JCA: Candidates for Colonization

In the late 1880's the Baron Maurice Hirsch founded the Jewish Colonization Association (JCA) with the goal of rescuing the eastern European Jews from their difficult situation. To this end, JCA bought lands mainly in Argentina and in the late 1880's started transferring entire families to agricultural colonies in Argentina, as well as few other countries including Brazil, Canada, and the USA. Those families were the ancestors of hundreds of thousands of Jews living today around the world.

The JCA maintained a very organized system of registering the colonists. After the first waves of immigration and the establishment of the various colonies, the JCA began preparing lists of families who were candidates to join the colonies. Many of these families were already in Argentina at the time the lists were generated and even lived in one of the colonies, but did not have a formal contract with the JCA.

This collection currently has 5,885 records of candidates who joined the colonies of the JCA. Information on these records include:

• names
• surnames
• ages
• place of origin in Europe
• date of arrival to Argentina
• friends or relatives already living in one of the JCA colonies
• and more.

Acknowledgements

This collection was digitized and transcribed by our dedicated volunteers Estela Rappaportt, Barbara Ellman, Barbara Hershey, Laura Steiman, Pedro Czackis and Miguel Bronstein. This wouldn't be possible without their work.

Special thanks to Dr. Yoni Kupchik for organizing these files, and overseeing our research efforts for Latin America.

Sample Image

Searching the Database

This database is searchable by clicking here.