ESENT I PR AR D N A I R A

Questmesor ah CHOLENT WITH THE GAUCHOS TEXT AND PHOTOS BY Ari Greenspan and Ari Z. Zivotofsky

lthough all of us have heard about We knew there were large fascinating or far-flung Jewish communities Jewish communities in the big around the globe, it’s always hard to imagine cities of Argentina, but entire something so different from how we live. Even kehillos of Jewish ranchers Aseasoned travelers like ourselves who have become acquainted with a range of Jewish communities would not be quite prepared on the vast South American for what we were to find in the most unusual Jewish town of Moises Ville on the pampas of pampas? Although today the Argentina. Argentina, initially settled by Spanish town of Moises Ville is but a conquistadors in the 16th century, is a huge country taking up most of the lower half of remnant of its Jewish heyday, South America. For North American and European-centric Jews it might be difficult we were able to meet the last of to imagine that Argentina has the sixth largest Jewish community in the world, with over 200,000 Jews. But it wasn’t the large the Yiddishe gauchos, whose and vibrant kehillah in Buenos Aires that piqued our interest. After driving close to grandparents fled from pogroms 400 miles over dirt roads, with cows in every direction and open grassy, fertile plains as and oppression to stake out their far as the eye could see, we finally passed the sign welcoming us into Moises Ville, a hamlet turf in the Southern Hemisphere with just over 2,000 people including about 200 Jews. Yet in the 1940s, nearly the whole

MISHPACHA 65 Cholent with the Gauchos

town of about 5,000 was Jewish. How did would not be kosher. But the richness of women’s balcony of the Brenner shul on gift, the group of shochtim gave us a to drink. The Jews would not eat the an entire Jewish city come to be in these the culture, the unique location, and the Yom Kippur and spend the entire day huge piece of prime cut meat. On Erev nonkosher meat some friendly gauchos rural South American plains, and then inherent kinship of the Jewish People there. Shabbos we bought some vegetables offered them, and instead survived on a

