Report Submitted by President of Ica Board of Managers Describes Condition of Palestine Colonies (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
The report of Franz Phillipson, president of the Board of Managers of the Jewish Colonization Association, reviewing the work of the Ica in South America and Palestine was made public here.
The report was submitted to the general assembly of the Association which was held here last month.
“Our work during 1926 pursued its normal course,” Mr. Phillipson said in presenting his report. “I mean by that that efforts have been continued in all the countries where it has establishments, with a view to assuring those coming under its protection of independence through labor. The same as in previous years, it has intervened in behalf of Jewish emigrants, has facilitated their departure and voyage towards the countries over sea, and entrance into their new country. In Eastern Europe it has interested itself, as in the past, in the professional education of young people, in the works of credit so useful to merchants and to artisans, in a word, in agricultural work. In short, it has continued to bend every effort in behalf of Jews in distress and to work with might and main towards their alleviation.
“I shall give you a summary, as in all years, of the results obtained by the Association in this field of endeavor and shall describe to you briefly the two very substantial enterprises started or prepared in the course of last year.
“Our work of colonization along agricultural lines in Argentina has made further progress in the course of 1926. It there takes on a new outlook from year to year: the results that our enterprises have prepared are often attained beyond even our direct action. Our groupings are more and more constituting an agricutural population attached to the land, a population that is vigorous and powerful.
“These lands extend within the provinces of Entre-Rios, Santa-Fe, Buenos Aires, Santiago del Estero and the Pampa.
“More than 371,000 hectares are occupied at the present time. The Association has 2,902 colonists there, represented by 3,597 families of farmers, by and with whom there live as workers, artisans or merchants a further 2,251 other Jewish families. The Jewish population of the colonies istherefore 5,848 families, embracing 33,124 souls.
“This population, which has settled progressively on the land for almost the last 40 years, and among which there are 759 emancipated colonists, owning 120,000 hectares, is growing every year through enhancement by a large number of new working folk; sons or relatives of the colonists already settled, laborers or workers coming to establish themselves in the centers and the villages. To it alone the Jewish Immigrant Protective Society has directed 596 newcomers onto these groupings.
“A good many others have gone there with their own means; local committees have assured them lodging and food pending their ability to find work.
“However, neither all the children born on the land of the colonies, neither all the 7,534 Jewish immigrants landed in Argentine in 1926 can expect to conquer in a few years a flourshing agricultural exploitation. The immigrants in particular, are not, in the immense majority of cases, agriculturists; they are not even, quite often, capable of becoming such. However, they have been able to create a hearth for themselves; this country, where forty years ago there were but one thousand Jews, today has more than 200,000 of them. Bucnos Aires has become a center of Judaism, in the Argentine provinces, where large Jewish agglomerations have been created.
“I believe,” Mr. Phillipson continued, “we are entitled to state that this flourishing condition is due to a large extent to the fertile work of our founder, Baron de Hirsch. The existence of the agricultural colonies has attracted Jewish immigrants to Argentine; a good number of them have been able to establish themselves there; others have been moulded in our schools, assisted and instructed by the local beneficent societies, saving and loan institutions, etc. The courses and the lectures, the sporting associations, the libraries, all these have contributed towards their apprenticeship, and they have swarmed into a country where the Jewish population, persevering and hard-working, has been able to make an honorable place for itself.”
The president quoted from ‘La Prensa,” Argentine newspaper, which wrote: “The Jewish people constitute a valuable element of our population; they are hard-working, intelligent and loyal and may well serve as an example to a good number of our fellow citizens.”
“Faithful to Jewish tradition,” Mr. Phillipson proceeded, “the Jewish Colonization Association has at all times taken unto itself for first and foremost consideration the solution of the problems concerning the social life of the Jews, their religious aspirations and the education of their children.
“In Brazil we are acting in the same way. The advantages won there have not been so outstanding as in the case of the results achieved by the work in Argentina. They are real, nevertheless, and the situation has improved perceptibly in the course of the last year. There is nothing that better vouches for the confidence with which the colonies are imbued than the increase of 1,301 souls ascertained in the total population, of 2,118 persons today.
“The progress achieved by Brazilian Jews is, moreover, quite remarkable. Under the impetus from the special delegate that we sent in 1924 to organize our educational and moral work in this country, a great many Jewish communities have been formed which, quite soon, will be able to receive thousands of immigrants. There are already 19 Jewish schools in the country.
“We have every right to be proud of these creations, which, already, are rendering signal services to Jewish immigration. 3,906 Jews landed in Brazil last year, in the ports of Rig de Jeneiro and Santos alone (as compared to 2,624 in 1925). Out of these 273 went over to our colonies, while the others, helped by various committees, have spread into the country. It is interesting to note in this connection that in all the localities of any importance where Jewish immigrants have estabished themselves there are Jewish schools, now in operation opened thanks to the J. C. A. and subsidized by it; about 800 children attended them last year ah?ady.
“Our work of colonization in Canada, performed in 1926 outstanding service with marked progress. Our groupings there have prospered and do not cease improving their equipment and their methods.
“Likewise the schools and the 14 courses of religious instruction that we are subsidizing in this country bear witness to great vitality. The Jewish immigration is being borne more and more towards Canada, where 4,825 Jews landed last year.
“For a long time the Ica has occupied itself with colonization in the Holy Land where it shared in the management of vast domains opened to Jewish agriculture by Baron Edmond de Rothschild. The Palestine Jewish Colonization Association today administrates these colonies, which are developing in accordance with our expectations. The centers founded in Palestine thirty years ago and more, today appear among the most prosperous of the country,” Mr. Phillipson stated.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
