JEWS IN SOUTH AMERICA, MEXICO AND CUBA.
The first “minyan” in Buenos Ayres, Argentine, in 1861――Estimate
of the Jewish population in Argentine――Occupations and economic
condition of the various groups――Kosher meat and temporary
synagogues as indications of the religious conditions――
Communities in twenty-six other cities――The Agricultural
Colonies――Brazil――The rumor that General Floriano Peixotto, the
second president of the new Republic, was of Jewish origin――
Communities in several cities――The Colony Philippson――Jews
in Montevido, Uruguay――Other South American Republics――Isidor
Borowski, who fought under Bolivar――Panama――Moroccan Jews are
liked by Peru Indians――About ten thousand Jews in Mexico――
Slowly increasing number in Cuba, where Jews help to spread
the American influence.
The immigration statistics of the modern Argentine Republic, which
began to be collected in 1854, did not count the Jews, as such, and
there is practically no records of the first settlement of Jews there,
which took place in the second half of the nineteenth century. It
is related that there was a “minyan” in Buenos Ayres on Yom Kippur,
1861, which was kept up irregularly for ten years, and was composed of
English, French and German Jews. During the yellow fever epidemic of
1871 almost all of them, who were agents or representatives of business
houses, fled the capital, and the “minyan” in that year was held in a
little town where most of them met. This little community organized a
“Congregacion Israelita” and built the first synagogue, before Jews
from Russia began to go there in considerable numbers. A congregation
of Moroccan Jews, “Congregacion Israelita Latina,” was organized in
1891.
The report of the Jewish Colonization Association for 1909, which
contains a study of the Jewish population of Argentine, estimates
the number of Jews living in Buenos Ayres at 40,000, and that of the
interior towns――outside of the colonies――at 15,000 more. If we add
to it the number of about 20,000 living in the colonies Moiseville
(Santa Fé), Clara, San Antonio, Santa Isabel, Lucienville (Entre Rios),
Mauricio, Baron de Hirsch (Buenos Ayres) and Berriasconi (Pampa), in
addition to the Jewish immigration for the last three years, which
averages about 9,000 or 10,000, it seems certain that there are now
in the Republic of Argentine over 100,000 Jews, which means a larger
number than in any country of the New World outside of the United
States.
About eight-tenths of the Jewish population of Buenos Ayres are
from Russia. The earliest settlers among them, who are now also
the wealthiest, are former colonists of the I. C. A. (as the Jewish
Colonization Association of Paris is designated). The remainder
is divided into about 3,000 Turkish, Arabian and Greek Jews; 1,000
Moroccans and Italians; 1,500 French, German, English and Dutch, etc.
The first two groups contain many wealthy merchants, but the great
majority consists of dealers in second-hand goods and of peddlers. The
last group, which is the oldest, consists of merchants of the higher
grades. Among the Russians there are also a large number of business
people, but a very large number are artisans in various trades. As to
their date of arrival, the English, French and German are the oldest,
as stated above. Some Moroccan and Italian families have lived there
about thirty years, but the majority of that group came in the last
decade. The earliest Turkish Jews came there less than fifteen years
ago, but the great majority of them came about 1905. The Russians began
to come in considerable numbers about the time of the establishment of
the first colonies, and they still keep on coming in increasing numbers.
There are in Buenos Ayres about one hundred Jews engaged in the
liberal professions, two-thirds of whom are natives of Russia. The
communal institutions leave much to be desired, but there has been some
improvement lately, and it is reported that a large Jewish hospital
will be erected there in the near future. The religious conditions are
indicated by the fact that about 7,000 kilograms of “Kosher” meat was
sold there daily in 1909, and that on Yom Kippur of that year services
were held in not less than twenty-four different places, including
the temple. M. Samuel Halphen, a former religious teacher, was lately
chosen rabbi of Buenos Ayres, while Dr. Herbert Ashkenazi, who studied
at Berlin, and was chosen by the I. C. A. as chief rabbi of the
colonies, also resides in that city.
