Communal Societies (1990) 10 : 39-67

The Sunrise Colony, a Jewish collective farm community, was founded in 1933 with the purchase of 9,000 acres in the Saginaw Valley in Michigan. Joseph Jacob Cohen, one of the primary founders, wished to make an ’experiment in collective living’ ; the group was not, however, primarily motivated to establish a base for Jews within their country of residence or to attempt to reduce anti-Semitism, as was the Jewish Farm Movement. Sunrise Colony was disbanded in 1937 due to economic and administrative difficulties.