Tablet Magazine has an article on Argentina's Last Jewish Cowboys which you
may find of interest if you had relatives >from Eastern Europe that migrated
there as part of the Baron de Hirsh Jewish Colonization Association in the
19th century. Baron de Hirsch's goal was to provide a safe haven for Russian
Jews who were persecuted by the Russian pogroms. He owned nearly 45,000
acres in Argentina and this was one of several places he purchased farm land
to relocate the Russian Jews. Other places included southern Brazil, Western
Canada prairies, Connecticut and New Jersey in the United States. The
first wave of immigrants arrived in 1889-813 Jews representing 130 families.
Each family was leased a 75-hectare plot and told to work the land. Before
the Jews arrived there were gauchos (cowboys) in the area and they helped
the Jews to work the land-and by the second generation there were Jewish
gauchos. Today there are a handful of Jews left in the area-most Jews fled
during the Peron era to Israel and the United States or the younger
generations moved to Buenos Aires. The article talks about the history,
what is left and the museum. To read the article go to:
http://tinyurl.com/ocjc29z

Original url:
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/132922/argentina-last-jewi
sh-cowboys

Jan Meisels Allen
IAJGS Vice President