewish families to begin their lives in the U.S. as farmers. Newtown was the most western part of Connecticut to receive European Jewish emigrants who were launched and supported by the philanthropy of Baron de Hirsch.
Many immigrants had lived in urban communities and had no farming experience. The Baron de Hirsch Fund, the Jewish Agricultural Society, and the Jewish Agricultural and Industrial Aid Society as well as the local and regional Jewish farming societies provided agricultural support, taught them how to farm, and helped them become farmers. If a new Jewish farmer failed after 3-5 years and quit farming, the property was transferred to another Jewish farmer.
In 1906 a small group of Jewish farmers came to the Huntingtown District of Newtown, bought land on Huntingtown and Meadowbrook Roads, and began to farm. They, like their predecessors, found the rocky soil unconducive to market garden produce, but usable for dairy and poultry farming. These early families practiced Orthodox Judaism. Because they came from different countries and spoke different languages, when they met in homes for services, they used the commonality of Yiddish. Their growing congregation became too large for home services and needed its own building. In 1909 Israel and Rose Nezvesky donated land for the building of the first synagogue, Adath Israel, which was built by the congregation at 111 Huntingtown Road. Participating in the funding and building were the families and households of Nezvesky, Busker, Epstein, Garder, Goldberg, Goldstein, Goosman, Kaufman, Nalven, Rosenberg, Schimelman, Schopick, and Sussman. The cornerstone was laid in 1919 and the synagogue dedicated in 1920.
By 1928, the Jewish Agricultural Society estimated that there were 1,000 Jewish Farms and 5,000 Jewish farms families in Connecticut. A 1928 Hartford Courant article credited Jewish farmers for aiding in the revival of “declining rural communities.” Mary M. Donohue’s December 8, 2011 article, “Jewish Refugees Revived Connecticut Farms,” appearing in The Hartford Courant, outlined the establishment of Jewish farmers among the small towns in Connecticut and explained the contributions of organizations like Jewish Farm Associations that acted in support of their members and the communities in which they settled.
In Newtown’s early Jewish farming community, some members also took work beyond the farm to help sustain their families. Some opened a small business like a general store, animal feed store, gas station, cattle trading enterprise, or cider mill. Another source of family income was the taking in of summer visitors from cities like Bridgeport and New York where many in the Huntingtown District still maintained contact with relatives and friends who had not left the cities for the farming life. These summer visitors would get the benefits of a farm life holiday, renting rooms and houses in Huntingtown District, and could worship with Newtown’s congregation.
Jewish farmers in Newtown brought their products alongside non-Jewish farmers to market in Bridgeport each week. The coming of the combustion engine was a boon for powering agricultural vehicles like tractors and combines. Previously, transporting farm goods to market had meant that Newtown farmers’ horse drawn farm wagons carried butter, eggs, cream, milk, and chickens to Bridgeport markets, loading in the early hours of Thursdays for the drive.
The Adath Israel congregation became a Modern Conservative congregation in 1968, by vote of its members. In 2007 the congregation built a new, larger synagogue at 115 Huntingtown Road, near the old synagogue. In August 2019, the month before the synagogue’s 100th anniversary celebration, the building was vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti.
The violence and antisemitism that caused the arrival of Newtown’s Jewish farm families is not something just of the past. Current White Christian Nationalism is a danger. Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry in their 2020 book, Taking Back America for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States, as referenced in an article in The New Republic, define Christian Nationalism as “an ideology that idealizes and advocates a fusion of American civic life with a particular type of Christian identity and culture.” They offer that “Christian nationalists believe that the U.S. was founded as an explicitly Christian nation.” They further explain that “the ‘Christianity’ of Christian nationalism ‘includes assumptions of nativism, white supremacy, patriarchy, and heteronormativity, along with divine sanction for authoritarian control and militarism.’”
