To the naked eye, it is unclear what kind of history the land beneath a local Hispanic church, a Wawa and a Wal-Mart held.
It’s only when shoulder-to-shoulder with a second-generation Holocaust survivor that the indelible mark of families and individuals who fled religious and ethnic persecution in Europe became clear to Stockton University students on a March 5 excursion.
The study trip that covered most of the McKee City section of EHT was a collaboration between the Sara and Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center at Stockton, Professor of History Kameika Murphy’s course, “Museums and the Display of Diversity,” and the Greater Egg Harbor Township Historical Society.
Before the trip began, the group of 12 students were introduced to the Holocaust Survivors of South Jersey Project, which documents and honors the lives of survivors who settled in South Jersey. This tour focused on the local McKee City poultry farms, of which 70% of the survivors who settled in South Jersey opened and operated throughout the 1950s and 60s.
Students were also introduced to two second-generation Holocaust survivors: Irving Jacoby, son of Rose & Sidney Jacoby, and Leo Schoffer, son of Sara and Sam Schoffer and former Stockton Trustee.
According to Stockton Professor of History Michael Hayse, the study trip is another way for students to interact with and, in turn, learn about the lives of these specific settlers post-World War II.
“This is a project that is very much about southern New Jersey and the many layers of history that we’re trying to uncover,” said Hayse, who serves as historian and lead curator for the Holocaust Survivors Project. “Sights of memory is a really important concept: we attach importance and significance to places. You can learn about the Battle of Gettysburg, but it’s a completely different thing to actually visit the Gettysburg historical site, and the same is true here.”
Escaping World War II and Getting into the Poultry Business
As the group boarded the Stockton vans and made their way through EHT, Jacoby and Schoffer shared various stories about the lives of their families and what it was like to grow up in South Jersey.
While on the way to the previous site of the Schoffers’ farm, Jacoby reminisced about his late parents and the way in which they cared for others, even during the height of the genocide. In one example, he told the group that his mother would routinely give her food portions to those older or sicker than she was while she was imprisoned in a concentration camp.
He also shared a particularly harrowing moment in which his father took the blame for a small mistake that almost ended with the execution of a child. Because of his father’s bravery, however, the child was spared.
“I come from good stock, and I’m not saying that to be braggadocious – I’m saying it out of pride. They were good people, and terrible things happened to them that no one on Earth should have to experience, but they did not come out with hatred in their soul,” said Jacoby, with tears in his eyes.
As the group piled onto the parking lot of the Black Horse Pike Wawa, Schoffer pointed to the gas station and proudly declared that his father built their three-bedroom house, brick by brick, in that very spot, complete with a large basement and wrap-around porch. An on-site chicken coop soon followed, along with houses across the road for his family and friends.
What started as a way for Schoffer and many other families to gain financial and physical sustenance turned into a thriving property development business that helped them find opportunities for upward social mobility.
“Sam, like so many other farmers, took his newfound English-language skills and business acumen and moved on to other ventures in fields such as retail, real estate and hospitality. For my parents, the chicken and egg business was truly the springboard to the American dream,” Schoffer said.
Finding Community Through Places of Worship
One of the stops of the study tour was the Iglesia Buenas Nuevas (Church of Good News), a Hispanic Catholic church on English Creek Avenue.
Before it was a church, the space was originally home to the B’nai Israel synagogue, built by Holocaust survivors in the mid-1950s. In addition to worship, the synagogue, known colloquially as the “Farmers’ Congregation,” was a Jewish day school and a place easily accessible for the local farmers practicing Shabbat, which barred congregants from driving on holy days.
According to Schoffer, the synagogue was the center of their social lives. Walking between the church pews, he shared some of his favorite memories, including hosting his bar mitzvah, learning Hebrew and feeling like the congregants were all “one big family.”
“What makes me really happy is that this is still a house of worship, and the walls are still hearing people pray,” Schoffer said. “I don’t know what the profile of the congregants is today – if they have a different skin color or speak another language – but I’m going to guess that they have a lot in common with our families who prayed in this same building in the 1950s.”
This sentiment was confirmed by the current church’s secretary, Alexandra. With translation help from Irvin Moreno-Rodriguez, director of the Holocaust Resource Center, she explained to the group that the church serves their local community, whether Hispanic or not, through Sunday schools and masses in English and Spanish. Their services mean a lot to the immigrant community in the surrounding area, who cannot travel to other churches, much like the congregants of the previous synagogue.
For Murphy, the class professor, this moment of serendipity demonstrated how the spirit of this space transcends time.
“(Jacoby) mentioned earlier how, when you leave your home and come to a new country, you don’t have that connection, network and heritage that you’ve left behind, and, oftentimes, it’s these faith-based spaces that help you reconcile with that loss and create new relationships,” Murphy said. “What started as a plan to ensure that you could walk to your place of worship took on new significance many decades later and serves that purpose still for so many communities.”
This moment proved significant for Foteini Toliou, who is studying abroad in the Erasmus program from Thessaloniki, Greece. At the time of the trip, she had just reached the two-week mark of her studies in the United States. During her time here, she has seen how large and connected the local Greek community is and how their utilization of the Greek Orthodox Church mirrors the Farmers’ Congregation.
“What I liked about today’s tour is that different immigrant groups have found a new home in New Jersey and how we all have these links between them,” Toliou said. “We can see how different kinds of immigrants from across diasporas share spaces like this in New Jersey, and it’s just so beautiful.”
Final Stops and Reflections
For the final leg of the tour, the group spent a few solemn moments at the final resting place of Holocaust survivors and their descendants, including Jacoby and Schoffer’s parents, in Rodef Sholom Cemetery.
A few paces away from the survivors also lies the late Gail Hirsch Rosenthal, who served as the former director of Stockton’s Holocaust Resource Center for more than three decades until her passing in 2023. She is joined by her husband, Robert, who passed away a year later.
Hayse explained to the group that one of the traditions practiced in the cemetery includes placing a stone on the headstone of the person visited to pay respect to their memory. Once the final stone was placed, the vans of students soon returned to Stockton’s parking lot, and the group took one last photo together, surrounding Jacoby and Schoffer.
Historical Studies major Kylee Fitzpatrick said the experience tied a bow on what she learned as an intern for the Sara & Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center.
“It was really interesting getting to hear Sam and Sara’s son’s story, and I really liked the personal connection of this trip,” said Fitzpatrick of Lacey Township. “It was impactful hearing from the second generation and having them talk about and explain their point of view.”
American Studies student Cian O’Donoghue of Somers Point called the guests he learned a “treasure trove of information.”
“It was phenomenal being able to go out and experience all of these different places and the history behind them, but I think that the most important part was seeing all of the members of Stockton’s faculty and all of our guests from the community collaborating. All of this needs to be recorded and preserved.”
