Baron Hirsch, An Amazing New Biography

Mathias Lehmann, professor of Jewish History at the University of California, Irvine has just published The Baron: Maurice de Hirsch and the Jewish Nineteenth Century. a biography of Baron Hirsch that fills a major gap, the lack of biographies of the Baron in English. 1

And Lehmann also provides us an eyewitness view of so much of Baron Hirsch’s life, based on Lehmann’s extensive archival research in Austria, Belgium, England, France, Israel, Turkey, and the United States.

The Embankment, Ostend, Belgium 1890s , the resort to which Baron Hirsch was summoned by King Leopold II, Library of Congress.

Readers will enjoy this very readable and delightfully detailed text that describes human beings, not just historical figures. We are able to see the building of transcontinental railroads and the formation of huge refugee projects from the details of the daily activities that led to these achievements, as exemplified by the book’s first paragraph ” At seven o’clock one summer morning in August 1895, Maurice de Hirsch, accompanied by his twenty-nine-year-old son Lucien, set out from Boitsfort, on the outskirts of Brussels, to catch the express train to the Belgian seaside resort of Ostend. The reason for that morning’s journey was a summons by King Leopold II, who was eager to convince the prominent Jewish banker and businessman to invest in the construction of a new railroad in the Belgian Congo.” 2

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  1. Other biographies include Grunwald, Kurt, Turkenhirsch: Study of Baron Maurice De Hirsch, 1966; Frischer, DominiqueEl Moises de las Americas: Vida Y Obra Del Baron De Hirsch (trans from French), 2004; Lee, Samuel,  Moses of the New World: The Work of Baron Hirsch (1970); Rozenblum, Serge-Allian Le Baron De Hirsch: Un Financier Au Service De L’humanite2006 []
  2. Lehmann, Mathias (2022). The Baron: Maurice de Hirsch and the Jewish Nineteenth Century, Stanford: Stanford University Press, p. 19. []

Baron Hirsch’s Brazilian Jewish Farming Communities

This post contains a short history of the first Brazilian Jewish farming communities supported by Baron Hirsch’s legacy and some references. You can read about eyewitness descriptions of these communities aquí.

Disponible en Amazon or at archive.org.

Baron Hirsch established the Jewish Colonization Agency (JCA) in 1891  “to assist and promote the emigration of Jews from any part of Europe or Asia… and to form and establish colonies in various parts of North and South America ….”. And during the Baron’s lifetime, the Agency supported farming communities for Eastern European Jewish immigrants in Argentina, the United States, and  Canada.

But after the Baron died in 1896, bequeathing seven million pounds sterling (equivalent to $US 1.12 billion in today’s dollars) to the JCA,1  a newly elected board of trustees voted to use some of this windfall to expand JCA’s colonization activities to southern Brazil,2where the JCA purchased land in 1902.3

For those willing to emigrate to these colonies the JCA offered to ” cover travel expenses and provide each settler with 25-30 hectares [60-75 acres] of land, a house, agricultural implements, two teams of oxen, two cows, one horse and an allowance that varied in accordance with the size of the family, payable once it had become self-sufficient.”  4

Philippson (Filipson), 720 miles south of São Paulo

Homesteaders first reached the JCA’s first Brazilian colony, Philippson, or Filipson in Portuguese, in 1904. Philippson was located near the city of Santa Maria in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The JCA had not yet built the houses they had promised, so the thirty-seven families were housed in barracks. It took months for the settlers to be assigned land and, once assigned, they discovered it was very hard to farm.

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  1. LESSER, Jeff (1991). Jewish Colonization in Rio Grande Do Sul, 1904-1925, São Paulo: Centro de Estudos de Demografia Historica da America Latina, p. 24 []
  2. GRITTI, Isabel Rosa (1997). Imigração judaica no Rio Grande do Sul: a Jewish Colonization Association e a colonização de Quatro Irmãos, Porto Alegre: Martins Livreiro-Editor, p. 19. []
  3. NORMAN, Theodore (1985). An outstretched arm: a history of the Jewish Colonization Association, London: Routledge & K. Paul, p. 90  Also read an account of the status of the JCA in 1906 aquí []
  4. Falbel, Najman. "Asentamiento agrícola judío en Brasil"  Historia judía (2007) 21, p. 329. []

Archivos genealógicos e históricos de Baron Hirsch

For searching family members in the United States and Canada note:

Online searching is available for Baron Hirsch related genealogical records available through the Center for Jewish History in New York. See this video for instructions. Some complete records are online, and when only a reference to a record is on online you can request the full document from the Center via email at inquiries@cjh.org

Baron Maurice de Hirsch

More Archives

In addition, the genealogical and historical archives described below (alphabetized by city) contain reports and correspondence relating to Baron Hirsch-funded Jewish farming projects and individual immigrants who received aid from the Baron Hirsch charitable organizations. These archives are scattered around the world. Some of the holdings have been uploaded digitally – see the links below – but most are only available on-site.

Para los textos en francés, español y portugués, sugiero copiar y pegar en el traductor de Google. Realmente funciona.

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En una clara mañana de abril

Un viaje judío brasileño

Cover of On a Clear April Morning, A Brazilian Jewish Journey of Immigration

La primera obra literaria que refleja la comunidad judía brasileña finalmente se publicó en inglés. Eso Ya está disponible.

Lea sobre esto aquí, mira el prefacio y el primer capítulo aquí y reservar el traductor, Merrie Blocker, para hablar con tu grupo.

En una clara mañana de abrilpor Marcos Iolovitch, es una historia lírica y fascinante sobre la mayoría de edad. Se establece entre los primeros 20th Los colonos judíos del siglo llevaron a un experimento agrícola desconocido en un rincón aislado de Brasil.

Drama, alegría, desastre, romance y humor llenan esta novela autobiográfica. El joven héroe viaja desde una granja, donde los cultivos no crecerían, a pueblos donde este joven de habla yiddish se enamora, estudia filosofía con los jesuitas y se convierte en un miembro importante del mundo literario de Brasil.

Esta primera edición en inglés incluye aclaraciones históricas de la traductora, Merrie Blocker, una oficial retirada del Servicio Exterior de los EE. UU. Cubren el origen de las comunidades agrícolas judías en los EE. UU., Canadá y América del Sur y las contribuciones de los judíos y otros inmigrantes al desarrollo de un centro intelectual de vanguardia lejos de los caminos trillados.

Agricultores judíos brasileños cuentan sus historias

Israelitas no Rio Grande do Sul

Esta publicación ofrece una descripción de las novelas y memorias que nos dejaron los agricultores de principios del siglo XX del sur de Brasil. Ofrecen representaciones fascinantes de la vida de los inmigrantes judíos. La publicación incluye imágenes, enlaces a más información y una lista de referencias. También incluimos cómo encontrar las obras originales y secundarias en bibliotecas de todo el mundo.
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