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, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
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.
