Group dangles SSoK for Jews who move to Ala. town
BY JAY REEVES
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
DOTHAN, Ala. (AP) _ Larry
Blumberg is looking for a few
good Jews to move to his corner
of the Bible Belt.
Blumberg is chairman of an
organization offering Jewish
families as much as $50,000
to relocate to Dothan, an
overwhelmingly Christian town
of 58,000 that calls itself the
Peanut Capital of the World.
Get involved at Temple Emanu-
El and stay at least five years,
the group's leaders say, and
the money doesn't have to be
repaid.
More Jews are living in the
South than ever about 386,000
at last count in 2001, according
to Stuart Rockoff, a historian
at the Goldring/Woldenberg
Institute of Southern Jewish Life
in Jackson, Miss. But young
Jews are leaving small places
like Dothan in favor of cities
like Atlanta and Birmingham,
Rockoff said, and dozens of
small-town synagogues have
closed.
"A lot of the older people
have died, and not many of the
younger ones have stayed," said
Thelma Nomberg, a member of
the Dothan temple who grew up
in nearby Ozark, where she was
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a succession crisis in North
Korea. He has three sons by two
women but has not designated a
successor.
Gary Samore, a former senior
official with the National Security
Council and now an expert
with the Council on Foreign
Relations, said he doesn't think
Kim's absence would change
North Korea's strategy in nuclear
negotiations. And he discounted
the theory that Kim favored a
moderate approach in the talks.
"I think the strategy that Kim
Jong Il is following is likely to
be pursued by any collective
leadership," he said. "They will
try to extract as much benefit as
possible in the form of money,
fertilizer and oil from the west
and not give up their nuclear
weapons."
the only Jewish student in public
school in the 19405. "We are
dying."
Being outside the Christian
majority was never a problem,
Nomberg said, even six decades
ago: She won the Miss Ozark
beauty pageant at 14 and
sometimes attended church with
friends after sleep-overs.
Now a widow, Nomberg has
watched two of her four adult
children leave for Florida as
Temple Emanu-El lost nearly half
its membership, down to about
50 families. She can only hope
the -recruitment plan hatched
by Blumberg Family Jewish
Community Services of Dothan
works for her synagogue.
Launched in June, the Blumberg
program has put advertisements
in Jewish newspapers in Boston,
Miami, Providence, R. 1., and
Washington, and it plans to
expand the campaign.
"I think it's important that we
try to find young people that we
could use in our religious school,
our Sunday school and help in
the way of trying to create more
of a family-type atmosphere in
our temple," Blumberg said.
Groups offered financial aid for
Jews to return to New Orleans
after Hurricane Katrina in
2005, and Jewish organizations
around the country offer moving
assistance for relocating families.
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A congregation has loans and
other benefits for Jewish families
moving into an area near
Boston.
"Our program is distinctive
because it's Dothan, but it's also
distinctive because of the type of
financial assistance," said Rob
Goldsmith, executive director
of Blumberg Family Jewish
Community Services, which will
screen applicants and administer
the grant program.
Trying to lure Jewish families to
a quiet Southern town in a state
with a reputation for hard-right
politics and racial intolerance
might be difficult. About 20
Jewish families have sought
information about Dothan,
though none has made the move.
Rockoff credits Blumberg and
the rest of the congregation with
fighting to remain in Dothan,
where the synagogue has a
full-time rabbi and the temple,
which is aligned with the reform
movement, hasn't missed
having a Friday night service in
decades.
"It is a small community, but
they have some deep pockets to
be able to do this," said Rockoff.
"As a historian it is fascinating
to see them trying to buck this
trend."
Dothan lies at the heart of
the South's peanut region, in
Alabama's southeastern corner
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just minutes from Florida and
Georgia. It's dotted with big
fiberglass peanuts painted to
resemble characters and people
there's even an Elvis peanut.
Little things are big here: The
city boasts what it calls the
world's smallest city block, a
triangular traffic island near the
civic center.
But Blumberg's group is selling
prospective Jewish residents on
Dothan's quality of life its
low cost of living, the heritage of
its synagogue and its proximity
to Florida beaches, about 80
miles away.
The city is the site of the down
home National Peanut Festival
each fall, and it has a full schedule
of community cultural events.
It has two hospitals, a branch
of Troy University and is just a
short drive from Fort Rucker, the
Army's main helicopter training
base.
Downtown is filled with quaint
red-brick buildings and colorful
murals, and traffic never gets too
bad on Ross Clark Circle, the
perimeter road.
"We have Friday afternoon
rush minute, and that's about it,"
said manufacturing executive Ed
Marblestone, 69, who grew up
Jewish in Texas but married a
Dothan girl and has lived in the
town since 1961.
Valerie Barnes grew up in
S t
t eti
916
Panama and moved several
times before settling 20 years
ago in Dothan and becoming
active at the synagogue. She's
never experienced any anti-
Semitism and can't imagine
living anywhere else.
"The biggest thing Dothan has
to offer is that it's just a very
family-oriented community," said
Barnes, who directs a hospital
foundation. "Our congregation is
very vibrant, and we have a lot of
things that we get involved in."
Rabbi Lynne Goldsmith didn't
know quite what to expect when
she moved to Dothan a year
ago to lead the congregation at
Temple Emanu-El, which was
founded in 1929. She came
with her husband, who directs
the Jewish community services
group.
A Connecticut native, the rabbi
halfway expected the Alabama
of old with wide-open racism
and dirt roads.
"The Northeast has a really
warped perception of what the
South is all about, and I found
out it was all wrong," she said.
"The South is a wonderful place
to be. The people are warm
and friendly. There's very little
traffic. And best of all, there's no
snow."
Authorities: Burglar
wakes men with spice
rub
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) _
Authorities say they've arrested
a man who broke into the home
of two California farmworkers,
stole money, rubbed one with
spices and whacked the other
with a sausage before fleeing.
Fresno County sheriff's Lt.
lan Burrimond says 22-year
old Antonio Vasquez was
found hiding in a field wearing
only a T-shirt, boxers and socks
after the Saturday morning
attack.
He says deputies arrested
Vasquez after finding a wallet
containing his ID in the ransacked
house.
The farmworkers told deputies
the suspect woke them Saturday
morning by rubbing spices on
one of them and smacking the
other with an 8-inch sausage.
Burrimond says money allegedly