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

by Seth Stern Narrated by Barry Abrams

Overview

Most Holocaust survivors who came to the US after WWII settled in big cities, but some 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 chapter in American Jewish history when these refugees-including the author's grandparents-found an unlikely gateway to new lives in the US on poultry farms. This book relies on interviews, 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. Like refugees today, they embraced their new 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 would drive most 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 than in the crowded New York City apartments where so many settled. This is their remarkable story of loss, renewal, and perseverance in the most unexpected of settings.

Editorial Reviews

The Forward - Barbara Finkelstein

"I grew up Jewish on a chicken farm. This book gets it right...Stern not only pinpoints the economic hardships and social dislocation the survivors experienced...The beauty of Speaking Yiddish to Chickens lies in Stern’s skill at conveying the ups and downs of some 1,000 survivors, each with their unique hardscrabble story."

Tablet - Rokhl Kafrissen

"Speaking Yiddish to Chickens is much more than one man’s story about his grandparents. Stern’s journalistic expertise allows him to broaden his scope, deftly layering different perspectives and narratives throughout the book."

Jewish Book Council

"Seth Stern has cre­at­ed a nuanced, sen­si­tive, and even affec­tion­ate account of an impor­tant, albeit neglect­ed, out­growth of the Jew­ish dias­po­ra in North Amer­i­ca. It will be of great inter­est to any­one who has a per­son­al, social, or aca­d­e­m­ic inter­est in the post­war peri­od, oral his­to­ry, and/​or post-Holo­caust immigration."

author of Farming the Red Land: Jewish Agricultural Colonization and Local Soviet Power, 1924–1941 - Jonathan Dekel-Chen

Seth Stern skillfully brings to life a remarkable chapter in the little-known history of modern Jewish farming in the Diaspora.  Lovingly written, Speaking Yiddish to Chickens travels with Stern’s grandparents and other European Jews from the horrors of the Holocaust to new lives in and around Vineland, New Jersey’s poultry farms, where these survivors healed their wounds and embarked upon their American journeys. Through meticulous research, Stern captures the extraordinary cooperation between the American government, Jewish philanthropic agencies, and the farmers themselves who made this bold experiment possible.

author of Jewish Agricultural Colonies in New Jersey, 1882-1920 - Ellen Eisenberg

Speaking Yiddish to Chickens is attentive to the ways in which Holocaust survivors who took up poultry farming in Vineland built upon the achievements of their Jewish predecessors. Stern's individual stories are easy to follow, upbeat, and colorful. Stern is a seasoned and skilled journalist.” 

Product Details

BN ID:	2940192333921
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	06/18/2024
Edition description:	Unabridged