Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Group Dangles $50K for Jews Who Move to Alabama Town

I found this article on Yahoo in which an organization is offering Jewish families as much as $50,000 to relocate to Dothan, Alabama. Just curious to see where Dothan is located, I discovered that the town of 58,000 is 204 miles from Atlanta; 107 miles from Tallahassee; 198 miles from Birmingham; and 268 miles from Jacksonville. Those seem like the biggest cities closest to Dothan.

Anyway, the small Jewish community in Dothan is slowly dwindling so they are seeking young families to relocate. As the child of parents who grew up in small towns in Western Pennsylvania (hometown of Joe Namath) and Eastern Ohio (hometown of Lou Holtz), where the Jewish communities are now virtually non-existent, this story fascinates me. Not enough to make me consider moving from the Washington DC area to Dothan, but it is still intriguing.

More information about the relocation project can be found at Blumberg Family Jewish Community Services of Dothan website.

3 comments:

lacochran said...

I had a friend who moved from Baltimore to Birmingham. She'd say "Down here, the light turns green and then you count to 10 before you put your foot on the gas." At that was in Birmingham! Dothan? No deal.

Captain Easychord said...

I've actually been to (well... *through* dothan... it's a dump... no reason to go there ever...

Anonymous said...

I'm seriously considering moving there fir the cash. Except the condition to "get involved" with the Jewish community and "stay there five years" is a bit daunting.