The news item in September 2008 couldn’t help but catch one’s eye. It went something like this: Jews in the small town of Dothan, Ala., were offering $50,000 to Jewish families who were willing to move to their heavily Christian corner of the South.
I didn’t think much about it at the time, other than it was an interesting news story. The main thing I remembered from the burst of coverage — including a Jerusalem Post piece headlined “Southern Fried Judaism”— was that a family would get the full $50,000 only by staying five years … in what I imagined was one of those towns overrun with big-box stores and Walmarts. Where one’s love of the Bay Area’s ethnic restaurants would translate to Taco Bell runs and fried wontons at Ming Palace. Where the closest thing to an art-house film would be a Coen brothers movie.
In November, however, I was thumbing through the Reform Judaism magazine that for some reason shows up (for free) in my mailbox every quarter. “Small Town — Big Dreams” was the heading of an ad on page 68. “The ideal place for age 55+ Jewish living,” it read.
The ad caught my eye — not that I’m yet 55 (although I am only two Olympics away). It just seemed like an interesting life change. An experience. Early in our married life, my wife, Stacey, and I left our jobs and served in the Peace Corps together, so why not help build a Jewish community?
Moreover, my ego bulged as I knew we’d be great candidates: Me, coming from j., where I know a lot about Jewish community; and Stacey, who has a master’s in Jewish communal service from Hebrew Union College and was the cultural arts director at the Berkeley-Richmond JCC and the program director at San Francisco State Hillel.
Sure enough, after I filled out an extensive online questionnaire, I received a quick reply from Rob Goldsmith, husband of the town’s lone rabbi and director of the relocation project, which is being funded by businessman Larry Blumberg, a third-generation Dothan resident.
Yes, we were great candidates, and Rob also seemed eager: Since the program launched in 2008, only three families had relocated as of mid-December (the plan was to lure 20 families over five years). Initially, 400 inquiries came in, but with the economy turning south, the lack of local job prospects in rural Alabama scared people off.
So Stacey and I became one of 11 families in the “pipeline,” fast-tracked to step two (a phone interview). In the interim, we began receiving the Blumberg Family Jewish Community Services newsletter by e-mail.
I didn’t want to string Rob along, and I really wanted the positives to outweigh the negatives, but further research
wasn’t helping. We Googled restaurants and culture in the town of 67,000, and came away wary. The closest “big” cities (Tallahassee, Fla., and Montgomery, Ala.) are 90 miles away. The job situation in the Dothan area is bad. Also, seeing the newsletter drove things home: one synagogue with 56 member families (up from 40 a few years ago) within a 100-mile radius. Pictures of a Chanukah party should have been heartwarming, but instead put us in the mindset of: Do we really want to feel obliged, in an effort to be a part of the community, to attend every such event for the next five years?
Also, as a side note, families aren’t just handed $50,000. Rather, they get grants, if they qualify, in different areas. For example: up to $7,500 for moving costs, up to $15,000 for student loans, up to $7,500 for child care, up to $1,000 for temple dues.
We did the 90-minute phone interview with Rob, who asked us all kinds of things — from our camp experiences to why we want to leave Oakland — but our thinking going in was that we would have to be bowled over with reasons to make the move. The fact that some 125 people attend High Holy Day services in Dothan didn’t do it. Maybe a job in the Jewish community for Stacey would have.
I really wanted to be able to write, “Next year in Dothan.” I’m sorry. I can’t.
Andy Altman-Ohr is a j. copy editor. Contact him at [email protected]. For information about the Dothan relocation project, visit www.bfjcs.org.