In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

25 CHAPTER TWO From Colony to City Jewish Immigrants, 1889–1930 A cartoon that appeared on the front cover of a Yiddish-language magazine in June 1923 (figure 1) starkly illustrated two choices available to Jewish immigrants, with one man choosing to “beggar-wares through the streets of Buenos Aires” while another worked the fields, “where God’s sun shines and brings prosperity.” Despite the fact that farming life sounded so lovely in the cartoon, most immigrants chose the less salubrious urban environment. S. Lapidus, the cartoonist, probably meant the work to be tongue in cheek (Far Groys un Kleyn was a satirical magazine whose title meant “for big and little”), talking about rural life with over-the-top language that did not acknowledge the difficulties that many Jews faced as farmers in the Jewish agricultural colonies . The illustration of the Jewish man plowing his field, with rays of the sun outlining him, is much more appealing than the figure of the urban peddler, weighed down with trinkets he is attempting to sell. Between the 1890s and the 1930s, these two images would have resonated with both Jews and non-Jews because the depiction was true for many immigrants—lots of urban Jews were peddlers, and many rural Jews were farmers. The year 1889 marked the beginning of mass Jewish migration to Argentina , when the first boatload of Jews planning to stay arrived from Eastern Europe, charged with creating agricultural colonies in Argentina’s interior.1 Those on the first boat, the Weser, invited by the Argentine government, arrived with the tools for the furtherance of their religion—Torah scrolls, chapter two 26 religious books, a rabbi, and a teacher, as well as Jews interested in starting new lives as farmers.2 The would-be colonists met with difficulty at every turn, as the land they had been promised had been sold to someone else. Even after the immigrants did get land, life in the colonies was difficult. In addition to being unfamiliar with farming and Argentine customs, they lacked tools, proper shelter, and often food. Many left the colonies, either for other towns and cities in Argentina or to return to Europe. Within a year Baron Maurice de Hirsch founded the Jewish Colonization Association (JCA), which paid for thousands of Jews to leave Russia and start new lives in Argentine agricultural colonies, which were located primarily in the provinces of Entre Ríos, Santa Fe, and Buenos Aires (all of which were within a day’s journey of the city of Buenos Aires). Hirsch wanted the immigrants to come in family groups, with agricultural experience and a certain level of savings.3 He also wanted the immigrants to be fully aware of their higher purpose in creating colonies outside of Europe. As one might imagine , finding such talented and high-minded immigrants was often difficult. In addition to selection problems, the JCA had a challenging time getting the immigrants to stay in the colonies. In the years 1895–1897, the provinces of Santa Fe and Entre Ríos were plagued by locusts and torrential rains, and many families left.4 In 1900, however, a new era of colonization began. The colonists successfully petitioned the JCA for help in bringing over relatives they had left behind. During the early 1900s pogroms and waves of persecution in the Russian Empire prompted many Jews to want to immigrate. Again, however, many of those who wanted to immigrate did not fulfill the requirements set by the JCA. From their inception, the JCA colonies were beset with problems. León Chasanovitch visited the colonies in 1909 and was dismayed by what he found. Chasanovitch was a leftist labor organizer and writer who helped found the Zionist workers’ organization in Argentina and edited the group’s publication Broit un Ehre (Bread and dignity) but was expelled in the antileftist efforts of the Argentine government in 1910. He had been hopeful about the project but discovered that putting Hirsch’s ideas into practice was often complicated. As Chasanovitch wrote, “It is not the association’s fault that Hirsch entertained such naïve and fanciful hopes, exaggerated the means at his disposal, and underestimated the obstacles his plan would encounter. Relocating populations is a difficult and tricky endeavor for any people, and all the more so for the Jews. Even a strong and wealthy nation, with a well-oiled state apparatus, a disciplined, educated corps of civil servants, and a long-standing tradition of [3.144.202...

Share