Panic Emigration: Jewish Agricultural Settlements in Bolivia and the Dominican Republic, 1935-1960

Although Jewish agricultural settlements have had a long history in Latin America, particularly in Argentina and Brazil, those founded as a result of the panic emigration out of Europe on the heels of World War II are unique. Never before in the history of mankind had the leaders of thirty two nations gathered together in one location to collectively discuss the fate of countless Jewish people. Indeed, the 1938 International Conference at Evian-les-Bains in France, would give rise to the idea of having Jewish refugees settle as agricultural pioneers in lands distant from the turmoil that unfolded in Europe. Jewish refugees were given the opportunity to start life anew as agriculturalists, an occupation most unfamiliar to the Jew, who was, in the main, an urbanized professional or skilled craftsman. Torn from the relative comfort of their European homes by hostile Germans, the refugees attempted to build a new existence under the protection of host countries such as Bolivia and the Dominican Republic. The success, or failure, of the refugee colonies of Sosua in the Dominican Republic and Buena Tierra in Bolivia, is still being debated today, more than a half-century after their establishment, and in some ways provides a model for contemporary studies of similar crises that are currently unfolding in Africa and the Middle East.