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AP: Group dangles $50K for Jews who move to Ala. town


techboy

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How much is eating bacon worth to you?

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 the only Jewish student in public school in the 1940s. "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.I., 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.

Rest of the article here...

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Increased diversity is rarely a bad thing, just strange that he's offering money
He's not offering money for diversity; he's offering money to save his synagogue. Apparently he's sitting on a lot of cash and not a lot of parishioners ... and it's probably a pretty good business model, since if he raised enough money to now be giving it away, the $50k should pay for itself in no time at all.
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How much is eating bacon worth to you?

would I have to sign a contract that I won't eat bacon?

will they be keeping a camera on me 24/7 to make sure? Because for 50k..I think I can stick to eating bacon behind closed doors :D

If I get caught I'll claim its Turky Bacon....:laugh: <<<seems appropriate for a bacon thread...

...wait it wasn't a bacon thread? :doh: damn

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Oh yeah, look at Captain Christian trying to lay claim to bacon of all things.

Bacon belong to everybody man, well, except the Jews.(making your claim true I guess)

(Missing the OLS a lot right now)

Muslims do not eat it either

maybe this is a new rapture thing, all jews must be in Ala and israel first

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The south could use more Judaism, imo

Seriously. I was shocked to read that More Jews are living in the South than ever — about 386,000 at last count in 2001.

Less than 400k is a LOT? Sheez. I knew the number was low, but I didn't think it was THAT low. I wonder how many of them live outside Florida.

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But I found it odd that it's a REFORM temple is doing this.

Sweet! I am so there! Saturday Night Live once had a skit where a "spokesman" of Reformed Judaism finished his statement with "... and we in the Reformed Synagogue will continue to worship Jesus Christ, just like everybody else."

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Sweet! I am so there! Saturday Night Live once had a skit where a "spokesman" of Reformed Judaism finished his statement with "... and we in the Reformed Synagogue will continue to worship Jesus Christ, just like everybody else."

:rotflmao:

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