Am Olam

Am Olam was a movement among Russian Jews to establish agricultural colonies in America. The name means "Eternal People" and is taken from the title of an essay by Peretz Smolenskin.[1][2] It was founded in Odessa in 1881 by Mania Bakl (Maria Bahal) and Moses Herder, who called for the creation of Socialist agricultural communities in the United States.[3]

In the 1880s there were 26 colonies promoted in 8 states. Eventually the majority of Am Olam colonies were set up upon a "commercial" rather than communalist basis.[4] The land was owned in common but divided into sections farmed by individuals.[5][6]

References
  1. Am Olam: the History of the Eternal Nation (FROM THE HASKAMOS, VOLUME I; ISBN 0873064836) Hardcover – 1989
  2. "Am Olam".
  3. "Am Olam - Dictionary definition of Am Olam - Encyclopedia.com: FREE online dictionary".
  4. Fogarty, Robert S. (1 January 2003). "All Things New: American Communes and Utopian Movements, 1860-1914". Lexington Books – via Google Books.
  5. Shepherd, Naomi (1993). A Priced below Rubies: Jewish Women as Rebels and Radicals. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP. p. 193. ISBN 0-674-70410-X.
  6. Frankel, Jonathan (1981). Prophecy and Politics: Socialism, Nationalism, and the Russian Jews, 1862-1917. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. pp. various. ISBN 0 521 23028 4.


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