THE VILLAGE GREEN. DEDICATED TO THE BEAUTIFICATION OF NASSAU VILLAGE on the web at

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1 THE VILLAGE GREEN DEDICATED TO THE BEAUTIFICATION OF NASSAU VILLAGE on the web at Since 1990 Our 26th Year ***On-Line Since 2013*** April 2016 Village Reminders Remember all those leaves you raked up last fall? The winter winds have blown a new crop into your yard and you re ready to start all over again. Village Curbside Leaf Pickup is scheduled to start Monday, April 25th and continue for the next four Mondays through May 23rd. Remember yard debris must be placed in paper bags intended for that purpose. Irish eyes were smiling at the recent St. Patrick s Pancake Breakfast at Grace United Methodist Church. Pictured above left to right, brothers Bob and Paul Snyder and Don Foisy pause for a photo. Right - Don Foisy shares a bit of Irish blarney with event organizer Carolyn Sanford, who with family members also provided traditional Irish music for the event. The breakfast along with other activities raises donations for Heifer International, a program of livestock and agriculture support for impoverished families worldwide. (Photos courtesy of Sheila Foraker) Nassau Bicentennial Logo Contest Announced The Nassau Village Bicentennial Committee has announced a contest for submissions for a logo to be used for the th anniversary of the incorporation of the Village. The logo design will be used on advertising, merchandise and other related items to help celebrate the event. A cash prize of $100 will be awarded to the winning entry along with two T-shirts emblazoned with the design. Entry rules and application form are available on-line at Deadline for submissions is September 5, The next committee meeting is Monday, April 18th, 7 pm at the Village Hall. All are welcome to help plan the event. The Town Farm Committee Tailgate Sale will take place Saturday, April 30th, 8:00 am to noon, at the Town Highway Garage at 599 Central Nassau Road. Local vendors will display farm products, animals, gardening supplies, vegetable and flower plants, maple syrup and jams and jellies for sale. For additional information please contact the Farm Committee of the Town of Nassau at farms@ townofnassau.org or telephone extension 2. Don t forget the on-going collection of deposit bottles and cans by the Nassau Boy Scouts, Troop 166 the first Saturday of every month. Scouts will be at the Grace Methodist Church from 9 am to noon ready to help you recycle your trash into a valuable contribution for the future of Nassau s youth. Your help is greatly appreciated. The Village Green Nassau Village Beautification Committee P.O. Box 130, Nassau, NY Kurt Vincent, Editor info@nassau12123.com Your Comments & Material Always Welcome Copyright All rights reserved.

2 Youth Committee News Fourteen hundred candy filled eggs were eagerly scooped up by a record number of kids attending the recent annual Easter Egg Hunt at the Village Commons. This event is co-sponsored by the Village and Town of Nassau Youth Committees. The event rotates annually between the Hoag s Corners Fire House and the Nassau Village Commons. Coming up on Tuesday, April 25th, the Village Youth Committee will be hosting a special craft workshop at the Nassau Free Library on Church Street. We will be making book marks, mosaic pictures, and wild-animal and dinosaur wreaths. For more information, contact Tracey at Nassau Police Host Openhouse The third annual openhouse hosted by members of the Nassau Police Department took place at Village Hall. Officer-in-Charge Thomas Jones and other officers introduced themselves, presented information about the department, detailed statistics and safety tips for members of the community. A highlight of the evening was a demonstration of canine officer Yazzo at detecting the scent of illegal drugs. Used both for drug search and missing persons, the police dog is one of only a few of these highly intelligent animals available on a shared services basis to Police Departments in Rensselaer County.

