Alliance Mural

Wall #1 easterly side facing Alliance Cemetery, completed May 30, 2024. Art by Jonathan Blum, assisted by William Levin

Easterly Wall

Depictions of the pogroms in Odessa, ocean liner SS Australia transporting the first 43 Russian Jewish families from Hamburg to Castle Garden in Manhattan in 1882, turn of the century farm life in New Jersey and a portrait tribute to the pioneering Brotman family.

Northerly Wall

This wall represents the merging of two waves of Jewish immigration in Salem County, first escaping Czarist Russia 1882 and again post-Holocaust in the 1950s. Depictions of a working mule, egg and chick; a Nazi concentration camp guard tower with barbed wire; Isaac Krassenstein, known as the Chasid of Alliance, was a shochet, a ritual slaughterer of poultry.

Wall #2 northerly side, visible from Gershal Ave, completed September 4, 2024. Art by Jonathan Blum, assisted by William Levin.

Wall #3 westerly side facing Moses Bayuk house and Alliance Synagogue, completed September 6, 2024. Art by Jonathan Blum, assisted by William Levin.

Westerly Wall

Art depicts the road sign at the corner of Shiff and Gershal Aves, named for the German Jewish patrons who managed the Alliance Land Trust; a portrait of Moses Bayuk holding grapes; and the Moses Bayuk house, a tribute to his daughter Bluma's paintings.

ACRe received a grant from the 2024 Salem County Arts Re-Grant program, to paint the Alliance Mural.

In September 2024 we completed a large colorful mural on 3 exterior walls of the garage structure behind the historic Moses Bayuk House, depicting scenes of immigration and agricultural work life of the original Jewish Alliance Colony established in 1882.

Much of the Alliance mural is visible from the neighboring Alliance Cemetery and Alliance Synagogue, and visible from cars driving by on the county road Gershal Avenue.

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Jonathan Blum begins to paint Wall #2

A Tribute to Brotman

Moses Brotman

Circa 1900, pioneer settler Moses Brotman's son Abraham brought his clothing factory from Manhattan to Alliance, NJ to help the farmers supplement their income during the winter months.

Rich Brotman

Descendant Rich Brotman is a musician and documentary filmmaker. He produced "First Chapter In A New Book: The Story of Brotmanville and the Alliance Colonies of Southern New Jersey" in 1982.

Alliance Mural

A nod to the Brotman legacy, muralist Jonathan Blum based this caricature portrait solely on the photo of Moses Brotman. But the resemblance to his great great grandson Rich is uncanny!

BEFORE: View of the easterly side of the "Bayuk Garage," the Moses Bayuk House and Alliance Synagogue from the perimeter of the Alliance Cemetery lawn and former site of the Alliance Historic Model Farm

Pittsgrove Township in Salem County, New Jersey is the site of the Alliance Colony, the first Jewish farming community in America, established in 1882.

ACRe will work with acclaimed portrait artist Jonathan Blum to paint a colorful Alliance mural depicting scenes from the history of the Alliance Colony immigrating to America and settling in Pittsgrove, Salem County NJ in 1882.

The mural will cover three exterior walls on the garage building behind the Moses Bayuk House listed on the National Register of Historic Places, footsteps from the historic Alliance Cemetery and Alliance Synagogue. The mural will be visible from nearby publicly accessible locations including the cemetery and even passers-by on the county road, Gershal Ave.

The modest cinder block construction garage building behind the more infamous Moses Bayuk House has been largely underutilized. When someone recently suggested we paint it with bright colors to cheer up the place, it occurred to us we could use the building exterior as a giant canvas to tell a story of historic significance.

The mural will be attractive and draw interest to our other ACRe projects, and has the potential to lift spirits and provide additional meaning and context to visitors, especially as visible from the historic Alliance Cemetery just footsteps away where funerals, memorial services and unveilings continue to take place several times a month.

We believe that offering an interesting outdoor attraction directly adjacent to the historic cemetery has the potential to educate and pique the curiosity of many visitors, leading to opportunities for gathering and discussion at this historic site.

BEFORE: Roadside view of the "Bayuk Garage," left and the historic Moses Bayuk house, right.

Isaac Krassenstein

Isaac Krassenstein was known as the Chasid of Alliance. He was a shochet, a ritual slaughterer of poultry. Our mural portrait painting is based on the photograph on the left, with Krassenstein wearing tefillin, a pair of Jewish ritual black boxes worn during prayer.

Meet the Artists

Jonathan Blum

Mural and Portrait Painter

JONATHAN BLUM is a mural and portrait painter, whose work ranges from the fanciful to the classically realistic. Whether painting in a whimsical or realistic way, what remains consistent is Blum’s interest in creating a well-crafted, arresting image.

In 1994, Blum studied with an inspirational rabbi in Israel; before long, he was painting fictitious portraits of orthodox rabbis, a stylistic breakthrough. The elongated, bearded visage of this rabbi conveyed so much history and so much wisdom.

Seeking ways to bring new life into his portraiture, Blum turned to still life, painting objects, crowns, books, musical instruments, and, most often, food on the heads of his subjects. These "hats" give Blum's portraiture another dimension: sometimes surreal, sometimes humorous, and many times suggestive of a larger story line.

Blum studied art at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and has exhibited and painted murals all over the world, in New York City; Washington, DC; Seattle; Provincetown, MA; Boston; Los Angeles; New Orleans; London; Berlin; Tel Aviv; and Prague.

William Levin

Cartoon Artist and Descendant of Alliance

WILLIAM LEVIN, ACRe Co-Founder and Alliance Colony Descendant, was born on the farm in Pittsgrove Township, Salem County, NJ where his family have lived since 1882 as founding Alliance Colony settlers. Levin is an animator, composer and worked as an art teacher for the NYC Department of Education and writer for Sesame Workshop. Known for his edgy and innovative work and his ability to create synergies in the Jewish community—much like his great-great grandfather Moses Bayuk, founder of the Alliance Colony—Levin is returning to his roots by creating ACRe.

Levin will serve as Blum's amanuensis.

Moses Bayuk

Blum meets Bluma

Moses Bayuk's youngest daughter Bluma Bayuk Rappoport Purmell, folk artist and author of A Farmer's Daughter: Bluma.

Our friend and muralist Jonathan Blum put his creative twist on Bluma Bayuk's paintings of early Alliance settler life.

Bayuk Bros

A little known piece of Alliance NJ History:

Moses Bayuk's three sons Max, Meyer and Sam left the colony as teenagers and hightailed to NYC where they learned the tobacco biz.

In 1886 they moved to Philadelphia and started their own cigar factor, Bayuk Brothers, incorporated in 1920 and then became Bayuk Cigars in 1923.

They became famous for their PHILLIES brand cigars, which by the 1930s became the most popular cigar in the country.

You can see an original PHILLIES ad in the top window of the "Bayuk Garage," a gift from Meyer Bayuk's great-grandson and friend of ACRe Mark Bayuk.

Maybe the Bayuk branding will find its way into the mural? Only creative energy and supplies will tell.

This program is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a division of the Department of State, through the Salem County Board of County Commissioners & The Salem County Cultural & Heritage Commission.

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