Philippson Colony

Rio Grande do Sul Brazil - JCA

History
Location
Resources
Links&References
Videos

Philippson Colony

History
Location
Resources
Links&References
Videos

Dedication

In loving memory of my father Enrique Wendichansky z"l and my grandmother Frida Druck de
Wendichansky z"l who was born in Philipson in 1907.

Links

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Compiled by © Paola Khalili Updated November 2017

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History

The first colony in Brazil, with an area of 4,472 hectares, was Philippson, in the region of Santa
Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, in 1904, consisting of 37 families (267 persons) from
Bessarabia.Through the Jewish Colonization Association and by means of agreements with the
state government, hundreds of immigrants from Eastern Europe settled in agricultural colonies,
following the example of similar colonies established in Argentina from 1893. The first Jewish
school in Brazil was founded in Philippson in 1906, where the official curriculum was taught. In
1908, the colony had 299 inhabitants.

The Jewish Colonization Association (in ídish ICA) was a philanthropic association created by
Baron Hirsch to facilitate the mass emigration of Jews from Russia and other Eastern European
countries to farm on land colonies supported by the Association, especially in Argentina, Brazil
and Canada. It was founded on September 11, 1891.

The first brazilian colony was named after the Director of the Compagnie Auxiliaire de Chemins
de Fer au Brésil, Franz Philippson, Belgian Jewish banker and chairman of the Jewish Colonization
Assoiation at the time. There the JCA set up an office, housed in a former mansion, where the
administrator lived and worked.

The JCA would pay the travel expenses and gave to each settler a lot of 25-30 hectares of land,
field and forest, a dwelling house for each family in their respective lands, tools for agricultural
work, an oxen, two cows, a wagon and a horse. The settler was to repay that amount within 10 to
15 years (plus modest interest) in accordance with the needs of the families.

It was then, however, granted a partial or total reduction in payment of annual installments, where
drought or locusts seriously adverse impact on their crops. Expenditure on administration, schools,
utilities were built by the JCA without any charge on account of the settlers.
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The meager chances of economic success in the settlement, contrasted with the prospect of more
comfortable livelihoods as peddlers or artisans in Santa Maria soon led to the settlement's
disintegration. In August 1926 the director of ICA in Buenos Aires reported that of the 122 families
who settled in Philippson at various periods, only 17 remained. In the 1920s the majority of the
colonists moved to Porto Alegre and other cities in the hinterland of Rio Grande do Sul, such as
Erebango, Pelotas, Cruz Alta, Passo Fundo, Santa Maria, and Erechim, establishing communities
in each one of these cities.

Today remain from Colonia Philippson the Jewish Monument and its cemetery (declared a
National Historic site in 1994), where are buried the pioneers who arrived from Bessarabia. It is
known today as Itaara. In Santa Maria, 14 kilometers far from Itaara, there is the Yitzhak Rabin
Synagogue. The foundation stone of the synagogue in Santa Maria, was launched in 1926. In 1997,
the synagogue has undergone a restoration. Tourists visiting the city of Itaara to know the history of
the Philippson colony, stay in the county, in hostels located close to nature, to a large green and
quiet area.

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Copyright © Paola Khalili | Updated November 2017

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