Spotlight on International Members

JGS of Argentina

The IAJGS board has decided to feature a new column entitled "Spotlight," which will feature new projects by our international members. This spotlight focuses on the JGS of Argentina!

Other Spotlight: Israel: JFRA & IGS - JGS of Great Britain

Sociedad Argentina de Genealogia Judia (JGS of Argentina)

 CEMETERY PROJECT

Information provided by Paul Armony, President JGS of Argentina

Article written by Bill Israel, IAJGS Director

The JGS of Argentina (Sociedad Argentina de Genealogia Judia), under the leadership of Paul Armony, has been engaged in several projects to develop and expand databases of Jewish genealogical interest in Argentina as well as some in Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia and Peru.  These databases include Ship Arrival passenger lists, Cemeteries and burials, Colonial Records, Russian immigration between 1880 and 1889, ketubot registers of some Sephardic Communities, lists of students of the first Jewish schools in the Baron Hirsch Colonies, and more. 

Although the Jewish population of Argentina has declined from a peak of around 310,000 in the 1960s, it is still the largest Jewish population in Latin America, and the sixth largest in the world with a current population estimated at between 200,000 and 250,000, the majority of whom reside within Buenos Aires.  Jews first began settling in Argentina following the expulsion from Spain in 1492, but the period of greatest immigration was during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. 

This "Spotlight" will shine upon the extensive and ongoing cemetery and burial project that is being expanded by Paul Armony to include additional cemeteries and information on Jewish individuals buried in each cemetery.  Armony's Cemetery database includes not just Jewish burials in Argentina, but also in Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia and Peru totaling 305,000 Jewish burials in 85 cemeteries in those countries.  Additional cemeteries and burials are still being found.  The compilation includes not just those interred in Jewish cemeteries, but also Jewish graves in non-Jewish cemeteries.  Not all cemeteries and burials have yet been documented, but the task is continuing at a pace limited only by the number of volunteers to assist Armony with this important work.  Additional volunteers are needed 

Many of these cemeteries are identified in the IAJGS Cemetery Project, but Paul Armony continues to add to the database, and he is undertaking the gigantic task of documenting every individual Jewish burial in Argentina and nearby countries – a total thus far of 305,000 Jewish last names, of which about 72,000 are different last names as can be seen in the following table.  Spelling variations of the same name complicate the task. To make his database manageable and to comply with the Excel limitation of 66,000 records per file, Armony is compiling this combined database into Excel dynamic tables that are alphabetically divided into 5 smaller lists with each sub-list containing no more than 66,000 records. 

The data included in the database is organized by:

• Country

• Cemetery

• Code (number of each date)

• Family Name (last name of husband or unmarried woman)

• Maiden Surname (when available)

• First Name

• Unmarried Last Name

• Date of Death

• Grave location (block, line & number)

• Data Source

Further sub-groupings are by:

• Ashkenazi Cemeteries in Buenos Aires

• Ashkenazi Cemeteries in other areas of Argentina

• Sephardic Cemeteries in Buenos Aires

• Sephardic Cemeteries in other areas of Argentina

• Other cemeteries in Argentina where Jews are interred

• Cemeteries in La Paz, Bolivia

• Cemeteries in other areas of Bolivia

• Four categories of cemeteries in Chile

• Two categories of cemeteries in Peru

• Five cemeteries in Uruguay

Considerable progress has been made since April 2007, in that the total database has grown from 249,667 interments to 305,419 currently.  This table was updated from a previous one to reflect the addition of Jews interred in non-Jewish cemeteries.  These additions (and more are still being added) include gravestones showing a Star of David and also newspaper obituaries identifying the deceased as Jewish.  Paul Armony believes there are still many missing Jewish cemeteries and burials in the "Between Rivers" area, and he is requesting volunteers to obtain them.