Many descendants of the original Jewish farm families who made their homes in and contributed to Newtown in the days of yesteryear and those who by Donohue’s assertion “revived Connecticut’s farms” would have no place in the U.S. envisioned and propounded by the ideology of White Christian nationalism. Neither would Newtown’s Jewish citizens today. Or, the 3.3% of Connecticut’s population (2020) who are Jewish.
Sources Used:
Andersen, Ruth O. M. (1975). From Yankee to American: Connecticut 1865 to 1914. Pequot Press.
Congregation Adath Israel. http://congadathisrael.org.
Donohue, Mary M.(2011, December 8) Jewish Refugees Revived Connecticut Farms. The Hartford Courant. Retrieved from http://www.courant.com.
Fischer, Jerry.(2016). Harvesting Stones : Jewish Farmers of Eastern Connecticut. [film]. Joint production of Grandma on the Boardwalk Productions, Borres Productions, and American View Productions.
Hallabeck, Eliza (2019, September 20) Congregation Adath Israel Hosts Special Shabbat Service for 100th Anniversary. The Newtown Bee. Retrieved from http://www.newtownbee.com.
Jewish Historical Society of Fairfield County. (http://www.jhsfc-ct.org).
Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford. (http://www.jhsgh.org).
Jewish Virtual Library. (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org).
New England Historical Society. http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.org.
Nezvesky-Schertzer, Janis (2021, February 14) Personal Communication. [email].
Roth, David M. (1979). Connecticut: A Bicentennial History (the States and the Nations series). Norton.
The Baron Hirsch Community. (http://www.thebaronhirschcommunity.org).
The League of Women Voters of Newtown, Inc. (1989). Newtown, Connecticut: Directions and Images. The League of Women Voters of Newtown, Inc.
Valenta, Kaaren (1996, April 5) A Growing Congregation Celebrates Tradition. The Newtown Bee. (archive, published August 11, 1999). Retrieved from http://www.newtownbee.com.
Whitehead, Andrew L.; Perry, Samuel L. (2020). Taking Back America for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States. Oxford University Press. pp. 7-10. (as cited in Sutton, Matthew A. (2020, July 16) “The Truth about Trump’s Evangelical Support”. The New Republic. (http:/www.newrepublic.com.)
Andersen, Ruth O. M. (1975). From Yankee to American: Connecticut 1865 to 1914. Pequot Press.
Congregation Adath Israel. http://congadathisrael.org.
Donohue, Mary M.(2011, December 8) Jewish Refugees Revived Connecticut Farms. The Hartford Courant. Retrieved from http://www.courant.com.
Fischer, Jerry.(2016). Harvesting Stones : Jewish Farmers of Eastern Connecticut. [film]. Joint production of Grandma on the Boardwalk Productions, Borres Productions, and American View Productions.
Hallabeck, Eliza (2019, September 20) Congregation Adath Israel Hosts Special Shabbat Service for 100th Anniversary. The Newtown Bee. Retrieved from http://www.newtownbee.com.
Jewish Historical Society of Fairfield County. (http://www.jhsfc-ct.org).
Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford. (http://www.jhsgh.org).
Jewish Virtual Library. (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org).
New England Historical Society. http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.org.
Nezvesky-Schertzer, Janis (2021, February 14) Personal Communication. [email].
Roth, David M. (1979). Connecticut: A Bicentennial History (the States and the Nations series). Norton.
The Baron Hirsch Community. (http://www.thebaronhirschcommunity.org).
The League of Women Voters of Newtown, Inc. (1989). Newtown, Connecticut: Directions and Images. The League of Women Voters of Newtown, Inc.
Valenta, Kaaren (1996, April 5) A Growing Congregation Celebrates Tradition. The Newtown Bee. (archive, published August 11, 1999). Retrieved from http://www.newtownbee.com.
Whitehead, Andrew L.; Perry, Samuel L. (2020). Taking Back America for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States. Oxford University Press. pp. 7-10. (as cited in Sutton, Matthew A. (2020, July 16) “The Truth about Trump’s Evangelical Support”. The New Republic. (http:/www.newrepublic.com.)