Jewish Buenos Aires, 1890-1939: In Search of an Identity

Copyright © 1990 by Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan 48202.

All material in this work, except as identified below, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us/.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Mirelman, Victor A.

Jewish Buenos Aires, 1890–1930: in search of an identity / Victor A. Mirelman.

p.cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-8143-4457-6 (paperback); 978-0-8143-4456-9 (ebook)

1. Jews—Argentina—Buenos Aires—History. 2. Buenos Aires (Argentina)—Ethnic relations.1. Title.

F3001.9.J5M58 1990

982’.11—dc20

89-16739

CIP

The publication of this volume in a freely accessible digital format has been made possible by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Mellon Foundation through their Humanities Open Book Program.

Wayne State University Press thanks Martha K. Wolff for her generous permission to reprint material in this book.

Exhaustive efforts were made to obtain permission for use of material in this text. Any missed permissions resulted from a lack of information about the material, copyright holder, or both. If you are a copyright holder of such material, please contact WSUP at wsupressrights@wayne.edu.

http://wsupress.wayne.edu/

To my parents, Leon and Suzanne Mirelman

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1.The Jewish Immigration Flow to Argentina

Argentina’s Immigration Policy

Argentina As a New Home for Jews

The Wave from Eastern Europe

The First Sephardim from Morocco

Sephardim from the Ottoman Empire

Patterns of Settlement in Buenos Aires

The Jews in the Economy

2.Jew and Gentile in Argentina

Anti-Jewish Sentiments before 1905

Rise of Nationalism and Its Effects upon the Jews

La Semana Trágica

Jews and the Socialists

Aftermath of La Semana Trágica

The Late 1920s

3.Religious Institutions and Observances

First Priority: The Cemetery

Religious Observances

The Rabbis

Decreasing Influence of the Synagogue

4.Mixed Marriages

5.National and Political Challenges

The Beginnings of the Zionist Parties

The Jewish Legion

Zionists during La Semana Trágica

Zionism among Sephardim

Political and Practical Work of Zionists

The Leftist Parties

6.Concern for Jewish Education

The Religious Schools

Secular Jewish Schools

7.Jewish Cultural Expressions in an Acculturating Community

Rabbinic Culture

Hebrew Culture

Yiddish Culture

The Yiddish Theater

The First Native Generation—Jewish Culture in Spanish

8.Spirit of Solidarity: The Fight against Poverty and Evil

Relief Work for Jews in the Old World

Protection of Immigrants and Mutual Help

9.The Jewish Community Fights White Slavery

Buenos Aires Attains a Reputation

The Jews in International Traffic

Jewish Traffickers in Buenos Aires

Fighting the White Slave Trade

Conclusion

10.A Kehilla in the Making: Centralization and Rivalries

11.Conclusion: The Jewish Panorama in 1930

Abbreviations

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Acknowledgments

This book was envisioned quite some time ago when researching the sources dealing with the early period of Jewish life in Argentina. First presented as a doctoral dissertation at Columbia University, it is now thoroughly revised. Additional research was conducted to fully develop some chapters and to add new dimensions to the work.

I am grateful to all the Jewish institutions in Buenos Aires mentioned throughout the work for opening their archives to me. Due to the extent of their contents, the archives of the Chevra Keduscha Aschkenasi—today the Jewish Community of Buenos Aires—and the Congregación Israelita, proved to be invaluable. The various Sephardic synagogues and communities provided entrance to their records and to insightful information as well. Many libraries in Buenos Aires, Jerusalem, and New York extended deeply appreciated courtesies to me. Among them the IWO Archives, Biblioteca Nacional, Biblioteca del Congreso, and Biblioteca del Honorable Concejo Deliberante in Buenos Aires; the National and University Library, Central Zionist Archives, and archives of the Sephardic Community in Jerusalem; and the New York Public Library and YIVO archives in New York. Among the scholars who provided useful insights at different stages of the work, I wish to acknowledge Gerson D. Cohen, Zvi Ankori, Ismar Schorsch, Hebert Klein, Haim Avni, and Judith Elkin. For the location of pictures, I am indebted to the Archivos de la Nación, IWO Institute, Congregación Israelita, and Martha Wolff. In addition I wish to thank Jewish Social Studies for allowing the bulk of chapter 9 to be reprinted in this book, my friend John Less for designing the map, Michael Lane who edited the book for Wayne State University Press, and Anne M. G. Adamus, its managing editor.

This book owes much to my supportive family. My wife, Rose-Miriam, encouraged me to bring this work to press, and together with our daughters, Yael and Jessica, provided the necessary home atmosphere for it to be completed. Finally, to my parents, Leon and Suzanne Mirelman, who settled as immigrants and flourished in the community described, I dedicate this book in love and gratitude.

