Latin America and the Jewish Refugees: Two Encounters, 1935 and 1938*

Abstract

This chapter examines in detail two specific cases in which the Latin American countries were collectively called upon to take a major part in the solution of the refugees’ problem, looking particularly at their willingness to receive Jewish refugees. Large Jewish agricultural settlement projects had developed there, particularly in Argentina and Brazil. In Uruguay, James G. McDonald found that the immigration laws were “reasonably satisfactory.” The fact that in Brazil as well as in Argentina the Jewish communities were well established and that in both these countries a large number of Jews were already agriculturists and could offer their co-religionists diversified facilities of absorption did not modify the basically negative attitude of those governments toward Jewish immigration. The Jewish organizations constituted the second party more explicitly alluded to in the high commissioner’s reports as being capable of increasing the willingness of the Latin American nations to receive refugees.