Immigrant Jewish Farmers

Kent County · dedicated 1997 · 154 Kersey Road, Viola

Delaware’s first Jewish farmers, Isaac and Ida Benioff, settled here in 1897. Like those to follow, they were recent immigrants fleeing poverty and oppression in their native Russia. Between 1912 and 1929, the Jewish Agriculture Society, based in New York City, provided loans to the Benioffs and other Jewish farmers who moved to Kent County as part of a national “back-to-the-soil” movement. After World War II, the Jewish farmers remaining in the area contributed to the organization of the Jewish community in southern Delaware and the establishment of the first synagogue in Dover.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

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