Press Release

Citizens United to Protect the Maurice River and Its Tributaries, Inc.

October 31, 2008

For more information call Renee Brecht at 856-305-3238

 

Alliance Colony, located in Pittsgrove Township, and founded in 1882, was the largest Jewish agricultural community founded as a result of the Am Olam movement. It was, in fact, the first Jewish agricultural colony in the United States. Beginning as a community of approximately 25 Eastern European Jews who immigrated to escape harsh economic situations and persecutions such as pogroms, it eventually grew to number approximately 160 families, totaling over 700 residents, 500 of them Jewish. The colony expanded to include a cigar factory and a shirt factory and supported four synagogues. Rosenhayn, Carmel, and Brotmanville followed as Jewish settlements.

However, over time, its residents moved to other areas-Vineland, Philadelphia-leaving the farms deserted, and the manufacturing industries moving elsewhere.

The Alliance synagogue remains, and within its cemetery the Holocaust memorial built in 1995. Also remaining is Alliance Beach, the once popular place for recreation for the locals, complete with vendors on the beach of the tea colored waters of the Maurice River. Today, the beach is privately owned and surrounded by a NJ Wildlife Management Area. The river at this juncture forms the dividing line between the City of Vineland and Pittsgrove Township.

Several organizations, spurred by the requests of locals, banded together on October 17th and 18th to clean up this area. Citizens United to Protect the Maurice River and Its Tributaries, Inc.(CU) coordinated with Pittsgrove Township Clean Communities Grant Coordinator Barbara Laury. The grant supplied a dumpster, bags, and gloves for the cleanup, as well as bottled water and lunch on Saturday for the participants. Even someone with little investigative talent could glean from the refuse collected by Citizens United (CU) that in present times "wildlife" doesn't always refer to nature living in the woods, but rather refers to a group of folks with little regard for trespassing on private lands nor the rules of the Wildlife Management area. Almost all the cans and bottles collected formerly held alcoholic beverages.

In all, over eighty-eight 30-gallon bags of trash and recyclables were collected, along with 26 tires which were fished out of the river by volunteers in a canoe donated for the day by Al and Sam's Canoe and Kayak Rentals. Most hunters and fisherman are familiar with the rules in Wildlife Management Areas and would not risk losing their hunting and fishing privileges by breaking rules such as alcoholic beverages, fires, trespassing, littering and the like. Local law enforcement officials are visiting the area more frequently to help keep the area cleaner and safer for the residents of the area. Participants included Citizens United to Protect the Maurice River and Its Tributaries, Inc., NJ Fish and Wildlife, Al and Sam's, the South Jersey Outdoor Club, and several locals.