Jewish Colonization Association

Organisation founded in London in 1891 by Baron Maurice de Hirsch to resettle Eastern European Jews on farm colonies, above all in Argentina; now the JCA Charitable Foundation

Jewish Colonization Association
Logo	Baron Maurice de Hirsch, about 1890
Type	Joint-stock company for Jewish emigration and agricultural settlement (JCA or ICA)
Founded	September 1891, incorporated in London
Founder(s)	Baron Maurice de Hirsch
Status	Continues as the JCA Charitable Foundation (registered charity 207031)
Headquarters	Paris until 1949, then London
Area served	Argentina, Brazil, Canada, the United States, Palestine, Russia, Poland, Romania, Turkey, Cyprus
Key people	Maurice de Hirsch (president to 1896); Narcisse Leven (president 1896–1919)

The Jewish Colonization Association (JCA, also ICA; spelt Jewish Colonisation Association in some British sources) was set up in 1891 by the banker Baron Maurice de Hirsch. Its aim was to help Jews in Russia and other parts of Eastern Europe emigrate and settle as farmers elsewhere, above all in Argentina. It also founded colonies in Brazil, Canada, Palestine, Cyprus and Turkey, and ran schools, workshops and loan societies in Russia, Galicia, Poland and Romania.

The JCA began as an alternative to Zionism rather than a part of it. Hirsch put his money into Argentina rather than Palestine and turned down Theodor Herzl. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, when Chovevei Zion and later Herzl asked him to support the Zionist movement, "Hirsch regarded the creation of a Jewish state as a fantasy and refused any assistance". After Hirsch died in 1896, however, the JCA became a major backer of Jewish settlement in Palestine. In 1899 it took over Baron Edmond de Rothschild's colonies there, and its Palestine work later passed to the Palestine Jewish Colonization Association (PICA).

Foundation and funding

Theodore Norman's history of the association says that it was incorporated in London on 10 September 1891. Hirsch chose the form of an English company because the Companies Acts required "a minimum of formality". The Memorandum of Association was signed by Hirsch, Lord Rothschild, Sir Julian Goldsmid, Sir Ernest Cassel, Frederick Mocatta, S. H. Goldschmidt, Salomon Reinach and Sir Benjamin L. Cohen. The authorised capital was £2 million in 20,000 shares of £100, of which Hirsch took 19,991. He later left the association a further £7,100,602, of which £5,872,104 remained after death duties. The Encyclopaedia Judaica says the endowment was later raised to £8,000,000. In 1893 Hirsch's shares were divided between the Anglo-Jewish Association and the Jewish communities of Brussels, Berlin and Frankfurt.

The offices were in Paris until 1949, when they moved to London. Hirsch was president until his death in 1896. Later presidents included Narcisse Leven (1896–1919), Franz Philippson (1919–29), Lionel Leonard Cohen (1929–34), Sir Osmond d'Avigdor Goldsmid (1934–40), Leonard Montefiore (1940–47) and Sir Henry d'Avigdor Goldsmid (from 1947).

Emigration

The Encyclopaedia Judaica calls emigration "the cornerstone of ICA's activity". From 1904 to 1914 the association set up 507 emigration committees in Russia, with a central office in St Petersburg approved by the Russian government. In 1927 it formed the migration body HICEM with HIAS and Emigdirekt. From 1933 to 1939 it spent £800,000 on the emigration of Jews from Germany.

Argentina

Hirsch's plan was a mass emigration of persecuted Jews from Europe to Argentina. In 1889 Jewish immigrants bought about 100,000 hectares in Santa Fe province and founded the colony of Moisés Ville. With JCA help, more colonies followed in the provinces of Santa Fe, Entre Ríos, La Pampa and Buenos Aires, mostly before the First World War. The settlers received equipment, instruction and credit, and the JCA built a network of schools. At the peak, in 1930, more than 20,000 colonists farmed about 500,000 hectares. Norman says Hirsch preferred Argentina for "its large, fertile and unpopulated areas and its sound government".

The colonies did not fulfil the plan. The Encyclopaedia Judaica says settlers attacked a system that let them pay off their debts, and become independent, only over a long period, and that co-operatives "led a struggle against the ICA bureaucracy". Many colonists moved to the towns. By 1966 only 8,000 Jews remained in the JCA colonies, which by then were largely non-Jewish. See Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Argentina and Zionist Movement Argentina.

Other countries

• Brazil: colonies in Rio Grande do Sul from 1904, including Quatro Irmãos (1909). Both failed, and the last was wound up in 1965.
• Canada: the Hirsch colony, founded in 1892, and others. By 1910 five main colonies had 777 people.
• United States: the Baron de Hirsch Fund, founded in New York in 1891, became the JCA's main channel there. It set up the agricultural school at Woodbine, New Jersey.
• Russia, Poland and Romania: farm colonies and schools. By 1914 the association had set up or supported some 40 technical and agricultural schools in Russia, and some 680 co-operative loan and savings banks there with more than 450,000 members.
• Cyprus and Turkey: three small colonies for Russian refugee families in Cyprus from 1897, which soon failed; and the training farm of Or Yehudah near Smyrna, closed in 1926.

Palestine

Norman writes that "Hirsch's general inclination was against enterprises in Palestine". He thought it hard and costly to deal with the Ottoman government there, and he did not want to compete with Edmond de Rothschild, who already backed the new Jewish colonies. Herzl met Hirsch in Paris in June 1895 and failed to win him over. When Hirsch died in April 1896, Herzl wrote in his diary: "Among the rich Jews he was the only one who wanted to do something big for the poor ones."

Six months after Hirsch's death, the JCA's council was asked to lend to colonies in Palestine set up by emigrants from Russia. From 1896 it aided independent colonists at Gedera, Hadera, Nes Ziona and Mishmar HaYarden. In 1899 Rothschild transferred to it the colonies he supported, with 15,000,000 francs for their development. He chaired a Palestine Commission in Paris that ran them. The JCA also bought land in Lower Galilee and founded Yavne'el, Beit Gan, Kfar Tavor, Ilaniya (Sejera) and other villages. The Encyclopaedia Judaica says its work there "was continuously attacked by Zionist opponents who accused it of inept management, wasted funds, and diverse aims".

In 1923–1924 Rothschild set up the Palestine Jewish Colonization Association (PICA), which took over the colonies. The JCA returned to Palestine after the 1929 riots. It set up Emica with the Emergency Fund, which founded Kfar Warburg and other settlements. The leading Zionist Chaim Weizmann welcomed the agreement in a 1933 letter. In 1955 Emica became "ICA in Israel". The Encyclopaedia Judaica says the state became its main field of work, alongside the Jewish Agency in Upper Galilee and some 30 immigrant settlements. It also gave grants to Mikveh Israel, ORT and the agricultural faculty of the Hebrew University.

Today

The association continues in London as the JCA Charitable Foundation, registered charity 207031. The Jewish Virtual Library says its funds "are now largely directed to agricultural projects in Israel".

See also

• Palestine Jewish Colonization Association
• JCA Charitable Foundation
• Mikveh Israel
• Jewish Colonial Trust
• Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Argentina
• Zionist Movement Argentina
• Anglo-Jewish Association