International Jewish Cemetery Project - Argentina
SE part of Santiago del Estero province, 179 km from Santiago del Estero and 1,050 km from Buenos Aires. The town dates from 1900 and the opening of its railroad station. In 1910, JCA bought 2,980 hectares in eight lots for eighty Jewish families from Russia and Poland, and a few from Germany. Other Jews purchased land without JCA. Electricity arrived in 1926. Locusts struck in the 1930s along with floods of Rio Salado and droughts. By 1939, twenty of the original eighty families remained in Colonia Dora, growing alfalfa. Even in 2000, transportation in the town was horse-drawn. The 2000 Jewish population was four. December 2003]
- El Cementerio Israelita de Colonia Dora: 1 km from the train station on Maipz Street behind the city cemetery, Isaac Firman has information (03844) 481-029. The cemetery dates from 1910. The iron gate has a white and yellow Mogen David and no sign. Gravestones can only be dated from 1930s but older burials exist near the main entry with newer burials near the back entry. Two obelisks exist, one that of Rabbi Samuel Berco. The last burial was Moisis Saslaver (January 1990) from Aqatuya. [December 2003]
- COLONIA ESPlNDOLA: also see Villa Clara Created together with Bilez in the late 1880s, the colony was abandoned in the 1940s. This farming training site for settlers had a synagogue and library, but only the abandoned cemetery remains. [December 2003]
- El cementerio Israelita abandonado: On the gravel Provincial Route 130 going south from Villa Clara, turn left at the first intersection to a side road. The cemetery is near the first windmill and 300 meters left of the road in a stand of mulberry trees. Public School No. 93 is 100 km from the cemetery that contains thirty memorial markers. The cemetery functioned between 1892 and 1940. Amid wet rice fields until 1999, cattle growing replaced rice in 2000. The weakening iron gate has an unlocked lock. Paths exist but weeds are very tall. Men are buried toward the front, women to the back. Weeds separate the cemetery from the road. Heavy vegetation is destroying the gravestones that are broken or eroding due to weather. Inscriptions are difficult to read. Some are sheet metal with Hebrew inscriptions. People trying to get honey from beehives in the cemetery may have damaged the graves. [December 2003]