Ancestors

We descend from four families: Sigal, Finkelstein, Salzman and Gueler.

Historical Background

Before emigrating to Argentina they lived in the Jewish Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire.

The Pale of Settlement was established by laws of 1795 and 1835. Most of the jews living in the Russian Empire, in particular, those living in the Western part of the Empire were forced to live within the boundaries of the Pale. The Pale included territories now belonging to Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, Byelorussia (White Russia), Western Russia, and the Moldavian Republic (Bessarabia). By 1885 there were over four million jews living in the Pale. In 1882, half a million jews living in rural areas of the Pale had been forced to leave their homes and to live in towns and villages (shtetls).

Also a quarter million jews living in the western part of Russia were moved into the Pale. 700,000 jews living East of the Pale were driven into the Pale by 1881.

The jews did not have the rights of citizens. Except for some special cases, they were not allowed to own land and they were confined to only certain occupations. There was a quota system limiting the access of jews to the state high schools. As a result, only a very small number of those willing to study were accepted.

The Russian state, promoted assaults by Cossacks to Jewish settlements, which involved slaughter, rape and looting. To escape from these terrible conditions, from 1880, an exodus of Jews began to Central and Western Europe, to the United States, to Palestine and to South America (mostly to Argentina). Over two million Jews emigrated.

The emigration to Argentina was organized and supported by the Jewish Colonization Association (JCA). It was founded by a wealthy French philanthropist, Baron Maurice de Hirsh. He made his fortune building railroads, in particular, in the Balkans and Turkey. Upon the death of his son and only heir, he decided to devote his fortune to help the emigration of his fellow Jews from the Pale of Settlement.

In Argentina the JCA purchased agricultural land for the colonies, assisted families to emigrate and organized the colonies, creating religious, cultural and self help institutions (such as cooperatives to purchase seeds and sell the crops). The JCA provided experts such as agronomists to advice and guide the colonists. This was necessary since most of them had no farming experience.

Staring in 1891 the JCA organized jewish colonies among them Moisesville in the Province of Santa Fe and in the Province of Entre Rios (Dominguez) and in smaller scale in other provinces.

At the beginning life was very difficult, but in the conditions of political and religious freedom that they encountered, they were able to overcome all the difficulties and pull ahead. The Russian Jews became the Jewish Gauchos.

I-Sigal-Finkestein

My grandfather, Bernardo (Berl) Sigal and his wife (my grandmother) Clara (Chaia) Finkelstein, emigrated from Turjisk in Volhynia, now part of the Ukraine, with three sons and three daughters. See chapter on Volhynia and Turjisk

Berl (Bernardo) Sigal (born in 1857) was the son of Iakov Halevy Sigal and of Rosa Broder. They settled in Moisesville in 1894. Berl came first and shortly after the whole family followed. Clara was the daughter of Abraham Finkelstein and Guitl Peckler and was born in 1857. Clara and the children started the transatlantic trip in Odessa (Russia) in the ship Bosforo bound for Genova (Italy). There they took the ship Orione bound for Buenos Aires.

In Moisesville, with the help of the JCA, through a long term mortgage, they bought a 250 acres farm close to Moisesville and, in addition, a 12 acre property closer to the village, where they had their home and orchard. Our family owned the farm until about 1950, when it was sold to a jewish cooperative of cattlemen.

The following were the children, the ages are upon arrival in Argentina:

Schulim (Simon?), age 17, He died before I was born, and I never herd about him until 2001, when in a visit to Moisesville I was able to find this information.

Nachman, age 10, ditto.

Ruvien Leib, age 3, who took the name of Luis. He studied dentistry and started his practice in the city of Rosario. At about 1929 he moved to La Paz, Bolivia, where he became a successful businessman and finally Buenos Aires where he died. His wife was Sara Levin and they had three children, Bernardo, Victor and Haydee.

Reisa, age 19, who took the name of Rosa and married Abe Feldman. They lived in the city of Rosario and had the following children: Pedro (1897), Catalina (1901), Jacobo, Israel, Sara (1899) Faivel (1902) and Luis. Rosa eventually divorced Abe. Faivel died as an infant.

Ruchla, age 7, who took the name of Raquel. She married Julio Waisman and they moved to Cordoba, Argentina. Julio after the death of Berl Sigal, rented the family farm from the heirs, and managed it with the help of a nephew of the Waisman family. They had the following children: Jacobo, Mauricio, Luis, Abraham and Rosa.

Suva, age 5, who took the name of Sara. She married Jose Samban, who was a carpenter. They moved to Cordoba. Jose worked for one of the railroads. Their children were: Abraham, Berta, Raquel and Bernardo. Sara died at about age 40.

In Moisesville three more sons were born:

Moises, my father born on October 1, 1896. After elementary school in Moisesville he had to move to the city of Rosario to attend secondary school, since in Moisesville there was only an elementary school. He attended the

“Escuela Industrial de Rosario” where at the same time with the high school courses he could take technical courses. He took mechanics. Upon graduation he was a mechanical technician. He decided to continue with an university educacion. For this he moved to the city of Cordoba, where he attended the school of Engineering of Cordoba University. He earned his degree in Civil Engineering in 1921, and shortly after, through competitive examination, he became a professor in the school of Engineering. With a schoolmate, Julio Barros, he founded the construction company Barros & Sigal. They built roads, bridges, railroads, tunnels, buildings, all over Argentina for the federal or state governments, for the railroads, oil companies, etc.

Moises married in 1926 to my mother, Sara Salzman. Her parents were Benjamin Salzman and Rosa Gueler. She was born in 1903 in the city of San Nicolas in the province of Buenos Aires. Her family one year later moved to the city of Zarate in the same province and later to the city of Buenos Aires. Shortly after, they settled in the city of Bellville in the agricultural area of the Province of Cordoba, where Benjamin Salzman had a general store. When Sara finished elementary school the family moved the city of Cordoba where Benjamin established a furniture store. Sara attended the Normal School. The Normal School trained teachers and she earned her degree there. At the same time she went to a music conservatory to study music and piano. She received a certificate from that school. She became a housewife, until the death of Moises The children were : Jorge Bernardo (myself), April 19 1927, Carlos Eduardo, February 26, 1929 and Hector, June 30, 1930.

Moises died on August 17, 1938 of heart attack. He is buried in the Jewish Cemetery of Cordoba, near the graves of his mother, Clara and his sister Sara Sigal de Samban both of whom died in 1929.

Samuel (1899). He was supposed to stay in the farm to succeed the father and was not sent to a city for secondary education. But he became selfeducated and participated in the intellectual life of Moisesville. He gave his occupation as a writer and gave lectures about literature in the Moisesville library. After the father died he left the farm with his mother and moved to Cordoba. He finished high school in a short time and went to Cordoba University where he graduated as a dentist. He gave up dentistry to go into business in Bolivia. He married Ana Gotfried, and moved to Buenos Aires where he had an insurance agency. He had two children: Silvia and Pablo Ernesto.

Pinjas, (born in Moisesville in 1902) who died young of pneumonia

Berl died in 1922 in Moisesville and is buried in the Jewish Cemetery of the colony.

Two cousins of Clara Finkelstein, at about the same time that she emigrated to Argentina, came to the US and settled in Denver where they opened a garment factory. For few years there was an exchange of correspondence between the Finkelstein brothers of Denver and the Feldman children of Rosario.

They are now descendents of the Sigal-Finkelstein family living in Argentina, France, USA, Israel, Switzerland and Australia.

See the Sigal family tree and the section on the origen of the name Sigal