INFORMANT FILE AND ORAL HISTORY TRANSCRIPTS, approximately 1890-1980, bulk 1973-1976

This series documents the lives of the residents of the town who were interviewed by Gertrude Wishnick Dubrovsky (her own file is here) as an extensive part of the research for her book The Land was Theirs. Documents in this series appear in English and Yiddish. Items include the YIVO interview biographical surveys, oral history transcripts (the oral history audiotapes appear elsewhere in this collection) with abstracts and interviewer commentary, and personal mementos of the interview subjects; photographs, both recent and dating to the 1920s; photographic negatives (35 mm.film); color slides; records of grandchildren; mortgage papers; passport and citizenship documents; and letters (including birthday cards and Hanukkah greetings) between Gertrude Dubrovsky and her subjects.

The series also includes the Indexes of Informants and Interviews and Inventory of Contents of Informants Files (in black binder) made by Linda Oppenheim. In the index, she indicates to which of the six groups of settlers each interviewee belonged (Eastern European-Born Settlers; German Jews; American-born Settlers; Displaced Persons; Non-Farmingdale Jewish Farmers; Non-Jewish Farmingdale Farmers), the number of tapes in each interview, language of the interview and whether a transcript was made. A second list gives the location, date and duration of each interview and the name of the interviewer. The lists of contents of each file is not completely accurate because some material was added or removed after the preparation of the index. Dr. Dubrovsky also interviewed a few people who do not appear on the list of informants. For exact information, see the box list for this series.

Documented are the origins, development, and the social and economic aspects of the community which gave Farmingdale its identity. This series contains evidence of both the world of Farmingdale and the larger world surrounding it: Jewish ethnic, political, religious, and social identity; the persecution of the Jewish people in Europe and Russia before and during the Second World War; the effects of immigration; prejudice faced by the Jewish settlers in New Jersey; and the acculturization process of immigrants who come to America. Both traditional and innovative farming methods are also documented in this series. Of special interest is Michael Hamburger's file which includes a set of bound and microfilmed diaries covering the period 1937-1946, which are stored elsewhere in the collection. Hamburger settled in Farmingdale in 1924 to open a vegetarian hotel, and was very active in establishing and running the Jewish Community Center. The diaries document his daily work, relations among community members and his constant concern about money. This series includes the original volumes for 1941, 1943 and 1946-47, and microfilm for the years 1937-1940, 1942, and 1944-1945. Aaron Pinkus' file is also noteworthy because it contains letters written by Isaac Weinman, a Toms River farmer who became a director on a collective farm in the Soviet Union during the 1930s.