Speaking Yiddish to Chickens: Holocaust Survivors on South Jersey Poultry Farms

by Seth Stern

Most of the roughly 140,000 Holocaust survivors who came to the United States in the first decade after World War II settled in big cities such as New York. But a few thousand chose an alternative way of life on American farms. More of these accidental farmers wound up raising chickens in southern New Jersey than anywhere else. Speaking Yiddish to Chickens is the first book to chronicle this little-known chapter in American Jewish history when these mostly Eastern European refugees – including the author’s grandparents - found an unlikely refuge and gateway to new lives in the US on poultry farms. They gravitated to a section of south Jersey anchored by Vineland, a small rural city where previous waves of Jewish immigrants had built a rich network of cultural and religious institutions.

This book relies on interviews with dozens of these refugee farmers and their children, as well as oral histories and archival records to tell how they learned to farm while coping with unimaginable grief. They built small synagogues within walking distance of their farms and hosted Yiddish cultural events more frequently found on the Lower East Side than perhaps anywhere else in rural America at the time. Like refugees today, they embraced their new American identities and enriched the community where they settled, working hard in unfamiliar jobs for often meager returns. Within a decade, falling egg prices and the rise of industrial-scale agriculture in the South would drive almost all of these novice poultry farmers out of business, many into bankruptcy. Some hated every minute here; others would remember their time on south Jersey farms as their best years in America. They enjoyed a quieter way of life and more space for themselves and their children than in the crowded New York City apartments where so many displaced persons settled. This is their remarkable story of loss, renewal, and perseverance in the most unexpected of settings.
 

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Jewish, Holocaust, Judaism

313 pages, Paperback

Published March 17, 2023

Reviews

[N.L. Brisson · Rating 5 out of 5]

My best friend married a Jewish man who became a good friend to all of us. He was trying to learn Yiddish for a while, so when I saw this book on Amazon called Speaking Yiddish to Chickens by Seth Stern, I decided to read it and to get my friend a copy of the book. I thought it might be humorous or full of lost Yiddish words, but this did not turn out to be the case. That is not to say that it wasn't fascinating. I did not know that Jewish refugees from Europe after World War II often found life in NYC or other urban places too crowded and, after all their trials, too chaotic. They longed for peace and a way to remake their shattered lives.

The Jewish Agricultural Society (JAS) suggested to some refugees that chicken farming in southern New Jersey was becoming a popular lifestyle choice for refugees. The book is centered around two Grine (Grin-ah) (the category used to describe postwar Jewish refugees) named Nuchim (New-kim) and Bronia (Bron-yah) Green who decide to buy a south Jersey chicken farm in a place called Vineland. These two are the author's grandparents, and he talked with them many times while writing this book. Their daughter, Ruth Green, married a Stern. The author is Ruth's son.

Both Nuchim and Bronia spent a part of the war in a forest in Germany as underground fighters and to hide from deportation to a concentration camp. When Bronia got to the US she weighed only 80 pounds. Deprivation was a common denominator for Jewish people who survived. They decided to buy a farm with another couple, the Liverants. Both couples had one child, both girls.

I bought a copy of the book on Audible so I could hear the correct pronunciation of all those Yiddish words that weren't there, but it was still a good story to listen to.

As we follow Seth Stern's grandparents through the years when they pursued chicken farming, and as the children in the community get older, we see the family more involved in a community of people, eventually enjoying trips to a nearby beach, playing cards, and enjoying other social occasions. By this time Bronia and Nuchim have their own farm.

However, chicken farming is hard work. Chickens can't get too cold, especially baby chicks. Chickens must be fed every few hours. The eggs must be washed and dried by hand, then candled to ensure they meet government regulations. There were few hours for playing until people started inventing automatic feeders, egg dryers, and ways to candle eggs without handling each one separately. The economic security of chicken farmers was very dependent on the market price for eggs, and prices varied from season to season and year to year. No one was getting rich.

The author interviewed the children (his mother and her contemporaries), asking about what life on the farm was like and about how they were treated in school. They told him that they had been subjected to plenty of antisemitism in public schools. He interviewed the parents to find out how they were dealing with the terrible things that happened to them in the war. Many parents did not want to ever talk about what they had experienced. Others were very vocal about the abuses they endured.

I'm very glad I read this book. Here is a little corner of American Jewish life that I knew nothing about. There are many more such corners to explore but not all are documented in books. Speaking Yiddish to Chickens is a true nonfiction book with an index and bibliography. Because it focuses on two people related to the author and expands outward from there, it is not overly academic and is very readable.

[Randall Russell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book was OK. I was interested in this story because my inlaws live in South Jersey very close to Vineland, so I had some knowledge of the area and the history of the Jewish immigrants, mainly survivors of the Holocaust, that settled in the area after AWWII. The first half of this book I found to be quite interesting, but then in the 2nd half it seemed to fall apart. To me it felt like the author lost the thread, and the narrative drive of the story just disappeared, and then the whole thing just kind of meandered to the end. Once the Jewish immigrants got settled into the poultry farms, and started having and raising children, I expected the narrative to shift to the children and the usual upwardly mobile drive that would cause them to seek out professional careers, rather than the agricultural ones their parent chose. That's the point at which the author seemed to lose focus, and the story just drifted off into what seemed to me to be a series of loosely connected vignettes. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this book, unless, like me, you have a personal interest in this particular small piece of history.

[Lila · Rating 4 out of 5]

This history of how Holocaust survivors came to take up chicken farming in the Vineland/Alliance area makes use of interviews and newspaper accounts. Some of the historical byways are surprising, such as the connection between the ghostwriter of a chicken veterinarian's memoirs and the Anne Frank diaries. The accounts can be slow, and some sentences had me reaching for my blue pencil, but the book is worthwhile.

Despite a note of depression at the end, today the historical preservation of the Jewish settlements continues. My family helped settle Alliance and Norma in the 1880s. A lot of families spent time on the farms and are interested in preserving the history of this utopian back-to-the-land venture.

[Lea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting read chronicling a little known episode of Jewish American history. My rating for this would be higher than 3.5 stars rounded up to 4, however IMO this book suffers from inconsistent editing. This surprised me, as the author is a veteran journalist. Additionally, there is a lot of repetition and some disjointedness, leading me to surmise that this book is a compilation of individual articles/essays.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book offers a lens on a Jewish immigrant community I knew nothing about: Jewish immigrants who settled in Vineland, NJ and became poultry farmers. It describes what their lives were like before and during their time in Vineland, and the successes they had as well as the hardships and eventual decline of the Jewish community there. Before picking up this book, I had no idea this community had even existed.

[Travelmaven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nonfiction. Well researched. History I wasn't aware of. Individuals and families who survived the Holocaust and made it to the U.S. lived in New Jersey raising chickens, with other survivors as well as people who didn't know about the Holocaust. What their lives were like, and their children' lives, is explained in well written stories.

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gem. It was personal to me because my mother in law and my father in law, both Holocaust Survivors, initially took up poultry farming in South Jersey. On a less personal note, this constructive way of life for immigrants might hold some wisdom and solutions for contemporary refugees.

[Esther Dushinsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audiobook

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting story but prose stunted.

[Brian M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read for those interesting in the history of South Jersey survivors of the Holocaust m

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting slice of Jewish-American history.

[ANITA GITMAN · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great title. I was expecting some humourous anecdotes along with some history but the book is academic & dry