Brazil Has Room for Jewish Immigrants, Ica Representative Reports

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

The Republic of Brazil has unparalleled opportunities for Jewish immigration according to a report submitted to the Anglo-Jewish Association, by Rabbi Raffalovitch, representative of the Jewish Colonization Association.

“In the near future Brazil may become the home of many thousands of Jews,” he stated. Rabbi Raffalovitch urged that steps be taken with a view to organizing Jewish communal life in Brazil. Unless certain safeguards are taken, Brazilian Jewry may become a menace to Jewry as a whole, the Rabbi stated, declaring that there are no synagogues in the country. A prospect exists of establishing a synagogue in Rio de Janeiro, he said.

The representative of the Jewish Colonization Association complained in his report that Jewish immigrants taken generally are not eager to go on the land. “As in Palestine, the great in-flux of immigrants in recent years was of the middle class type, who became disappointed and consequently there began a Jewish emigration from Brazil.

“Brazil has room for people who want to work hard,” be concluded.

Leonard Montefiore stated that the Ica colonies in the Argentine are prosperous and that the Association has acquired new land in Canada. The Association has also intensified its agricultural work in Poland and in Russia. Russia, Mr. Montefiore stated, offers the easiest opportunity for colonization as compared with the standards in Palestine, Argentine, Brazil and Cannada.