Introduction

In 1890 the only Jewish institution a newly arrived Jew could find in Buenos Aires was Congregación Israelita de la República Argentina (CIRA). It was founded by a group of Jews desirous of holding High Holy Day services in 1862. CIRA was formally organized in 1868, and after 1875 it had its permanent synagogue in Calle Artes (today Carlos Pellegrini), number 351. In 1897 it inaugurated its temple in Libertad Street, facing Plaza Lavalle, a central location in the city of Buenos Aires. At the beginning of the 1890s most members of CIRA were Jews born in Western and Central Europe—France, Germany, England, and Italy. Some Moroccan and East European Jews had arrived in Buenos Aires during the 1880s and joined CIRA. However, their numbers remained small. In fact, the whole Jewish population in the country was estimated at 1,500 souls in 1888.¹

Though assimilated, the Jews grouped around CIRA maintained some type of Jewish identity. Services were held during the Holy Days, and attempted on Sabbaths, though most of the time without the formal quorum of ten males. A society to help the poor and ill was organized at CIRA during the early 1870s. A philanthropic committee was formed in 1881 with the purpose of raising funds for their persecuted coreligionists in Russia. Funeral services according to Jewish rites were held, and the dead were buried at the British Cemetery (Cementerio de los Disidentes). Dietary and Sabbath laws were far from being observed by most members of CIRA. Still, an Italian Jewish doctor, Aquiles Modena, circumcised the newly born males. Henry Joseph, an English businessman who had arrived in Buenos Aires during the late 1850s, officiated as rabbi after receiving a special certificate from the chief rabbi of the French Consistoire, Lazare Isidor, in 1882. Joseph, whose wife converted to Judaism when he was appointed rabbi but whose children were not raised in the Jewish faith, was the most active personality in the small Jewish community of Buenos Aires before 1890. He led religious services, officiated at weddings and other specifically religious rituals, and was always prompt to defend the interests of the Jewish immigrants.²

A turning point in Argentine Jewry was effected when the Weser anchored in the port of Buenos Aires in August 1889, bringing 824 Jewish souls from Eastern Europe. This group constituted one of the main antecedents for the creation of the Jewish Colonization Association (JCA) by Baron Maurice de Hirsch in 1891.³ From 1890 until 1930 the arrival of Jews from Eastern Europe in Argentina was quite a common event. To the few North African Jewish families who had settled in Buenos Aires during the 1880s many more were added during the following four decades. Still, by the end of the century a new source of Jewish immigrants emerged in the form of the Ottoman Empire. Thus, Arabic-speaking Jews from Syria—mainly Damascus and Aleppo—and Ladino-speaking Jews from Izmir, Constantinople, Salonika, and Rhodes arrived during the first three decades of the twentieth century. Buenos Aires, a cosmopolitan city during this period, accordingly, became cosmopolitan also in a Jewish sense.

Eighteen ninety and 1930 are important turning points for the Jewish community in Argentina. Eighteen ninety marks the beginning, and 1930 the end, of immigration en masse to the country. During 1891 the Moroccan Jews founded their first institution, Congregación Israelita Latina, while the Russian Jews founded their first society, Poale Zedek (Sociedad Obrera Israelita). However, the influence of pre-1890 Jewish history in Buenos Aires was felt there until World War I. CIRA, especially Henry Joseph, its rabbi, and Luis H. Brie, its president, played a major role at some of the main institutions such as the Chevra Keduscha Aschkenasi (founded 1894) and Ezrah (founded 1900). This was due mainly to the fact that the West European Jews were the veterans—even if only by a generation or less—in Buenos Aires. They had a better economic situation and a more fluent command of Spanish, which was of importance when dealing with the local authorities. They thus had more free time to dedicate to institutional life, which many promptly did. On the other hand, by the end of the century—and more during the early 1900s—some Russian Jews had already secured for themselves worthy and stable economic situations, which enabled them to participate in leading positions in institutional life. Some of them entered CIRA and started occupying leading positions on its board.⁴

By 1930 the rule of the Radical party, representing by and large the interests of the middle sectors, was brought to an end by a rightist coup. Moreover, the crisis on Wall Street affected Argentina’s economic stability. Furthermore, 1930 marks the end of the period of absorption of Jews in the country—with the exception of German Jews who arrived in the 1930s—when they founded most of their religious, cultural, social, educational, and philanthropic institutions, and the beginning of the most tragic period for world Jewry, with Hitler’s gradual rise to power.