The Jews are now scattered all over Argentine, and some can be found
in almost any locality, especially in the provinces of Buenos Ayres,
Santa Fé, Entre Rios and Cordoba. The above-mentioned inquiry[60]
deals with the Jewish population of twenty-six cities besides the
capital, beginning with Rosario, Santa Fé. which has among its 173,000
inhabitants more than 3,000 Jews, 2,500 are Russians, 359 Orientals and
Moroccans and about 100 French and Germans. The cemetery was acquired
in 1905 and the congregation was organized in 1907. In Santa Fé, which
has less than 600 Jews, the Moroccans bought a cemetery as early as
1895. Parona has a small community of less than 300, with a _Sociedad
Israelita Argentina de Beneficencia_, which was founded in 1897. But
most of the communal institutions and the communities themselves are
less than ten years old, which means that Jews are just beginning to
spread over the country. A majority of the Jews in the interior towns
of Argentine are former colonists, and most of them are doing tolerably
well. Their presence in a free and progressive country, where they
can be useful to themselves and to their neighbors, must therefore be
credited to the I. C. A. which has thus accomplished some good, even
for those whom it could not, for various reasons, turn into successful
farmers.
The largest share of attention was, however, paid in the last two
decades to that part of the Jewish population of Argentine which has
settled in the agricultural colonies established by the I. C. A. As
early as 1889 independent attempts had been made by Jewish immigrants
from Russia to establish colonies in Argentine, but it was not done
on a well-ordered plan, and later these colonies and colonists were
absorbed by the Jewish Colonization Association. The oldest and most
successful colony, Moiseville, founded by Russian immigrants in 1890,
before the establishment of the I. C. A. was re-organized by that
association in 1891. Mauricio, in the province of Buenos Ayres, was
established about the same time, and the large group of colonies in the
province of Entre Rios, which is collectively called Clara (after the
Baroness de Hirsch), was founded in 1894. Despite the friction which
caused many colonists at considerable expense, to leave the places
where they were settled, and despite the prejudice which was aroused
against the entire colonization scheme by these seemingly interminable
quarrels, the agricultural colonies in Argentine, as a whole, are
♦successful and their future is bright. The colonists are fast paying
off their debts to the association which assisted them to settle there,
and many of them are even chafing under the limitations which prevent
them from paying off more rapidly. The centers of Jewish population,
both agricultural and――indirectly――urban, which were thus artificially
created by the munificence of Baron de Hirsch, have become healthy and
natural, and are now attracting independent immigration. There are now,
as stated above, nearly 20,000 souls in the colonies, but more than a
fourth are described as non-colonists. There are 44 schools with more
than 3,000 pupils in the colonies, and the statistical tables from
year to year show a slow and solid progress, which augurs well for the
future of the Jews in Argentine.
* * * * *
There were, as far as known, but very few Jews in modern Brazil, even
under the humane and scholarly Emperor Dom Pedro II. (1825–91), who was
well versed in Hebrew, and maintained friendly relations with several
Jewish scholars in Europe. The immense country attracted but few Jews
after the Emperor was deposed and a republican form of government
instituted in 1889. There were some rumors at that time that General
Floriano Peixotto, one of the leaders of the revolution, who was
the first Vice-President and the second President (1891–94) of the
new republic, was of Jewish origin. But like the statements about
the Jewish ancestry of Christopher Columbus and many other notables,
they could never be verified, and there is not available sufficient
genealogical material in either case to prove or disprove assertions
of that nature.
In 1900 a number of Roumanian Jews went to Brazil, but effected no
permanent settlement. A list of the leading merchants of the various
cities in Brazil, which was published by the Bureau of American
Republics about 1901, discloses a large number of names unmistakably
Jewish, most of them apparently of German origin (_Jewish Encyclopedia_,
s. v. Brazil). The formation of a Jewish community in Rio de Janeiro,
the capital of Brazil, was reported in January, 1905 (in the _South
American Journal_ of London), and a report in the _Jewish Emigrant_
of St. Petersburg, the Russian organ of the I. C. A., five years later
(1910, No. 20), tells of Jewish merchants in many large cities of
Brazil, including Rio Grande, Pelatas, Sao Gabriel, etc., and of Porto
Alegra, Rio Grande do Sul, where a community was then about to be
organized. The existence of a synagogue in Para, “where they worship
on the festivals,” was reported in 1910. (_Jewish Chronicle_, Oct. 21,
1910.)
