Videos &
Oral History

Conversations about Norma, Alliance and Brotmanville, New Jersey. Footage from interviews by Richard Brotman completed c. 1981. Selections from interviews with Barney Stavitsky, Lillian Greenblatt Braun, Judge I. Harry Levin, and M. Joseph Greenblatt. Richard Brotman collected this footage for his documentary First Chapter In A New Book: The Story of Brotmanville and the Alliance Colonies of Southern New Jersey (1982).

Funding support for the documentary was underwritten by Judge Stanley S. Brotman and Suzanne S. Brotman. Their foresight in 1980 has allowed us to experience an exceptional chapter in American Jewish history.

Jay Greenblatt discusses the Alliance Colony and the importance of preserving the history of the original settlers and their descendants. 

Ruth Weinstein reads from her memoir Back to the Land: Alliance Colony to the Ozarks in Four Generations. Ruth Weinstein’s beautiful memoir, which details life among the early settlers of the Alliance Colony, Pittsgrove Township, New Jersey, is informed by her own experience as a homesteader in the Ozarks, where she has lived for forty-five years on forty acres in Searcy County, Arkansas. Laced with descriptions of her childhood visits to Alliance and Vineland as a “summer kid,” Back to the Land is also a history of Weinstein’s extended family, including grandfather John Levin, who was a son of founding settlers who helped shape the colony.

For those interested in purchasing Ruth's memoir directly from her, please write her at stillinthegarden20@gmail.com.

Felice Lewis Rovner’s one-act play tells the story of Annette G. Bayuk and her firstborn, left behind in Russia. As a young woman, Annette emigrated to America and married Moses Bayuk with whom she had a second family and a happy life, but she always longed to be reunited with her firstborn. This is the story of that reunion. The play was performed before an audience at Stockton University’s Kramer Hall in November 2021. A second performance, seen here, was filmed in Stockton’s experimental theatre in January 2022.

This was directed by Lane McLeod Jackson and produced by the School of Arts and Humanities at Stockton University. Actors include Celine Fleemore as Bluma, Lea Barone as Annette, Paul Nicaro as Moses, and Zion Chrissavian as Moishe.

A book discussion with Seth Stern, author of Speaking Yiddish to Chickens, the first book to chronicle how roughly 1,000 Holocaust survivors – including the author’s grandparents - found an unlikely refuge and gateway to new lives as poultry farmers in southern New Jersey. This book relies on interviews with dozens of these refugee farmers and their children, as well as oral histories and archival records. This is their remarkable story of loss, renewal, and perseverance in the most unexpected of settings. This particular discussion focuses on the support given to these newcomers by I. Harry Levin, descendant of earlier Jewish immigrants who founded the Alliance Colony outside of Vineland, New Jersey.

Seth Stern is a legal journalist and author. Stern’s grandparents were Holocaust survivors who settled on a Vineland, New Jersey, chicken farm, which is where his mother grew up. He co-authored Justice Brennan: Liberal Champion and is a graduate of Harvard Law School. The discussion took place via Zoom on June 4, 2024.

Home movies filmed by Leon M. Bardfeld c. 1932 to 1937 in Centerton, Alliance, and Vineland, NJ. This video is presented by the Noyes Museum of Art of Stockton University for the historical exhibition, "Growing American: The Alliance Agricultural Colony in South Jersey." The exhibition was displayed at Kramer Hall in Hammonton, NJ from October 1, 2021 through February 4, 2022.

An interview with Gilbert Brotman, son of Abraham Brotman, founder of Brotmanville, New Jersey, by Richard Brotman, completed c. 1981. Richard Brotman collected this footage for his documentary First Chapter In A New Book: The Story of Brotmanville and the Alliance Colonies of Southern New Jersey (1982).

Funding support for the documentary was underwritten by Judge Stanley S. Brotman and Suzanne S. Brotman.

“The Armenian Genocide, One Family’s Story,” is an exhibit available in Stockton University’s Library from October 3, 2022 through May 31, 2023. This exhibit follows the journey of Arek and Moses Zakarian. Visitors will view the history of the period through the lens of one family’s experience. Broadly, the Zakarian story also allows us to see connections to other refugee and survivor communities in the southern New Jersey and Philadelphia area. To further highlight these parallels, content on the Alliance Colony is included in this video.  

Watch Josh Cutler's lecture on the history behind the Jewish farming communities and synagogues of southern New Jersey.

Josh Cutler is a Ph.D. student at Gratz College pursuing his doctorate in Holocaust and Genocide Studies. He completed his Master’s in Holocaust and Genocide at Stockton University, focusing specifically on the Holocaust Survivor synagogues of South Jersey and the impact survivors had on local synagogue life after their cessation.  Over the past two decades Cutler remains professionally involved with the Atlantic and Cape May Jewish community serving as Program Director at the Milton & Betty Katz Jewish Community Center, Camp Director for Camp By the Sea, and Executive Director for the Board of Jewish Education of Atlantic and Cape May Counties.