In this essay we shall describe the changing facade of the Jewish community in Buenos Aires during its crystallization period, up to 1930. After describing the immigration and settlement process, we shall illustrate the relations between Jews and gentiles during the period. We shall then look into the institutions the Jews created in Argentina and the interplay among these institutions—and among their constituents—which is what, in short, makes up Jewish life. An important element that developed in this period is the first generation of Argentine-born Jews. A study of their reactions to the Judaism brought by their parents from the Old World and of the roots they had developed in their country of birth will give us an understanding of the degree of assimilation, acculturation, and Argentinization of the Jews in Argentina. Finally, we shall describe the ways the various groups of immigrant Jews and their sons expressed their Judaism in Argentina.

Populationwise, Buenos Aires has always been the most important Jewish center in Argentina. In 1934 fully 131,000 Jews lived in the capital, while 12,500 lived in Rosario, and 5,300 in Córdoba. In the JCA agricultural colonies there were 30,659 Jews, counting both the urban and the rural population.⁵ This essay will deal with the community of Buenos Aires. Only when it seems pertinent do we include some aspects of Jewish life in Rosario or in the JCA colonies. On the other hand, a development like agricultural settlements sponsored by JCA deserves a special and separate study.⁶

The Jewish population in Buenos Aires was cosmopolitan in itself. Jews had arrived from Poland, Russia, Roumania, Syria, Turkey, and Morocco. Their Jewishness and feelings for fellow Jews was what they had in common. But their Jewish identity was reflected in different ways, depending on their previous traditions. Ashkenazim comprised fully four-fifths of the total Jewish population. They founded tens of religious, Zionist, welfare, cultural, and educational institutions. The backbone of this sector was the Chevra Keduscha Aschkenasi, founded in 1894 as a burial society, which as years went by became the most powerful institution due to its large membership and economic prosperity. On the other hand, all four major Sephardic groups—Damascene, Aleppine, Turkish (Ladino-speaking), and Moroccan—underwent similar processes of consolidation. Each of these sectors gradually centralized most of its societies into one organization with a main synagogue, a burial society, a cemetery, and a religious school, as well as welfare institutions to provide for their ill and poor. Thus each group had the necessary institutions to constitute an independent community, and indeed contact between one Sephardic group with another was unusual.⁷ In the chapters on religious life, Zionism, Jewish culture, education, and welfare we deal with each of these sectors separately. Within the Ashkenazic group CIRA is an atypical institution. Because of its unique character and its centrality in Jewish life during the period under analysis, we give it added attention.

Several visible controversial issues arose among Jews in Buenos Aires during the four decades of our concern. First, Sephardim and Ashkenazim, in spite of the attempts to join forces, went after separate goals and concerns. Even within each of these two main Jewish groups the spirit of localism determined by their communities of origin made for attachments to parochial interests. Second, religious Jews were dismayed at the growing apathy in Jewish traditional practices and the predominance of secularists in many of the institutions founded. Third, the political life, especially among Ashkenazim, was variegated and colorful, with abundant ideological argumentations. Zionists of various ideological persuasions lived side by side with non-Zionists and even with anti-Zionists; while at the same time a significant number of Jews, especially those militant in the workers’ movement, were attracted to socialism, the Bund, and communism. Fourth, the established Jews active in religious, educational, and philanthropic societies were repeatedly challenged by other Jews imbued with extremist doctrines, especially the communist.

A variety of issues, most of them imported from the trans-Atlantic communities of origin, prompted these deeply felt divisions. Language was an early issue. Some Russian Jews advocated speaking Russian as a sign of enlightenment, while the vast majority of East European Jews preferred communicating in Yiddish. Later on Yiddish became a key factor in class education among leftist Jews, while small groups of Zionists propounded the use of Hebrew as a major link to the ideals of resettling Palestine. The clash between communists and the rest of the Jews was reflected in the school systems they founded, in the challenge to traditional philanthropy with fund-raising to promote self-help, and in the struggle between the Zionists and those advocating a Jewish territory in Soviet Russia. Furthermore, there were Jews who promoted specifically Jewish culture and contended with the self-styled universalists or assimilationists. Finally, the crucial fight against white slavery is described in some detail.