3 NASSAU S JEWISH HISTORY PART 2 In the fall of 2014 Schodack Town Historian Diane Hutchinson was contacted by a descendant of former local farmers for assistance in locating some of the original family property. That simple request started a yearlong research study into the origin of Jewish immigrant farmers in the Schodack and Nassau area. Coauthored by Kurt Vincent, the completed study was presented to the Nassau Synagogue this past December. The short piece here is extracted from the full study. The full study can be found online at On Sunday, April 17, Ms. Hutchinson and Mr. Vincent will present an illustrated talk on the subject at 2 pm at Nassau Village Hall. Admission is free and all are welcome. Additionally on October 28-30, a reunion of families and descendants is planned. For further information please contact either Fred Rheingold at leopoldrheingold@aol.com or Larry Fader at larryfader@comcast.net. Pictured above, Nathan Naum representative of the Jewish Agricultural and Industrial Aid Society. It is estimated in the years between 1910 and 1926 he assisted the settling of Jewish immigrants on over 300 farms in the Nassau and Schodack area. All About Nassau People, Buildings and Memories by Kurt Vincent Last month we wrote about the early start of Jewish life in the Nassau- Schodack area. Between 1904 and 1945 the Jewish Agricultural and Industrial Aid Society, a philanthropic organization based in New York City, actively supported and funded the settlement of hundreds of Eastern European immigrants to area farms. Based on census records, it can be estimated that in the years just before and after World War One, 40% of all census defined head of households who indicated farming as their primary occupation had emigrated from Russia. A slightly smaller percentage of these farmers also indicated Yiddish as their mother tongue. While Nassau was not the only community in New York State that saw this occurrence, it was the third largest, one of the most successful and traces of that experience are with us today. The question remains why Nassau? In 1919, the Jewish Agricultural and Industrial Aid Society reported in its annual report: The Jewish farming settlement in Rensselaer County has the advantage of being in close proximity to the large cities of Albany and Troy and within comparatively easy reach of New York City by boat. This section is well adapted for agricultural purposes and the land will raise grain, truck gardens, fruit and berries. Our farmers are chiefly engaged in the raising of grain and dairying. The crops were unusually good, especially the wheat and rye. The term Rensselaer County was used by the Society to mean Nassau, East Schodack and East Nassau which not so coincidentally all supported their own synagogues. In 1994, to mark the 175th anniversary of the incorporation of the Village of Nassau, I conducted oral interviews with some of Nassau s senior residents; several spoke of their recollections regarding the local Jewish community. Earle Cooper, life-long resident and a member of the Cooper family legal dynasty recalled: The Jewish families in the community came to Nassau through Mr. Naum. He was a real estate broker and had contacts with the Jewish Agricultural and Industrial Aid Society in New York City. They were settling Jewish immigrants around the county. About the time this was happening, prior to WW1, the farmers here couldn t make a go of it anymore. Their kids had gotten off the land and they were selling the farms. These people (the immigrants) would come up here through Naum and get situated on these farms, the Society would take the mortgages on the farms. A lot of them couldn t pay. Some were farmers, and mostly from Russia. Mr. Naum had an education from an agricultural school. (Immigrants settled) not only here in Nassau but also in Stephentown and Schodack. As soon as they got here the kids went to school, and that was the end of the farming. Mr. Cooper s memory was mostly accurate, and according to Mr.

4 Naum s granddaughter, Nathan Naum was an agricultural expert and represented the interests of the Jewish Agricultural and Industrial Aid Society. A native of Minsk, Russia, he immigrated at age 15 and was educated at the Society s agricultural school in Woodbine N.J. and then at Colorado State University. After earning his degree he headed the Society s test farm on Long Island. After years of limited success with settling immigrant families, the Society developed a number of requirements they felt would help ensure a better result including selecting prospective farmers with a basic understanding of English and having a reccommended minimum of $1,000 of their own money to invest. The Society also provided agricultural training, a network of local agents to assist once the new farms were established and a system of support for the farmer s wives and children. During the pre-world War One days Nassau was enjoying boom times. The newly developed trolley line was in operation proving fast, convenient transportation for passengers and freight, jobs were available at the piano action factory on John Street and at other local concerns and the State announced plans to pave what would become U.S. Route 20 for the first time. All of this economic growth in Nassau village placed pressure on surrounding farm families. Farm life was hard, the growing conditions were not as favorable as other areas and the sons and daughters started to see opportunity away from the family farm. This created an increase in the number of farms available for sale just at the time farm properties were in demand by the Jewish Agricultural Aid Society. In about 1908 while working to place prospective farmers as an agent of the Society, Nathan Naum became aware of Nassau. He took a liking to the area and the 1910 Federal Census lists him as a boarder at Bateman s Nassau House, the large hotel formerly located on the corner of Albany Avenue and Elm Street and last known as Kelly s Hotel. He was also, according to the Census, the only resident of Nassau of Russian birth and was listed as a real estate broker. Naum family lore tells us he encouraged his sister and her husband to come to Nassau to start a dry goods business. Three years later he married a girl he met while she was spending the summer at Smith s Farm, a Jewish farm on the Hoags Corners Road that had started taking summer boarders. Once married, they moved to Chatham Street and remained in Nassau until Naum family decendants estimate he had sold over 300 farms in the Nassau area through the auspices of the Society. Above - As with most other immigrant groups, guides to their new home were produced for the millions of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe in the early 1900 s. Above - Samuel Krouner is pictured with some of his children and grandchildren in the 1950 s. His farm was one of many that took in summer boarders when farming proved unprofitable. Below, a detail from the 1920 Federal Census form recording national origin and language spoken.

