Move to Alabama, Get $50,000
There are some perks of being Jewish: knowing you’re part of the “Chosen People,” being part of a warm and vibrant community, and as Adam Sandler says, “Instead of one day of presents, we have eight crazy nights.” But now there’s the chance to get $50,000 just for being Jewish.
There’s just one tiny catch: You and your family have to move to Dothan, Alabama. The town, which calls itself the “Peanut Capital of the World,” has a population of 65,000 people and only 43 Jews. An article in today’s Atlantic reports that Larry Blumberg, a member of the city’s only synagogue, Temple Emanu-El, is sponsoring the effort to bring 20 Jewish families to the town in 5 years. So far, three couples have signed up and moved to the area.
Other Southern locales, such as New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, have offered Jewish families money to move, but no where close to the sum Dothan is offering up.
Concerned about living in the middle of the Bible Belt, in the rural south? Rob Goldsmith, the director of the resettlement program and the husband of the synagogue’s new rabbi says: “I tell [people] there’s running water, that we wear shoes, have a Starbucks. There have never been any swastikas on the temple door.”
We’ll see you down South.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