practically disappear within the last 70 combined to make it an intriguing and en- For sleeping accommodations in the F and eggs, and presto, a cholent was up few hard cookies that had to be soaked years? joyable Shabbos. tiny hamlet, we were directed to a small 1. and cooking. Actually, obtaining the to become eatable. They were living in Before arriving, we contacted a member bed and breakfast that is owned by a frum vegetables wasn’t as easy as we thought, boxcars in Palacios’s unfinished train Cholent to Go We immediately knew of the local Jewish community, Judit absentee landlord and so there were because every store in town is closed for station when Dr. Wilhelm Lowenthal, there was something special about this Blumenthal. She and Batsheva Fischer, mezuzahs on all of the rooms. Although siesta from 12 to 4. Finally, a friendly a Jewish European doctor hired by the town when we noticed the street signs who were our hosts and tour guides, are wherever we travel, we always come teenager who wanted to be kind to Argentinean government, found them with names like Baron Hirsch, Estado experts in every aspect of the history of prepared for Shabbos with challah, wine, some foreign tourists woke his mother floundering after 62 of them, mostly de Israel (the State of Israel) and Hertzl this sleepy town and know every nook salami, and gefilte fish, we also enjoy to sell us some produce (he’d obviously children, had already died of typhus, Street, and saw Hebrew engraved on some and cranny. Batsheva is fifth generation preparing something fresh that we can never heard of Dama exposure, and malnutrition. There was of the buildings from the early 1900s. Moises Ville, has never been to Israel share with the locals. Assuming there 2. ben Nesinah of of course no Jewish cemetery yet, so the Even the elaborate theater building bore (though she hopes to come soon) and would be no kosher food to be found, we F Kiddushin 31a, who bodies of these children were stored in the Yiddish sign “Farain Kadima” — the yet, having learned in the local Jewish brought along a shechitah knife and some refused to wake his kerosene cans until a cemetery was later Kadima Association. In order to really get teacher’s seminary, speaks fluent Hebrew. kashering salt and were hoping to buy a father to sell a Parah established. to know this obviously Jewish (or former- Her grandfather’s grandfather was among Muscovy duck (see sidebar), or at least Adumah). The survivors of this particular group ly Jewish) town and its unusual history, the original settlers, although when he a chicken, and shecht and prepare it for moved a few miles over and founded what we decided to spend Shabbos there and became a widower, he made aliyah and Shabbos. But luck was with us and our Swindled In the would become the town of Moises Ville. join the remnant community for davening died in Jerusalem in 1917. Not religious chalaf was unnecessary. We had stopped late 1800s, hundreds In 1889, when the first Jews arrived, and a Shabbos night meal — even though herself, she wistfully reminisced how at one of the large kosher slaughterhouses of thousands of Jews the Argentinean pampas was a vast, wild we suspected that there would probably as a child she would watch her great- in northern Argentina the day before suffering underterritory, similar in many ways to the not be a minyan and that the food they ate grandmother climb the stairs to the arriving in Moises Ville, where, as a parting the great burdens Wild West of the US. But in Argentina of widespread po- the Jews didn’t have to worry about groms and oppres- Indians because most of the natives had sion immigrated been killed off first by the Spaniards to the US, Western and then by an extermination program F3. Europe, Palestine, of the Argentinean government. The South Africa, and main enemy of the first settlers were the even South America. gauchos, equivalent to cowboys of the In 1881, although there were only 1,200 western US. Wary of the newcomers, they Jews in Argentina at the time, the Ar- killed more than a few of them. It seems gentine president signed a decree pro- that in those early days, the Jews fought moting Russian Jewish immigration. back and killed a fair number of gauchos Eight years later, a group of 813 Jews as well. The two groups eventually learned set sail on the steam ship Wesser to Ar- to put up with each other, and a new breed gentina and to the parcels of farm land developed: Jewish gauchos. 1. LIVING PROOF The old horse-drawn they thought they had bought while in Moises Ville became an essentially hearse of the chevra kaddisha was broken Russia. Jewish city in the middle of the South and rotting, but we could imagine how it The short version of the story of American plains. The Jews who found a separated between life and death through the village streets those first immigrants is that they were safe haven in these territories braved the cheated, arriving only to find that the tough conditions and became farmers land was not theirs. Eventually other and cattlemen, paving the way for other 2 JEWISH COWBOY Zelig, our new friend land was found for them, and so they immigrants who found their way to these and authentic Yiddishe gaucho, proudly made their way by train to Palacios, parts right up to World War II; by 1940 led whatever he knew of the Friday night where the alternate parcels were there were 5,000 Jews in the town. More services located. Aside from the newly procured of these Jewish villages began to develop land, however, there was nothing. No during the early 1900s, and soon entire 3. SIGN LANGUAGE Who would think that tools, no food, no houses, no water swathes of land were almost completely on the pampas of Argentina there would be a town whose streets were named after the Jewish state? 66 MISHPACHA MISHPACHA 67 Cholent with the Gauchos

F4.

