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241 — THE JEWISH EXCYCLOPEDLV

241

A^ram Ag^ricultural Colonies

be inliabited by the Twelve Tribes. expressed that "my people be nnl seattered every liiiiii from his possessicui" (Ezek. xlvi. ISj. Partly in conseciuenee of the Syrian wars by which

laws sec Mishnah ('Ar. ix.): Maimonides, " Yad hal.Iazakah." iii. 7, 7. See also Jubii.ee, Sjiemittah.

the nortlieni kiii;;dom washamssed for nearly a century, and partly throu<rh a Moneyed the rise of connnerce and of a nionClass. eyed class in the population, the impoverished pcasjint was forced to mortgage or sell his small farm. Vast estates became concentrated in the haii<ls of a few: they "joined

AGRICULTURAL COLONIES IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC (ARGENTINA)

Strips, which are to

The wish

is

Rise of

house to house and

tield to ticld,"

unscrupulously

dis-

poor, who hired themselves out as laborers or sold themselves and their children into slavery. Against this stati' of alTairs the iirophets, nearly all of whom were themselves children of the people, raised a cry of indignation, vehemently denounein;; the greed of the rich landlords of Samaria and .Jerusalem. Their denunciaticins. while |ierhaps barren of innnediate results, ultimately led to the fornudaliiin of laws directed airainst aggression on the i>art of the ruling classes. Thus, the removal of landmarks is made one of hose great ofTenses against whi( h the <livinc curse is invoked (Dent. xix. 14, xxvii. 17; Hosea, v. 10). Tlie Jubilee year was mainly instituted in order to prevent violent changes in the tenure of lands (Lev. xxv.i'-i it till/.). The land, the law <leclares. properly belongs to YHWIl. who is sole landlord, while all the Isnielites are but his tenants. Institution Therefore the land must not be sold in ofJubiperpetuity. It may be leased, or its lee Year, crops may be sold but in the Jubilee year the laud returns to its original owner. The price paid fora piece of laud must dilfer according tothe numberof eropsexpectcd before the next .Iubil(< the y<ar of release. Tlie original owner may reclaim his property at any time he chooses according to the .Mishnah (Ar. ix. 1), however, not within the first two years after the sale by refunding to the buyer the value of the crops remaining When, through poverty, he is initil the Jubilee. not in a|)osilion to redeem the property himself, the right and the duty of reclaiming it devolve upon hi.s nearest kinsman. Houses in villages are reckoned as part of the groiind; Ihey may therefore be reclaimed at any time, and are released in the Jubilee year. Hut a house in a walled city may be reclaimed only during the first year after the .sale: if it be not redeemed within that i>eriod it becomes the perpetual property of the buyer and is not released in till' Juliilee year. Exception is ma<le in favor of dwellings in F.evitical cities, whic h may be reclaimed at all time's, and are rehasrd in the Jubilee- year. Pasture land around a I-evilieal city may not bi- sold. The release of land as a general institution appears Iiowliere in the earlier litenituri' of the Hible. The ni'arest ajiproach to it is the provision in the scheme of ICzekiel that, while the prince may give away fiarts of his domain to his sons in perpetuity, the unds nceivi-d from him by his servants are to become his again in " the year of liberty " (Ezek. xlvi. 10. 17). The year meant is apparently the seveiilh year. According to the Deuteronomic code (Dent. XV. 7-l:t: also Jer. xxxiv. l-l). it was the vear for the release of debts and the manumission of slaves; the year of .Inbilee seems to bi' modeled upon the Sabbatic year and represents a latir and more comprehensive ilevelopinent. Tin- law was probably never enfon-ed. A(-cordiiig to IhiTalmuil ('Ar. !12^/), thi-.Iuliileee-eased to bservcd « ilh the Iraniportation of till' tnins .Ioi-ilauie tribes by the king of pos,sessini; the

t



—

1

Assyria (I C'hron. v. "Jli). p'or adililional information concerning the rabbinical interpi-i-tation of the

I.— Iti

M. L. M.



l-^xcepting certain .settlements of Jewish farnw-rs in Brazil referred to elsewhere (pp. 21)"), 2ti0), agriculture among the Jews in South America has been confined to the Argentine colonies established by the Jewish t'olonizatiou .ssoeiation of Paris (of which the late I5aron and IJaroness de Ilirsch were the founders and practically the sole stoc-kholders). In August, 1K!)1, by the direction of Baron de Ilirsch, some 3.000 s(|inire leagues of land were purchased in various parts of the Argentine Republic, for SI, 300,000 (£260.000). In all, over 17,000,000 acres were aec|uired. At first the project of settling Russian refugees on a large scale in Argentina met with a jirotest from the government, but the matt<'r was amicably arranged. As early as 1889. independent attempts had been made by certain Jewish imndgrants from Russia to establish colonies in Argentina, but this was not done on a well-ordered plan, and later the.se colonies and colonists were absorbed by the .lewish Colonization Association. The colonies were named for Baron and Biironess Manrici' ile Ilirsch. At first two tracts were set ajiart forcoloni/ation: one, 9 leagues scjuare, situated in the jjrovinceof Buenos Ayresand called Mauricio; the other, in the province of Santa Fe and called MoVseville. C'(donists began to arrive in the sumiuer of isyi in such luunbers that by the end of the year they numbered 2,8.")0. The central administrative oflicc was established in the city of Buenos Ay res; but considerable friction arose between the (olonists and the non-resident executive ollicers, with the result that the very existence of the colony was threatened. There were other dillieulties: the locusts, which were very luimerons. Early Diffi- destroyed the growing crops, and water was scarce. Although the colculties. onies received constant acces.sions. it was necessarv to deport so many discontented colonists to the I nited Slates—800 were deported within about two years— that in October. 18»:{. oidy 2,083 persons remained. Since thin the executive otlice has been reorganized, and although there have been many desertions, due to discontent or to the damage done to the holdings by locusts and drought, as well as to the distance of the farms from the niilroad stations and markets, the number of inhabitants has been slowly but steadily inereasini:. and the condition of the colonists has become fairly comfortabh-. MoTseville, in the province of Santa Fe, is the oldest of the Jewish Agrictdtural Colonii-s in Argen-

4i leagues square,

It was founded by lius.sian inunigrants in 1890. before the establishment of the Ji-wisli Colonization Association, but was reorganized by that a.s.sociation Including till' estates of Virin 1891. Molseville. ginia ami Sania Elena, MoVseville embraces nc-arly tiO.dOO acres r-'-I.O(MI hectaresl. of which 22,.")OOacrisareoecupi<'n Association by the creation of lucerne liclils. Tlies<- fields not oidy favor the rt-aring of cattle, but yield forage which finds a n-ady more luvrlherly portions of Argentina, market in the where fodiler is often seane. The colonv is eqindisianl fnini the two railway slatioiisof Puiaciosuud

tina.