Description
Book SynopsisIn the late nineteenth century, a group of radical Jewish youths from Odessa attempted to create an agricultural commune on the Oregon frontier, and in so doing developed from assimilated revolutionaries to American Jews. Theodore Friedgut relates the story of these youths and their creation, with special notice paid to the human encounters within the commune, the members’ encounters with America in acquiring land and equipment—and, importantly, their encounters with their neighbors, themselves immigrant farmers on the American frontier. Among the volume’s central sources is the memoir of Israel Mandelkern, which is here published for the first time. This study addresses hitherto neglected aspects of Jewish life in Russia and of the life of one of the more than a hundred Jewish agricultural colonies, and helps us understand the factors that influenced the young colony members in their transition toward becoming Americans. This is a microcosm of the experience of multitudes of immigrants.
Trade ReviewExisting histories of the Am Olam movement have usually declared it a failure for one reason or another. This book tries to transcend binary judgments, seeking to place the stories of these young communards within the ideological currents of their times as well as within the global trends of migration and remigration that swept up Jews from, and within, Eastern Europe. In this sense, Friedgut’s volume humanizes a volatile period in Jewish history, freeing the experiences of real people from what too often have been Israel-centric national or nearly hagiographic narratives about land settlement formulated after 1945. … Overall,
Stepmother Russia, Foster Mother America brings a new layer into the discussion of global Jewish agrarianism that suggests a more balanced picture of modern diaspora communities in comparison to developments in the land of Israel before and after 1948. -- Jonathan Dekel-Chen * Studies in Contemporary Jewry *
Table of ContentsDedication
Acknowledgements
List of Photographs
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: The Beginnings of Am Olam
Chapter 3: The Birth of New Odessa
Chapter 4: First Stop, New York
Chapter 5: Beginnings in Oregon
Chapter 6: William Frey: Background and Beliefs
Chapter 7: Building New Odessa
Chapter 8: The Culture of New Odessa
Chapter 9: Fruition and Decline
Chapter 10: After New Odessa
Chapter 11: New Odessa: A Balance Sheet
Bibliography
Supplement: “Recollections of a Communist” Israel Mandelkern, Edited, with an introduction and annotation, by Theodore H. Friedgut
Index
