In 2008, a synagogue in Dothan, gained recognition from publications such as The New York Times and was even featured in one of Jay Leno’s monologues because of a program it started, which offered Jewish families up to $50,000 to move to its community.
Temple Emanu-El, a Reform Jewish congregation, has been offering grants to families from across the nation since 2008 as part of its mission to reinvigorate its Jewish community.
The program, which is called the Family Relocation Project, was founded by Larry Blumberg and his family.
Blumberg, member of Temple Emanu-El and owner of a real estate development business in Dothan, not only came up with the idea for the project, but also gave the $1 million that supplies the money for relocating families.
“I think it’s important that we try to find young people that we could use in our religious school, our Sunday school and help in the way of trying to create more of a family-type atmosphere in our temple,” Blumberg said.
Robert Goldsmith, executive director of Blumberg Family Jewish Community Services, said like many other religious communities at the time, Temple Emanu-El was experiencing a lull with membership decreasing from 110-40 members.
Goldsmith said in the ‘70s and ‘80s young people went to college and got jobs in bigger cities, but when the project gained recognition from organizations such as CNN and NPR in 2008, suddenly everyone seemed to want to move to Dothan.
“When we got an AP wire story, it went around the world,” Goldsmith said. “I mean, we had thousands of calls and emails and letters. It was crazy there for about six months ... and then those thousands and hundreds of emails and phone calls diminish … to the more serious folks.”
Karen Arenson, who learned of the program when her brother-in-law sent her a link to a Huffington Post article in October 2013, said the project came at a time when her family needed change. By March 2014, about six months after seeing the article, Arenson, her husband and her 6-year-old daughter packed their bags and moved from Los Angeles to Dothan.
“Like with anything, there are always trade-offs, but for the most part, 90 percent, we absolutely love it,” Arenson said.
The Jewish community in Auburn is also experiencing growth, according to Paula Hunker, co-president of Beth Shalom, the only synagogue in Auburn and the East Alabama area.
Hunker said the Jewish community in Auburn is small, but on the rise.
A big part of this growth can be attributed to active Jewish students at Auburn, according to Hunker.
“I have to give credit to the on-campus Hillel,” Hunker said. “The students that have been involved have been extremely active. When I first came, there were 10 Hillel members and now there is between 40 and 50.”
Hunker said there is an active on-campus Jewish fraternity which closed in the ‘70s but reopened this year. As for supplying money for a program similar to the Family Relocation Project, Hunker said she would approach it differently by having a religion professor at Auburn.
“To have a rabbi who was a professor who could minister to the congregation but also be accessible to the larger congregation ... I think that would be the draw to have other families come,” Hunker said.
Goldsmith said the Family Relocation Project is still looking for five more families to move to Dothan.
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