This work is based on primary sources heretofore never utilized. The Yiddisher Wisnshaflecher Institut (IWO) branch in Buenos Aires (founded in 1928) has preserved in its archives precious documents on the history of the Jews in Argentina, which otherwise would have disappeared. Two of the most veteran Jewish organizations in the country, the Congregación Israelita and the Chevra Keduscha Ashkenasi, have also preserved some documents of value, besides their own minutebooks. At the Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem there is a wealth of documentation that reflects mainly on Zionist activities in Argentina. The Sephardic Community Committee (Vaad Ha’Eda HaSepharadit) Archives in Jerusalem were helpful as well. It is unfortunate, however, that many Jewish institutions in Argentina have not kept good archives of their activities during the first decades of the present century. This in itself is an historic fact of importance and throws some light on the attitude of the officials of these institutions vis-à-vis their own work in them. Still, most institutions have preserved their minutebooks. In the bibliography and notes the minutebooks of institutions consulted are listed. They have provided a perspective of Jewish life from the point of view of each of the individual institutions. Some of the annual reports of these institutions were also utilized, though unfortunately some did not preserve a complete collection of these reports. Another source of information has been the printed periodical word. The European Jewish press, especially of the 1890s and 1900s, was of value. The regular Argentine press also provided insights into the Jewish community in the country. However, the local Jewish press, in Yiddish, Spanish, and Hebrew, has proved to be of the greatest value. The several dailies, weeklies, and monthly journals with a wide range of ideologies permitted a comparison of social issues and of the views of the Jewish community of those years from different perspectives.

The bibliography provides a list of major articles and books quoted or referred to in this essay. Most of the articles describing Jewish life in Argentina appeared in the volumes in Yiddish published by the Ashkenazic community in Buenos Aires,⁸ in special volumes published in honor of important anniversaries,⁹ or in various issues of the Argentiner IWO Shriftn.¹⁰ Though most of these articles are not the fruit of extensive research, they are important testimonies of individuals who participated to some extent in the events they describe. Their value, by and large, is that of memoirs more than that of elaborate pieces of research.

1

The Jewish Immigration Flow to Argentina

Argentina’s Immigration Policy

Upon the unification of the Province of Buenos Aires with the Confederated Provinces in 1860, the leaders of the Argentine Republic were confronted with the responsibility of delineating new policies in order to build a progressive nation. The major idea proposed was to populate the vast extensions of land in the territory still not altogether conquered from the Indians. Adopting the motto of Juan Bautista Alberdi, who defined the duties of the heads of the country saying that to govern is to populate (Gobernar es poblar), Argentina adopted an open door policy for all immigrants. The 1853 Constitution explicitly forbade any limitations on immigrants arriving with the purpose of working the soil and developing industries, sciences, and the arts. Moreover, in 1876 the law of immigration, commonly known as Ley Avellaneda, regulated the process of absorption of immigrants in the country. The Hotel de Inmigrantes at the port of Buenos Aires was to provide shelter and meals to the newly arrived during their first days in the country; the immigrants were also to be provided with railroad tickets to their final destination in the interior of the country. With the conquest of large tracts of land from the Indians in 1880, the government and the paternalistic oligarchy in control of it saw fit to stimulate European immigration in order to render their newly acquired vast extentions of fertile land more profitable.¹

The land-owning élite, with agricultural and stock-raising interests, required a large and growing labor supply and quite often preferred the immigrant worker to the native-born Argentinian. The liberal immigration policy was in consonance with their expectations that economic prosperity and growth could be accelerated by the constant flow of cheap labor. Industrialists, favoring the flow of immigrants, repeatedly demanded that the government subsidize the passage of skilled workers for their factories. The urban entrepreneurs desired immigration as well, especially of unskilled workers, in order to form a larger pool of potential strikebreakers. All these groups, though numerically small, had immense power in Argentina. The upper class assumed that the European immigrants would conform to a servile labor sector which would enhance their prosperity but would not challenge their prevailing political and economic power.

The open door policy in Argentina had the backing of the positivist social philosophy of the generation of 1880. The tendency to study social problems objectively and scientifically, stressing the practical values in life and emphasizing the importance of economic forces, flourished in Argentina at the time of the arrival of large numbers of European immigrants. Doctrines of economic liberalism, also appearing at this time, proposed that new social conditions allowing class mobility would make the nation prosper and progress. These new conditions would be promoted by an international labor force.²

The half-century period 1880–1930 was one of constant massive flow of immigrants from beyond the Atlantic to Argentina. The net immigration figures show that over three million immigrants settled permanently during those five decades, constituting a growing influx interrupted only by the economic crisis of 1890 and the First World War.

Jewish immigration in large numbers began in 1889, when the Weser anchored in the port of Buenos Aires. Over eight hundred Jews disembarked on that winter day in Argentina. From then to 1930 the arrival of immigrant Jews was a common event. According to Simón Weill’s calculations the number of Jews in the country reached 10,000 in 1895, soared to 100,000 at the eve of World War I, and by the end of the 1920s had surpassed the 200,000 mark. The estimates of U. O. Schmelz and Sergio Della Pergola are slightly lower than those of Weill for the early decades. For 1930, however, they find the number of Jews living in Argentina to be considerably lower than Weill’s calculation, since they estimate a larger exodus of Jews from Argentina (see Table 1).