of yesteryear are today’s decrepit to grace the town is far from forgotten. His and Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook. He also old haunted houses and boarded up name was Rav Aharon Halevi Goldman, acted as gabbai tzedakah and would raise storefronts. Dogs roam the streets in and the local history museum even bears funds for Torah and charity institutions packs. We continuously recited the pasuk his name. The had one of the first in Europe and Israel. He was niftar on “U’lechol Bnei Yisrael lo yecheratz kelev cars in the town and, as the communal 6 Adar 5692 (1932) and his sefer Divrei leshono,” which is traditionally recited to leader, he had a flashing blue light (that Aharon was published posthumously by protect us from dogs. The dogs literally we saw on display in the museum) his family. came into the library and restaurant and attached to the front. And despite the 4. FROZEN IN TIME While the Baron Hirsch shul is still active, in nearby Palacios — although one even managed to get into the shul, small size and remote location of Moises Empty Spaces We wanted to see what the synagogue hasn’t been used for years — before being promptly ejected. Garbage Ville, this talmid chacham had a halachic was left of some of the satellite towns, and siddurim, and even celebratory pekalach, are cannot be left in cans, lest the dogs get impact that still reverberates today. It was thus drove down a rustic, dirt road from set out to keep the memories alive into them and make a mess. In front under his influence and halachic backing Moises Ville for ten minutes, reaching the of each home there is a tall pole with a that a ban on conversion in Argentina nearest town of Palacios, where the orig- metal basket on top to hold a garbage bag was instituted. He felt that a convert inal settlers first stopped. The unfinished 5. ATTACKED The multiple grave of the beyond the reach of the dogs. On Motzaei could only be accepted if he lived in a fully train station where they encamped is still Waisman family, murdered in 1897, is a Shabbos, we needed to dispose of our observant community — something that there, more than 130 years later. No Jews Jewish. Yiddish was the lingua franca, and even today we communicated reminder of the heavy price of freedom leftover cholent and the local woman in was nonexistent in Argentina. live here anymore, but the synagogue with rudimentary Spanish, Yiddish, and Hebrew in order to make ourselves charge of the hotel told us to just dump it Born in 1853 in Podolia, Russia, Rav building is still standing and there are understood. In fact, on the previous Shabbos, which we spent in Buenos Aires, on the grass. Sure enough we did, and the Goldman received semichah at 18 and even some seforim arranged on shtenders we met a dinner guest in his 80s who spoke to us in Yiddish, recounting his dogs devoured it in minutes. supported himself as a shochet. Asked to in a museum-like fashion — but the thick 5. childhood in a town called Avigdor. He would ride his horse eight kilometers F join as the religious leader of the initial layer of dust on the floor attested to the to and from school, which he attended for just two grades. And although he No Gemaras As strong as Jewish cul- group of 136 families that set out to settle long time since the building had visitors. said he can’t remember a thing of what he supposedly learned, the Jewish ture was, Moises Ville was never a bastion the pampas, it was he who suggested the We took a peek in one of the books and schools were considered the best in the area and he said the non-Jewish of Torah scholarship. Although we looked city be named ”Kiryat Moshe” in honor were fascinated by what we saw. There gauchos would send their kids there too — becoming fluent in Yiddish. through “genizah shmutz” and went of Moshe Rabbeinu who led the Jews to was a letter written by the local rav dated There were many of these small towns, each with at least one synagogue. through many long-closed cabinets, we freedom. That name became transformed precisely the same week we were visiting, Moises Ville had four shuls, a Jewish bank, a Yiddish newspaper, and a teacher’s could find no evidence of advanced Torah into Moises Ville. As a fierce defender only 69 years earlier. The letter — part of a seminary that for many years provided Jewish teachers for all of South books. There was no shortage of machzo- of tradition, he insisted that the Jewish book of handwritten communal bylaws — America. The town’s Jewish school — which wasn’t specifically religious but rim and Yiddish literature, but Talmudic stores in town all be closed on Shabbos. gave permission to the local shochet to produced graduates fluent in Hebrew and Jewish culture — closed two years literature was not to be found. If there And as a recognized gaon, he carried on shecht exclusively for the community. ago, but up until the 1970s had youngsters dorming from all over Argentina were no Torah books, it means the people correspondences from the pampas of While the Moises Ville Jewish cemetery and even some other South American countries. Today, with only about 200 didn’t learn. Nor was there ever a yeshivah South America with the greatest leaders is packed with over 2,000 graves, the Jews left — none of whom remained Torah-observant — the only thing left in Moises Ville despite the many other ed- of the time, including Rav Yitzchak Palacios cemetery was huge but had for the children is a youth group that meets every other Shabbos and attracts ucational institutions the city hosted. Elchanan Spektor, the Chofetz Chaim, relatively few graves, attesting to the about 15 kids, probably the last generation of Jews to live in Moises Ville. Yet the most significant rabbinic figure Rav Shmuel Salant, Rav Shmuel Mohliver, future communal growth anticipated by This community lived and breathed Jewish culture and tradition much more than religion after that first founding generation, although there were some shomrei mitzvos along the way. Today there remains one woman who is careful to eat only kosher. In the mid 1940s, as the prospect of a Jewish state appeared to be on the horizon, Zionist hachsharot were established to teach young people the skills necessary for agriculture in Eretz Yisrael. The community still has a Yiddish library and a huge 700-seat theater called Kadima in the town’s central square. In its heyday, Yiddish plays were performed and Jewish music and community festivals were featured. We noticed a skylight right in the center of the theater, so that during a wedding, a chuppah could be set up under the open sky. The theater is still tended by the municipality, which uses it for public school graduations, and the village’s lone succah is built in the town square out in front. Today, Moises Ville is a shadow of its former glory. The upscale buildings

