20,000 Jewish Farmers in Argentina Now Comprise Ten Percent, of Total Jewish Population in Country,

That there are now in Argentina over 20,000 Jewish farmers, who make up one-tenth of the total Jewish population of the country, was stated at a meeting of the Jewish Colonization Association here recently by Leonard L. Cohen, recently elected its president. Mr. Cohen declared that the Argentina Jewish colonies that are supported by the “Ica” are prospering to the same degree as the surrounding Christian groups and that the new generation which has grown up on those farms is used to working the soil and is not drifting to the cities, as some claim.

Reporting on the efforts of the Ica to settle Jews on farms in Brazil, Mr. Cohen stated that while the poor crop there last year disappointed the colonists, the immense majority of them nevertheless revealed a spirit of good faith and perseverance and that the future of Jewish colonization in Brazil may be viewed with confidence. The Ica has practically unaided created in Brazil institutions of credit, immigration committees, language courses, religious and secular schools and synagogues.

With regards to the prospects of Jewish colonization in Canada, Mr. Cohen says:

“Canada is a country that opens up splendid perspectives for Jewish immigration. It is a land of agriculture and hospitality, with unlimited resources. Our efforts there must go on to completion, to a full realization of our purpose.”

The report also reveals that the “Ica” had an interest in 2,024 Jewish agricultural enterprises in Poland, located in ninety different places, with a total surface of nearly 21,000 hectares. In Bessarabia 2,515 families who possess over 27,100 hectares, took advantage of the “Ica” services. In Russia the “Ica” helped during the past year 6,896 families of farmers who are spread over an area of 110,596 hectares.

“As regards the ‘new’ colonization families, there were 2,393 at the end of 1928, 628 of them having been established in the course of that year,” says the report. “The majority of them seem to have struck root definitely. The endurance of these former town-dwellers is worthy of admiration. Little accustomed to rude physical labor, they have not allowed the poor crop of 1928 to discourage them and have planted 16,451 hectares of wheat, truck-gardening and other crops. In this they have had the help of the association and the cooperation of the authorities.”