The Jewish population was concentrated in the Jewish Colonization Association (JCA) colonies and principally in the capital city of Buenos Aires. The pace of growth of the capital, receiving an ever-soaring share of immigrants, was also reflected in the number of its Jewish inhabitants. In September 1904 a municipal census counted 6,065 Jews, or 64 percent of the total population of 950,891. Five years later, during October 1909, another census reported 16,589 Jews, or 1.35 percent of the total 1,231,698. In this latter year Rabbi Samuel Halphon collected some data on the Jewish population of most places in the country. His figure for Buenos Aires, somewhat between 30,000 and 40,000, is in discrepancy with the municipal census of the same year. The real number of Jews, most probably, was nearer to 25,000, allowing for the fact that many Jews preferred not to disclose their religious preference to the municipal census authorities.³

Table 1

Net Total Immigration and Net Jewish Immigration into Argentina

During the quinquennium 1910–14 large waves of immigrants arrived in Argentina, among them 41,000 Jews, most of whom remained in the capital, thus doubling its Jewish population to around 50,000.⁴ During the war only a few hundred Jews arrived in Argentina, while the numbers of all emigrants exceeded that of immigrants by 213,413. Once the war was over, immigration was resumed with great impetus. During the eleven years 1920–30, 74,607 Jews entered Argentina and decided to remain there.

Weill was able to arrive at his figures of net Jewish immigration after he estimated the number of Jewish emigrants. These constituted in some periods a considerable proportion. Many Jews, not happy with their situation in Argentina, decided to return to Europe or proceed to other countries in the New World. During the 1890s, when most Jewish immigrants in Argentina went to the JCA colonies, several families left the agricultural settlements for Russia, the United States, or various urban centers in Argentina.⁵ But the United States undoubtedly attracted most Jewish emigrants from Argentina. During the first decade of the century many left to try their luck there. In 1907 as many as 1,894 Jews left Argentina to go to the United States.⁶ During 1908, 1,083 left Argentina, and 784 did so in 1909.⁷ During the period 1920–24 about 5,000 of the Jews who entered left the country.⁸ Thus, we could argue that Weill’s figures may not have taken into consideration all Jewish emigrants. However, we should also bear in mind that not all those who entered declared their religion. Many Jewish freethinkers or atheists or those who felt awkward or fearful about declaring their religion were not counted as Jewish immigrants and were thus not included in the annual reports of the Immigration Department. Moreover, when obstacles were placed in front of many immigrants, some Jews—as well as nationals of most European countries—entered illegally through Brazil and Uruguay, crossing the fluvial frontiers from the cities of Salto, Concordia, or Colonia. Nevertheless, we only know about unsuccessful cases of illegal entry into Argentina, making it quite difficult to estimate the numbers of those who succeeded in their attempts.⁹

According to the municipal census of 1936 in Buenos Aires, there were in that year 120,195 Jews, constituting 5 percent of the 2,415,142 inhabitants of the Federal District. However, there is every reason to believe that among those who reported no religion or religion undeclared there were Jews, too. Ira Rosenswaike estimated their proportion to be between 8 to 12 percent of the Jews counted in the census, thus bringing the number of Jews in the capital to 130,000 or 135,000.¹⁰ The Jews in the capital constituted therefore more than half of all Jews in the country. Up to World War I, the proportion of rural inhabitants was higher among Jews than among other large groups of immigrants such as Spanish, Italians, and French.¹¹ However the preference of Jews for urban settlements, especially the urban center in Buenos Aires, became evident during the 1920s. It was also reflected in the 7,858 sons of immigrants born in the provinces who had already settled in Buenos Aires by 1936 and who represented 16.8 percent of all Argentine-born Jews in Buenos Aires. There is, unfortunately, no way of establishing the number of foreign-born Jews who moved to Buenos Aires after having lived some time in the interior.

