Israeli pioneers once trained in Cream Ridge
Building at historic site may face wrecking ball
BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer

UPPER FREEHOLD - A resident recently shared some of the history of a Route 539 parcel where a new bank, drugstore and medical offices may go.

Resident Al Trenton told the Township Committee at its March 1 meeting that he would like to see the municipality do more to keep historic buildings from being torn down.

Trenton provided some history of the building on the same parcel as Marge's Deli in the Cream Ridge section of Upper Freehold.

In a memoir by Mordy Cohen called "Memoirs of a Chalutz - An Israeli Pioneer," Cohen recalls training at the site, which was known as Hechalutz Training Farm. "Hechalutz" is a Hebrew word meaning "the pioneer," and the farm was established to prepare young people to help build the state of Israel.

In the memoir, Cohen wrote, "The farm was a diverse assortment of endeavors including dairy, poultry, truck gardening and field crop farming. The farm also included two trucks, a tractor, the typical assortment of farm machinery and two Belgian workhorses. Sabin was a gelding ... Sabina a mare."

The memoir continues, "We had Charlie Gleason, a neighboring Jewish farmer, come in once a week to help us master the art of farming."

Cohen, whose memoirs originally appeared as a series of letters in the Chicago Forward from 1947 to 1951, also wrote of his duties milking the cows and caring for the horses, as well as working with and repairing all types of machinery on the farm. In addition, he wrote of attending grange meetings, where local farmers met once a month to pool information and discuss common problems.

Trenton said his research showed that flight training was also done at the farm. Two small Piper Cub airplanes were purchased with the help of a small fund from David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel, he said. A training base was set up at the Cream Ridge farm.

"Two units, numbering about 20 members, began their flight training at an airfield close to the farm," according to the material supplied by Trenton. "This training continued until the United States entered the war, at which time all civilian flying was prohibited."

The smaller pioneer organizations began to sell their farms in the United States after 1951, according to Trenton's documents.

"Most of the farms were purchased by Hechalutz in the period immediately preceding and following the establishment of the state of Israel," according to Trenton's documents.

Deputy Mayor William Miscoski said he knew the former owners of the property and that anyone who wanted to save the building would need a lot of money in order to do so.

"That place structurally is in bad shape," he said.