The chief interest of the Jewish world in the Jews of Brazil is,
however, concentrated on the agricultural colony, Philippson, in the
state of Rio Grande, where there are now settled about 400 Russian
Jews, mostly from Bessarabia. It was founded by the I. C. A. about six
years ago, and is now under the direction of M. Leibowitz, one of its
former oldest employees in Argentine. The colony is in a flourishing
condition, and it is being constantly enlarged, while new settlements
are projected in the same part of the country. Here, too, like in
Argentine, the colony attracts some Jewish immigration, and it was
also the cause of the establishment of small Jewish settlements in the
nearby towns of Pinhal, Santa Maria, Cruz Alta, etc. The number of Jews
in Brazil is now estimated at 3,000.
There are, according to the report mentioned at the beginning of this
chapter, about 150 Jews in Montevido, the capital of Uruguay, South
America, most of whom came there from Buenos Ayres. About half of them
are from Russia, the remainder hail from Greece, France and Alsace, and
Roumania. They are engaged in various occupations and their material
condition is not bad. Ten young Russian Jews joined the army and three
of them attained the rank of sergeant. There is hardly any religious
activity, except for a “minyan” held on Yom Kippur. Matzoth for the
Passover are brought from Buenos Ayres, and a “Mohel” is also usually
brought from there when the occasion arises.
There are several thousand Jews scattered over the other republics of
South America, but they are mostly recent arrivals and unorganized, and
very little is known about them. It is probable that the Polish-Jewish
military adventurer, Isidor Borowski (b. in Warsaw, 1803; killed at
the siege of Herat, Afghanistan, 1837), who fought under the great
hero of South American independence, Simon Bolivar (1783–1830) in many
battles,[61] was then the only Jew in that part of the world. Even
at present, the number of Jews in the countries liberated by Bolivar
is insignificant. There are about 500 Jews in Venezuela, mostly in
the capital, Caracas, where the first Jewish congregation was founded
in 1899. (American-Jewish Year Book 5660, p. 289). According to the
writers of the American chapter in _Outlines of Jewish History_ by Lady
Magnus, for which――as stated in the preface――“Lady Magnus is in no wise
responsible,” Jewish congregations were formed in Caracas and Coro,
Venezuela, in the middle of the nineteenth century, presumably by
Jews who lived there formerly as ♦Marranos. But if these congregations
existed at all, they must have been short-lived, and it is not certain
that even the latest “first congregation” of 1899 is still in existence.
Hardly anything is known of Jews in Bolivia or Colombia, but it
is certain that a considerable number are now to be found in the
diminutive Republic of Panama, through which the great isthmian canal
is now being cut by the United States. There were enough Jews in the
city of Panama before that time to acquire a cemetery about 1905. The
Alliance Israelite Universelle of Paris assisted a number of Moroccan
Jews to settle in Peru, where they were reported as doing well and
being better liked by the Indians than either Europeans or Chinese.
But the climate does not agree with them, and many of them leave Peru
as soon as they save a sufficient amount of money. About 100 Jewish
residents, Moroccan, French and English, who own the largest stores
and rubber plantations, are found in Iquitos, Peru, which was at one
time an Indian village. There is a small community of Russian Jews in
Lima. A number of prosperous Jewish merchants are located in Santiago,
Chile, and in other cities of that republic, but there is no record of
religious organization or of communal activities.
The number of Jews in Mexico is estimated to be not far from 10,000,
mostly Syrians, Moroccans and French Alsatians. But as far as it is
known, there is among them no organization and no religious life except
an occasional “minyan” on the high holidays.
There is also a slowly increasing number of Jews in Cuba, mostly at
Havana, where Moroccan and Syrian or Turkish Jews came to trade long
ago; but since it was liberated from the Spanish yoke by the United
States, Jewish immigrants from Europe, who formerly lived in the United
States, settle there and help to spread the American influence.