After World War I Jewish emigration from Europe resumed. The liberal laws in Argentina persuaded the Jewish emigration societies in the Old World to consider this country as a convenient place of settlement for many displaced and persecuted Jews in Eastern Europe. The leaders of Argentine Jewry, notably those in direct contact with the Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU) and the JCA, who were, by and large, also active at the Congregación Israelita (CIRA), multiplied their efforts in order to promote Jewish immigration to Argentina and to protect the newcomers in their adoptive country by offering information about the general situation, especially in reference to work opportunities.¹²

As results of direct dealings with AIU leaders in Europe held both by Dr. Samuel Halphon and Max Glucksman, rabbi and president, respectively, of CIRA, the Sociedad de Protección a los Inmigrantes Israelitas (Soprotimis) was created on May 20, 1922, with the purpose of helping the immigrants’ absorption in the land and of caring for their moral, physical, and material well-being.¹³ Their activities during the twenties, and in later decades as well, were varied. Besides the conventional aid to immigrants, Soprotimis paid special attention to women immigrants arriving alone in order to prevent them from becoming the prey of white slave traffickers. Soprotimis took care of the llamadas, or affidavits to obtain visas for relatives of Jews already in Argentina; transferred funds to relatives in Europe; and contacted official authorities in order to ease the entrance of Jews to the country. A representative of Soprotimis, in close connection with Ezras Noschim, a society concerned with the protection of Jewish girls and women, had a special official permit granted by the Dirección de Inmigraciones to go aboard all incoming ships. The purpose of this was to advise Jewish immigrants of the existence of the society and alert them against the traffickers in human flesh and commissioners of hotels so as to prevent deceits.¹⁴

At this point, in 1921, Argentina’s immigration policy became less liberal, and Jews in Eastern Europe were among those most seriously affected by the bureaucratic obstacles placed in front of all immigrants. In 1922 the formalities required to receive a visa for Argentina were the cause for the denial of them to most Jewish refugees. The JCA office in Argentina was able to obtain in 1922 a rule that the emigrants they recommended in Europe be accepted without some of the required documents that the refugees could not obtain.¹⁵ This worked well for a little over a year, then the special permit was discontinued. After July 1923 Jewish refugees, unable to obtain official documentation from their places of birth, were forced to look for different horizons. Also, in mid-1923 the liberal policy of granting a carta de llamada for relatives who could show a guarantee of good conduct and sufficient economic means, was restricted. Soprotimis was not able to obtain the llamadas as liberally as before.¹⁶ Moreover, the crucial role of Argentina at the beginning of the Roumanian evacuation was interrupted.¹⁷ Thus, the number of Jewish immigrants, which had in 1923 surpassed the 13,000 mark, fell to 7,799 in 1924 and averaged 6,500 per year for the rest of the decade. The average of 8,100 per annum for the prewar decade 1905–14, was not reached during the 1921–30 decade, when about 7,250 Jewish immigrants entered annually into Argentina. These comparisons are even more revealing when we take into account that the United States had progressively lowered its quota for immigrants, especially from Eastern Europe, an area most Jews were fleeing. Argentina, which was the second overseas country for the period 1856–1930 not only for general but also for Jewish immigration was also closing its doors, though in a concealed way, to many potential immigrants, especially war refugees, among whom were a considerable number of Jews.¹⁸

Restrictions on immigration were placed as a result of the economic low ebb of the early 1920s, with the subsequent growing unemployment. No new law was passed, but Argentine consuls in Europe were instructed not to grant visas unless the candidates showed the appropriate documentation, which, in most cases, required passing through various bureaucratic stages. These documents were to come from the immigrant’s country of origin, a condition practically impossible for many refugees of war. Moreover, a ministerial circular made all consuls responsible for any admissions of undesirables—that is, sick, mendicants, criminals, anarchists, and bolsheviks—who got visas through them. The consuls, therefore, were authorized to deny a visa without indicating their motives.¹⁹ The selection of immigrants was enforced, though never to an extreme during the 1920s. Preference was given to specialized industrial workers and agriculturists, while other workers and professionals such as tailors, shoemakers, and barbers, as well as merchants and even intellectuals, were screened.²⁰

At the end of 1924 the Departamento de Inmigración, headed by Juan P. Ramos, reached an agreement with the Paris heads of JCA, Louis and Edouard Oungre. As a result of a meeting held at the French capital on May 20, 1924, Ramos cabled JCA that this association could take steps to attain the entrance in the Argentine Republic of immigrants who do not have the complete documentation in order, but only for those who come from European regions where the difficulties in obtaining them are unavoidable. Moreover, JCA could only ask for the admission of agriculturists, who … are destined to the interior of the country, and not to the city of Buenos Aires and the towns of its surroundings. When JCA made clear that they could not be held responsible for cases in which immigrants left the interior for Buenos Aires, this restriction previously included in Ramos’s resolution was omitted.²¹ During the following year, however, the concession to JCA was limited to specialized agriculturists.²²

