Some historians tell that on the arrival of the passengers of the S.S. Weser that founded Moises Ville, it already existed maybe for one year, an establishment of Jewish colonists that has passed into history with the name of Monigotes la Vieja. They were colonized through the former Banco Colonizador (settler bank) that registered the colony in 1888. After two or three years the short-lived colony was abandoned. The data are very few, it is not mentioned with accuracy where it was located, who were the residents nor what their later destination was.

I can bring forward some data after a more or less successful investigation, the location, the approximate date of founding and the names of some of the inhabitants. The location may be located on the map of Moises Ville Colony: In the Jewish Colonization Association maps it appears as “Banco Colonizador", on the official maps it appears as “Colonia Alvaro Istueta” since this was the way it was registered by the bank, and in the popular jargon the place was called Monigotes la Vieja.

Colonia Moises Ville

Monigotes la Vieja was founded by two Jewish immigrants of the Bessarabian group that arrived in Argentina on board the S.S. Karlsruhe on Dec 12 1889, coming from Bremen. They were Mr. Jacobo Leibovich and Mr. Hirsch Guibert. With this certain date of arrival it can be concluded that the colony was founded as very soon, in the first months of 1890. According to Adolfo Leibovich's story, son of one of the founders, his father exhausted the possibilities of support in Buenos Aires to be colonized, and he traveled looking for some chance to Esperanza, Santa Fe, that was already an established and strong Swiss agricultural colony.

There he knew to Mr. Alberto Gaffner, Swiss proprietor of a warehouse in the vicinity of a sawmill that provided sleeper-ties for the railroad San Cristobal-Tucuman (Belgrano line). The sawmill was placed in an area between Moises Ville and San Cristobal. Both negotiated with the Banco Colonizador the possibility to support the mentioned families, and it was as well as after a long trip Buenos Aires-Sunchales, and two trip days in cart, arrived to the assigned place, a clearing amid the forest where the sawmill and the warehouse were also located.

Leibovich & Guibert families, photo by Ernesto Schlie, 1890

During the following year Mr. Jacobo Leibovich was able to incorporate into the colony several members of the Alliance group that had settled down in Santa Fe city and in Esperanza. Several colonists belonging to the group of the S.S. Weser also were incorporated. The colony was soon dispersed after only two years (1891). The only colonist that remained for several years was Mr Samuel Rotman with a small warehouse that his wife took care of armed with a revolver when her husband was away from home.

The following the residents have been identified up to now:

Alliance Group, 1888: Simon Wofsi.

Weser Group, 1889: Iankel Vinokur, shojet, and Samuel Rotman.

Group Bessarabia-Rumania, 1889: Moshe Jach, Hirsch Guiber, Jacobo Leibovich.

Mr. Tuchman and Mr. Retaj, murdered, and Mr. Kaminsky and Mr. Furst.

Samuel Rotman's genealogical tree is included in this work. We hope to be able to complete those of Leibovich, Wofsy, Guibert and Vinokur, all of which there is little data, and identify the other residents which totaled about forty

Casa Israelita Monigotes - Ernesto Schlie, 1890

"Casa Israelita Monigotes" (Jewish house Monigotes), photo by Ernesto Schlie 1890

Historical Museum, Esperanza

Copyright © 2008 Mario N. Jeifetz.