Jewish Immigration to America

This is New Jersey 

Title

This is New Jersey 

Date

1947

Subject

Holocaust Survivors
Radio Programs
Farmers, Jewish

Description

"This is New Jersey,"  a radio play about a family of refugees who become chicken farmers in New Jersey, was broadcast in 1947 or 1948 as part of a weekly series produced by the New Jersey Department of Economic Development, and was most likely sponsored by the organization, the United Service for New Americans (USNA), as part of their campaign to create favorable impressions of Jews and refugees in an attempt to create public pressure for liberalized immigration quotas.

The play's main character, Max Schneider, a refugee chicken farmer in New Jersey, seems to be based on a real refugee chicken farmer, Siegfried Schweitzer, who had received USNA aid. When the Schneider family's chicken coop is destroyed in a storm, they're reluctant to go to their neighbors for help. But the neighbors come forward. When Max tearfully expresses his amazement and gratitude that they would help "a stranger, a foreigner," they point out that they themselves are the children or descendants of immigrants.

Creator

This is New Jersey

Source

Max and Frieda Weinstein Archive of YIVO Sound Recordings

Publisher

YIVO Institute for Jewish Research

Format

MP3

Language

English

Type

Radio Broadcast

Identifier

YIVO RG 130 17.15

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Citation

This is New Jersey, “This is New Jersey,” YIVO Online Exhibitions, accessed March 28, 2024, https://immigrationusa.yivo.org/items/show/6396.
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