
An organization in Dothan, Alabama, is offering up to $50,000 to Jewish families that will move to what is known as the Peanut Capital of the World. (Peanut art in Dothan above.) Stay five years — and be involved with Temple Emanu-El — and the money doesn’t have to be repaid, according to the Associated Press.
Dothan is a large city (by Yonder standards) of 64,000 people in the far southeast corner of the state. Although there are now more Jews living in the South than ever, younger people are leaving places like Dothan for the region’s larger cities. “A lot of the older people have died, and not many of the younger ones have stayed,” said Thelma Nomberg, a member of the Dothan temple. The Dothan temple is down to 50 families
This is not a new concept. There was a fund set up to bring Jews back to New Orleans after Katrina. And there is a fund to bring Jewish families to an area near Boston. The Dothan temple was founded in 1929.