Jewish Gauchos in South America’s Pampas

Curated by Adriana Brodsky

Though initially the tsar settled Jews as colonists in southern Russia in the early 1800s, anti-Jewish measures in later decades threatened Jews’ access to land. In response to this crisis, the Jewish Colonization Association (JCA or ICA) purchased agricultural plots and settled many Russian Jews in the pampas of Argentina, a country that was actively promoting immigration. Together with other ethnic groups, Jews worked land taken from indigenous people by the Argentine government to increase Argentina’s agricultural production. The following sources provide a glimpse into the JCA’s and Argentina’s expectations, and the realities Jews faced in the new land.

Many Jewish gauchos (the Spanish word for agricultural workers) wrote about their experiences in the colonies, and those recollections and fictionalized accounts varied significantly. To some, the experience, though not free from hardship, saved Jews from persecution and was worth the suffering. To others, their treatment by the hands of JCA authorities was to be decried. To yet others, the project of the JCA’s regeneration of Jews as agricultural workers proved to be unfulfilling, and they sought new lives elsewhere.