“Speaking Yiddish to Chickens”– Author Seth Stern In-person and on Zoom
Seth Stern, author of “Speaking Yiddish to Chickens,” will discuss his book at Congregation Torat El, 301 Monmouth Road, Oakhurst, NJ 07755 on Sunday, October 22, 2023, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. This event includes a brunch.
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 U.S. 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.
SETH STERN is a legal journalist and editor at Bloomberg Industry Group. He previously reported for Bloomberg News, Congressional Quarterly, and the Christian Science Monitor. He co-authored Justice Brennan: Liberal Champion (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010). He is a graduate of Harvard Law School, the Harvard Kennedy School, and Cornell University.
Pre-Paid tickets cost $15 per person and $20 at the door and includes brunch. Reservations at www.mta.torat-el.org or 732-531-4410.