Baron de Hirsch colonies. BISCHOFFSHEIM
David B. Neumann
To Jewish Genealogy Listserv. (soc.genealogy.jewish)
April 27, 1996
Some bits of information on Baron Maurice de Hirsch, the philanthropist.
Following information on Baron Maurice de Hirsch is based in part on "The
Timetables of Jewish History" by Judah Gribetz, E. L. Greenstein, and Regina
S. Stein, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.
In 1888 Baron Maurice de Hirsch (1831-1896) est. a foundation under his
own name to foster educational work among the Jews in Galicia and
Bukovina.
In 1891 the Baron de Hirsch Foundation was incorporated in New York State
to administer the proceeds of a $2.4 million endowment est. by B.M. de H.
The fund establishes farm colonies and vocational schools to assist eastern
Jewish immigrants.
Also in 1891 B. M. de H. established the ICA, the Jewish colonization
Organization, to foster Jewish immigration from Russia to Argentina for
agricultural resettlement. The ICA was formed after the Russian government
refused the offer by Baron M. de H. of $10 million to establish a modern
education system for the Jewish people in Russia. (Approx. 5 million Jews in
Russia - 80% in the region of Gallica, then). There are at that time approx.
47,000 Jews in Palestine.
In 1894 The Baron de Hirsch agricultural school is opened in Woodbine New
Jersey. It is the first American secondary school teaching agricultural
subjects.
May of 1895 Theodor Herzel meets with Baron M. de Hirsch but Herzel fails
to arouse the interest of Baron M. de H. in the idea of resettlement of the Jews
of Europe in a country of their own.
In 1902 the Jewish settlements in Moiseville and Mauricio, Argentina,
founded under the auspices of Baron Maurice de Hirsch, and housing over
340 European immigrant families, report successful agricultural
achievements.
In 1909 The Jewish colonization Organization (ICA) acquired 231, 810 acres
in the Quatro Irmaos area of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, for farming. By 1915
1,678 persons had settled there. By 1930 there were very few Jewish settlers
there and in 1965 the land was sold and the ICA activities there ceased.
BTW. for the genealogists: (The following is from the "Verzichniss der von
Salomon Benedict Goldschmidt aus Frankfurt a. M. stammenden Familien,"
by Richard Moritz Meyer and Elias Ullman, September 1879 - (Available at
the Leo Baeck Institute, New York, NY):
Baron Maurice de Hirsch was the husband of Clara Bischoffsheim, (1833-
1899). She was active in his philanthopic activities and carried them on after
her husbands death in 1896. They were married 28 June 1855. Her father
was Jonathan Raphael Bischoffsheim, head of the successful Bischoffsheim
and Goldschmidt banking firm. In 1851 Baron M. de Hirsch joined the
banking institution in Brussels? prior to his marriage. Thus he married the
daughter of the head of the bank. His mother came from Frankfurt. Hirsch
was born in Munich and schooled in Brussels. The Baron's wife, Clara B.,
had two sisters and a brother. Regine, b. 1833, Ferdinand, b. 1837,
and Hortense Henriette, b. 1843.
Clara's mother, Henriette Goldschmidt, b. April 21, 1812, was the
daughter of Hayum Salomon Goldschmidt, 1772-1843, and Caroline Gans,
(1779-1847). Caroline was the daughter of Feist Herz Gans. Hayum Salomon
Goldschmidt was the son of Salomon Benedict Goldschmidt (May 28, 1738 -
April 27 1812)
David B. Neumann
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