From Russian Village to North Dakota Prairie: The Story of Joseph Nudelman

While my SNYDER Big Y-DNA test didn't provide many matches, I was able to contact the family of Joseph Nudelman, who is listed as an Earliest Known Ancestor. Our Y-DNA lines separated over 1,000 years ago, so he is a very distant relative. Here is his story:

Joseph Nudelman's life story is a testament to the resilience and ambition of Jewish immigrants in the late 19th century. Born in a small village near Odessa, Russia in 1844, Joseph received a traditional Jewish education, becoming fluent in Yiddish and Russian.  After apprenticing as a carpenter, he became a wine and grain merchant in Romania due to pogroms in Russia.  Driven by the ideals of the Am Olam movement, which sought to establish Jewish agricultural settlements, Joseph, with financial backing from Baron de Hirsch, led a group of 25 families to America in 1881.  He was delayed due to his wife’s illness but followed in 1882 with more settlers.

The journey wasn't easy.  The initial group gathered in Denver, working in railroad construction and silver mining before Joseph led the majority to Painted Woods, North Dakota in 1883, a place they envisioned as a "New Jerusalem."  Despite the initial challenges of building shelters and clearing land, the colony grew to 54 families by 1884.  However, the harsh realities of prairie life, including brutal winters and a devastating drought in 1888, took their toll.  Many families left, some returning to Europe.

Despite the hardships, Joseph remained a pillar of the community. He served on the local school board, opened a postal station, and even had the town renamed "Nudelman" in 1888.  Tragically, his first wife, Anna, passed away in 1884, leaving him with four children. He remarried Fannie Kosofski later that year, adding three more children to his growing family.

Ultimately, the colony, like many other Jewish agricultural settlements of the era, struggled to survive. In 1892, Joseph moved his family to Portland, Oregon, and then to California, where he attempted to establish another colony.  This venture also proved unsustainable, and Joseph eventually returned to Portland, where he ran the Western Meat Market until his death in 1935.  Joseph Nudelman's story, drawn largely from the research of his great-grandson Rabbi Harvey J. Fields, is a powerful reminder of the challenges and triumphs of early Jewish pioneers in America.