B"H

Jewish Tours

Buenos Aires, Argentina

ARGENTINA

ARGENTINA, South American Federal Republic, general population (2004) 39,150,000; Jewish population 190,000.

MASS MIGRATION: 1890–1918

Large-scale Jewish immigration to Argentina began only in the late 1880s, when echoes of Argentina's prodigious efforts to attract immigration reached Eastern Europe. Arriving singly at first, Jews later came in groups, the largest of which (820 immigrants arriving on the S.S. Weser on Aug. 14, 1889) laid the foundation for agricultural settlements. Immigration to urban areas as well as to rural ones increased after the *Jewish Colonization Association (ICA) was established, reaching a peak of over 13,000 persons per year in 1906 and 1912. In the first 15 years 66% of the immigrants settled in agricultural colonies (in 1895, 4,000 of 6,000 Jews; in 1904, 12,000 out of a total population of 18,000). After 1905, urban immigration increased. In 1909 66% of the 55,000 Jews lived in cities and in 1919 80% of 125,000. Most of these immigrants were Ashkenazim, but also many groups of Sephardim came from the Ottoman Empire and North Africa, mainly from Syria, Turkey, Rhodes, and Spanish Morocco. In 1927 it was estimated that there were 20,000 Sephardim in Argentina.

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