68 MISHPACHA Cholent with the Gauchos

Duck Soup the founders, but which would never be When he arrived with the initial immigrants realized. In the chevra kaddisha building to Argentina, Rav Aharon Goldman became we found an intricately carved, old acquainted with a common local bird, the BLOWN AWAY Armino broken wooden stretcher to transport (Avraham ben Pinchas Muscovy duck (Cairina moschata). It looks a the deceased and a tefillah of the chevra, Halevi) is a proud shofar- bit different from the ducks we are familiar posted but rotting on the wall. blower, having learned on with, with a strange bump on its forehead, In the larger Moises Ville cemetery, the monogrammed shofar and instead of a quack, it emits a hiss. Since along one fence is a section for infants, he inherited from the a bird needs a mesorah, or tradition, to be including many of the reburied children previous baal tokeia considered kosher, he pondered its similarity who died in that first horrible year. There to other kosher ducks. He was seemingly is a separate section for suicides, where unaware that Rabbi Bernard Illoway of New one can see young men who buckled Orleans had come across this duck in 1862 and then, unsure of its permissibility, had under the pressures in those early years and his engaging smile and excellent guide us home on his bicycle. He pointed asked Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch of and Rabbi Adler of London for their and took their own lives. There is the Yiddish made him delightful to converse to the bike and told us, “My horse died, opinions on the duck’s status. Both forbade it and as a result, until today, it is not white plastered grave of the legendary with. He is also the local shofar blower, this is my horse now,” although in reality accepted as kosher in the US by any kashrus organization. Rav Goldman. There is a section for those and on a visit to his home, he proudly most herdsmen use a pickup in lieu of Rav Goldman, meanwhile, raised the question of its status to the rabbinic world in murdered in the early years. And then, in showed us the old shofar he had inherited a horse today. He led us to his modest 1906 in the European Torah journal V’yalkut Yosef. After impressive halachic reasoning, a different section, is an extremely long from the previous baal tokeia, engraved house, where after Havdalah, he put on his he reached the conclusion that the Muscovy was indeed permitted, despite critics both grave. We were told that it’s the grave of with the words Moises Ville on the side. bombachas, the loose baggy trousers worn at home and abroad. In order to settle the issue once and for all, two birds were put on the murdered members of the Waisman He also showed off ashechitah knife he by gauchos, and his boina, the beret-like a boat and shipped off to Jerusalem for Rav Shmuel Salant to see and pasken on. One family, killed in 1897 by drunken non- inherited from his great-grandfather. cap of the gauchos. But that was merely for bird actually made it alive. Rav Salant initially refrained from ruling on the matter, but Jews who attacked the family in their From our seats across the table on Friday the pictures. His wife is of Jewish Turkish eventually acquiesced and ordered his shochet to slaughter the bird in honor of Pesach; isolated Palacios house. In the ensuing night, we noticed something silver nestled origin from another wave of immigrants a letter was promptly dispatched to Argentina stating that the bird “was being cooked struggle, Gittel, her husband Mordechai in his mighty hand and thought it might and they proudly showed us pictures of in a pot in Jerusalem following the instructions of Rav Salant to his shochet.” As a result, Joseph, their eight-year-old-daughter be a flask of some schnapps. But to our their two kids, who, like most of the next the Muscovy duck is to this day shechted and eaten in Eretz Yisrael. Perl, and three-week-old-son Baruch surprise it was a harmonica; the cowboy generation, have moved on — either to were brutally