Controls and selections of immigrants were not the only reasons for limitation of Jewish immigration to Argentina. Ticket prices to Buenos Aires had gone up 300 percent from 1923 to 1926.²³ In 1930 they were raised 25 percent. The prepaid ticket from Poland to Buenos Aires thus rose from 267 to 331 pesos.²⁴ Some of the emigrants from Poland, moreover, were distrustful of promises made to them about South America.²⁵ Furthermore, the Minister of Poland in Argentina, Ladislaw Mazurkiewicz, wrote to his country suggesting a reduction of emigration to Argentina due to the economic crisis of 1929, first from 1,500 monthly to 500, then to 300, and finally to 150. However, he did not include Jews in the restrictions, for the latter could receive the assistance of various Jewish institutions, especially the residents associations (landsmanschaften)²⁶

The Jewish community in Argentina organized itself in order to give refuge to larger numbers of their brethren in distress in Europe, basically in Poland. At the end of May 1928 a Congress of Immigration was held in Buenos Aires; among those present were Louis Oungre from JCA, Miron Kreinin of HICEM (HIAS, JCA, Emigdirect), Aaron Benjamin of HIAS, and delegates from all Jewish institutions in the country. The pervading spirit at this Congress was one of solidarity with the whole Jewish people, for in 1928 they believed that Argentina could become a major haven for the deteriorating communities in Eastern Europe. Moreover, the bolstering of Argentine Judaism with new additions from older Jewish communities that would fortify the local one spiritually and culturally was also contemplated.²⁷ All problems of immigration were discussed at these meetings, and the guest delegates received a strong impression of the hardships involved in getting a visa. However, as Benjamin reported to an HIAS board meeting two months later, it was estimated that South America could absorb 20,000 Jewish immigrants per year, especially artisans and able-bodied people willing to settle in the land. The outlook was less favorable for merchants and intellectuals. South American industrial development also offered employment prospects.²⁸ We can assume that the delegates had in mind that of the above figure, Argentina would absorb fully two-thirds or more of them. Nonetheless, even before a full program of implementation of the 1928 Congress’s resolution could be approved, the economic depression of 1929 produced a new situation not contemplated by the Jewish leadership. Moreover, the military forces under General José F. Uriburu took control of the government on September 6, 1930 and ordered a radical cut in the immigration policy as a means of fighting the crisis and the consequent unemployment.

Argentina As a New Home for Jews

As Table 1 indicates, over 5 percent of the immigrants who settled in Argentina during the period 1888–1930 were Jewish. They came from different areas in the world hoping to find in Argentina what they were lacking in their birthplaces. The main areas whence Jews emigrated to Argentina were Eastern Europe, North Africa, and the Ottoman Empire. Though some of the reasons for migrating were common to Jews from different parts of the world, we shall here analyze each one separately.

The population of Buenos Aires according to the census taken in 1936 can give us an estimate of the number of Jews who arrived from the above-mentioned areas (Table 2).

Table 2 shows that approximately 80 percent of the Jews in Buenos Aires in 1936 were of East European origin. They had arrived in Argentina during a span of over fifty years, starting in the early 1880s when a few individual Jews from Russia and Roumania made their way to Buenos Aires.

Table 2

Origin of the Jewish Population in Buenos Aires in 1936

The Wave from Eastern Europe

In line with the Argentine government’s policy of settling immigrants in the country’s depopulated pampas with the purpose of making the land productive and of creating centers of distribution in the interior, an attempt was made to encourage Jewish emigration from the tsarist empire to Argentina’s shores. The initiative came from José María Bustos, who, upon the first signs of pogroms and indications of new anti-Jewish measures in Russia in 1881, conceived the idea of inducing some of the would-be emigrants to consider the possibility of establishing themselves in Argentina. Bustos proposed himself as honorary agent to fulfill this task in Europe.²⁹

President Julio A. Roca’s administration reacted most favorably to Bustos’s proposal. Catholic religious exclusivism in immigration had been terminated in 1853 when the agricultural colony of Esperanza was planned. Among the colonists in Esperanza was a considerable number of Protestants from Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, and Northern France.³⁰ In 1881, however, with the official appointment of Bustos as agent, the immigration policy was further liberalized to encourage non-Christian (i.e., Jewish) immigration. The second article of the decree appointing Bustos read, The instructions which the said agent will have in the fulfillment of his commission shall be dispatched through the Comisaría General de Inmigración, … so that the consular agents of Argentina in Europe grant Bustos the help he might solicit from them for the better success of his mission.³¹

Argentina’s open invitation to Jews to settle her country and the special appointment of an official governmental agent to attract specifically Jewish emigrants was quite remarkable. The seriousness of the Argentine policy is further attested by the involvement of the commissary of immigration in Paris, Carlos Calvo, who had initiated contacts in the same direction prior to Bustos’s departure from Buenos Aires.³² Moreover the head of the Committee of Immigration advised Calvo to contact the Alliance Israélite Universelle or the chief rabbi of Paris, Zadoc Kahn, and Ludwig Phillipson, "whose Jewish periodical [Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums] was considered the best means of propaganda," and other rabbis from German localities near the Russian border.³³

