International Jewish Cemetery Project - Argentina
Located in west central (Central Pampa) Buenos Aires province, 625 km from Buenos Aires, 60 lm from Carhue, and 20 km from the La Pampa province border, on Route 60. The town, settled by Jews in 1905, is 76 blocks of paved streets, plazas, and monuments. [Recommended: Stay in La Pampa and not the hotel in the town.] The first settler was Mauricio Guesneroff, JCA representative for the settle of "Colonia Baron Hirsch." Surrounding towns of the settlement were Lapin, Montefiore, Philipson, Veneziani, Leven, Clara, and Baron Guinzburg. Clara and Baron Guinzburg are in La Pampa province. The railroad reached the town in 1907. The 1908 population was 186 families. In 1909, it was 251 families. In 1935, there were 5,000 Jews. Population decline started in the 1940s. In 1970 census showed 3,340 people. The 2001 population of 2,900 has 180 Jewish families. The 1924 Sinagoga Baron Hirsch is located at San Martin Avenue and Cordoba Street: Alberto Speier, President of the Jewish Community, tel: (02935) 4-32234. The Jewish Cultural Center is located at 235 de los Colonizadores Street. Tel: (02935) 4-32073. Director: Adelinda Castillo de Alcayaga. [December 2003]
- El Cementerio Israelita de Rivera: Five kilometers from River on the road going south that goes to Huergo Railroad Station (parallel to the train tracks.) Open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. except Saturday. Contact: Gustavo Elman (02935-4-32754) and Abraham Sigal (02935-4-32004) have the cemetery keys and all graves listings. 1,600 graves are found over 4.5 hectares surrounded by a brick wall and a lighted entrance gate with a decorative iron fence. A Hebrew inscription is over the gate on the brick arch. The first burial was in 1915 (settler Arieh Reshtilovsky.) Cemetery contains a WWII memorial. The oldest graves are the first four rows. One section in the center of the cemetery is for child victims of a 1907 typhus and Scarlet Fever epidemic. The section has a large menorah marker. [December 2003]