murdered. The rest of their was soon serenading the group with larger cities in Argentina, or to Israel or children survived. zemirot on his instrument. It wasn’t easy other countries. experiencing Shabbos in this nonreligious The cyclic nature of many Jewish Shabbos Tunes Friday night in Moi- eling partner Ethan Shuman to the amud local population of 2015 — knew little environment, but on some level, Armino Diaspora communities is well described. ses Ville we went to the Brenner Shul to lead Lecha Dodi. Together they sang about or halachah. and his friends were an inspiration — But in the case of these communities on (officially known as the Beit Midrash and harmonized the Lewandowski can- The communal Friday night dinner holding on to tradition as best as they the Argentinean plains, it was particularly Hagadol and currently the only remaining torial Tzaddik Katamar and Zelig glowed was held in a local restaurant. We sipped know how. fast and stark. In the course of 100 years, functioning synagogue, as the main Baron like a man slaking his thirst for Yiddish- our water and ate some fresh vegetables, Meanwhile, we hit it off with Zelig thousands of Jews moved from the Hirsch synagogue is being repaired) to keit. At the end of the service, Kiddush having made Kiddush and washed and and invited him back to our place for Eastern Hemisphere to the Western, observe their Kabbalat Shabbat service. was recited over kosher Argentine wine, eaten a quick Shabbos meal at our hotel Shabbos lunch the next day. We sort and from the Northern to the Southern, There we met a true Jewish gaucho. Zelig but the challah used for hamotzi was from before joining them. Sitting across from of commandeered the guesthouse, put settling the vast, open Argentinean plains. (Luis) Liebenbuk was standing at the bi- a nonkosher Italian bakery. They have us was another Jewish cowboy who a table in the center lobby, and had a They prospered and bore children, who mah, with a smile that lit up the entire been baking the challah for the commu- introduced himself as Avraham ben regular Shabbos seudah. Sitting around grew up and moved on — leaving behind room. He is officially thebaal tefillah but nity for decades and although we tried, Pinchas Halevi. Better known to the locals the cholent, he taught us the ins and outs tens of weathered and empty shuls, is more like a social director. Five days a there was no way to arrange for them to as 72-year-old Armino Seiferheld, whose of choosing a good bull and how much hay closed schools, and libraries gathering week he’s out in the field with his small make it kosher the week we were there. parents fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s, to buy. He told us about the best year of dust. Buildings with Jewish stars dot the herd of 90 head of cattle, and although not A group of 15-year-olds from the he lives in a respectable house surrounded his life, as a single guy working in the barn countryside as weeds reclaim the land. fully observant, he remembers his grand- Jewish school in Tucuman, Argentina, by trees, has leathery skin, and when he on an Israeli kibbutz. “Ich bin an emesdike Leaving Zelig after Havdalah, we father as a shamash and a learned man. was visiting Moises Ville as part of their takes his massive hand in yours you feel Yiddishe gaucho — I’m a real Jewish understood that not only were we finishing He led the congregational singing, point- annual school trip and they also joined us like a warm mitt has enveloped you. Those cowboy,” he told us. Enjoying his company, Shabbos, but that we were watching the ing here and there like the host of a talent for Shabbos. While many of these Jewish hands bespeak a lifetime of hard work. He we invited ourselves to his house to make setting of the sun on another unusual show. Then he coaxed our friend and trav- students spoke Hebrew, they — like the has a herd of 600 cattle at a farm in Palacios Havdalah. He showed up after Shabbos to chapter of Jewish history. —

70 MISHPACHA 13 Kislev 5776 | November 25, 2015