Unknown to many locals, Russian Jewish immigrants began purchasing farmland in the Ellsworth hills above Sharon in 1907. The new immigrants had been forbidden to own land in Russia, and they were working in sweatshops and living in crowded tenements on the Lower East Side when Baron de Hirsch’s Jewish Agricultural and Immigrant Aid Society offered assistance with farm mortgages.

The Jews saw land ownership as their chance for genuine freedom, and dairy farming as an opportunity to counter prejudice by showing their capacity for hard work. Over 30 immigrant families would become dairy farmers in the Ellsworth hills. Among these are families whose descendants still have farms in the area, including Osofskys, Paleys, and Gorkofskys.

Since the land was stony and unyielding, most took in vacationers, offering rooms with kosher meals to make ends meet. By 1925, the families began to run boarding houses and hotels in nearby Amenia, New York. Directly on the train line, Amenia became an early Jewish resort for New Yorkers seeking a reprieve from city life amidst country views and fresh air.

An exhibit, A Chance for Land and Fresh Air: Jewish Immigrant Farmers, Hoteliers, and Shopkeepers in Sharon and Amenia, 1907-1940 opened at the Sharon Historical Society on October 22. The exhibit celebrates this unique two-village story through photos, news clippings, and other historical documents, as well as period farm equipment and audio interviews with early settlers and their descendants.