According to European Jewish newspapers, Bustos proceeded to carry out his assignment but without much success. The invitation to settle in Argentina, which was chiefly given to the Jews in Kiev, was extended by a Mr. Nozzolini, a resident of the city.³⁴ Russian Jews did not consider Argentina a convenient country of migration because of the remoteness of its location, their little knowledge about conditions prevailing in this still economically underdeveloped country, and their natural aversion to a country linked to Spain with bonds of language, religion, and traditions and which might therefore—in the minds of the Russian Jews—also hold restrictive legislation for Jews. Bustos resigned in December of the same year because of his lack of success and desire to return home.³⁵

Thus, this first attempt to bring large numbers of Jewish immigrants into Argentina utterly failed. It was a non-Jewish initiative, promoted by elitist, liberal-minded Catholics and aristocratic landowners seated at the head of the Argentine government. The scanty information on the issue reveals no contact with the small and still loosely organized Jewish community in Buenos Aires. On the other hand, in 1881 the Jews in Argentina were in no position of influence in governmental circles and had no strong links with Jewish organizations active in salvaging the victims of Russian antisemitism. The response of these Jews was limited to a collection in favor of the Russian Jewish victims and a strong answer to the groups in Argentina that had reacted with virulent antisemitic arguments to Roca’s decree promoting Jewish immigration.³⁶

Never again did an Argentine administration prompt or encourage Jewish immigration either for selfish reasons of developing its own economy and institutions or for more altruistic ones when anti-Jewish sentiments threatened the continuation of Jewish life in the Old World. Bustos’s attempt, even if of no immediate positive results, had long-range consequences. Argentina, through occasional articles published in the Jewish press both in Eastern and Western Europe, began to be known in the Jewish communities of Russia as a country with possibilities for Jewish settlement. However, from now on Jews would wander to South America on an individual basis and at their own risk or at the instance of Jewish relief and emigration organizations established for that purpose in several European cities.

Argentine consuls were occasionally active in places with a considerable Jewish population, promoting emigration to their country among all dwellers without discrimination of religious belief. During the 1880s their impact among Jews was small, for the latter were quite distrustful of the consuls’ asseverations and explanations of Argentine legislation and conditions. Such was the case of a young Jewish locksmith apprentice in Warsaw who in 1888 decided to consult the editors of Hazefirah, the influential Hebrew newspaper of that city, about the veracity of the Argentine consul’s description of Argentina. Hazefirah attested to the credibility of the consul because he is officially appointed by the Argentine government and behaves accordingly, without enticing people who are not permitted to leave the country to do so without a permit, … and he does not require any money from the people who are prepared to sail. But still their distrustfulness, which had been fed by many impostors who profited from the naïveté of the people, made them ask our readers in America to inform us about the real situation [in Argentina], for which we shall be grateful to them.³⁷

In many cities and towns of emigration, agents were making profit of the lack of knowledge of most emigrants. Many newcomers from Italy, Spain, Germany, and other European countries were deceived by these agents, who promised to take care of details of travel to and establishment in Argentina.³⁸ Some of the already-long-established Jews in Buenos Aires tried to put an end to these operations, at least concerning their Jewish brethren. At the end of 1889 David Hassan, an English Jew who had settled in Buenos Aires many years previously, upon learning of the miseries endured by the first mass group of Jews from Eastern Europe who were deceived by an agent in Europe, decided to ask for the cooperation of Jewish organizations in Europe that handled immigration. In a letter to the Anglo-Jewish Association (AJA) in London, Hassan urged the AJA and the Alliance Israélite Universelle in Paris to put a stop to unsystematic emigration, particularly since such of the emigrants as have means are fleeced by self-appointed agents in Europe. This, as well as other briefings, induced the executive committee of the AJA to request the collaboration of the AIU with a view to a stop being put to the present emigration, and to the alleged frauds practiced on Jewish emigrants.³⁹

During the last third of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century a large number of Jews from Eastern Europe crossed the Atlantic to the New World. The reasons were many, and in different regions some of these were more important than others. Two main factors, however, played a considerably important role: the progressive deterioration of the personal status of the Jews vis-à-vis the Russian government and population and the socioeconomic dislocation and eventual displacement of large numbers of Jews from the economic structure.

The pogroms of 1881, upon Alexander III’s accession to the throne, were but the first of a long series of physical attacks upon Jews and their property. These outrages