5 Another view of the period comes from Marjorie Doolittle, who lived in Nassau from 1929 onwards. She shared these Nassau memories back in 1994: Nassau used to be a Jewish village. There were Brothers and Pollocks and the Jewish baker, another family on Chatham Street, the family who lived in the house where Markells lived, the people who owned Delsons, and of course all the Zweigs, there was the fur factory and the pen factory. If they knew anyone, that s where they went. They were farmers or tailors in Russia. We never had any trouble, we all took it for granted. I used to play Ma Jong with them. There were eight of us that played. They liked me, but I grew up in Brooklyn and went to a Jewish high school. They came here, they worked hard, they educated their kids. Their kids went on to college, went into professions, and all got good jobs, and they re all gone. One legacy of Jewish life in Nassau that became well known was Delson s Economy Store. As mentioned above, Nathan Naum encouraged his sister and brother-in-law to come to Nassau and open a dry goods store. The brother-in-law, Lewis Schwadelson, obtained a small property on Albany Avenue opposite the trolley station. Later their son started practicing law and shortened the name to Delson. The whole family followed suit and Delson s entered into Nassau history. While the Jewish population of the Village was relatively small, the opposite was true in the surrounding countryside. In 1926 The Troy Record reported the progress of students at the Lord Hill school one of the many one-room schools in use before centralization. Students included Irving, Isidore and Lewis Goldman, Julius Bachman, Evelyn, Katherine and Silvia Zarsch, Fannie Placksin, Gussie and Jennie Roth, and Sophie Rubinstein all children of nearby Jewish immigrant farmers. Many of these students received the highest rank in their class and were typical of the emphasis placed on education by their parents. Today many of us know about the so-called Borscht Belt of former summer resorts in the Catskill Mountains named for the iconic beet soup much loved by Russian immigrants. Many of these communities, like Nassau, saw early involvement by the Jewish Agricultural Society where properties were made affordable for Jewish immigrants. As farming proved unsuccessful, the Society encouraged attracting summer boarders as a means of making money. Here in Nassau and Schodack that advice was taken and Smith s Farm, Krouner s, Schneiderman s and the fanciest of them all Totem Lodge were established. Most are long gone but today Camp Schodack, part of Samuel Krouner s original 1909 property purchased with help from the Jewish Agricultural and Industrial Aid Society, remains as testament to the American dream. And it happened right here in Nassau. Left - A clipping from The Jewish Farmer, a publication of the Jewish Aid Society. During WW1 farmers were exempt from the draft, but their sons were not. The 3 Mayerhoff boys were honored in the 1919 Nassau Village Centennial observance. Above, a promotion brochure for Totem Lodge located on Burden Lake. Considered the fanciest of Nassau s Jewish summer spots, comic Jerry Lewis performed there as a singing waiter before he was discovered. If you would like to share your Nassau stories and/or pictures contact us at info@nassau12123.com or telephone Mr. Vincent at We would love to include your material in a future edition.