The Generations of Moises Ville
The 100th Anniversary Monument
Photo: thanks to Maia Machtey
In October 1989 was inaugurated at the east entrance to Moises Ville the Centenary Monument. At that time the inhabitants celebrated the centenary of the founding of Moises Ville and the start of the Jewish Colonization in Argentina. The project was designed by Architect Bernardo Resnik, who died tragically, and was built by Mr. Aldo Farias.
In what follows is transcribed the message read on his inauguration, which explains the meaning of every detail of the Monument in the words of the designer.
"On behalf of the Commission of the Centenary celebrations, I greet and welcome all who visit us today to join our party, and also receive with a special greeting to all Moisevillers that from around the country and the world come back today to rejoin their families, their friends, their reference places and their memories.
Our meeting here today, as you know, is to inaugurate the allegoric monument of the centennial of Moises Ville and the Jewish Colonization in Argentina, on a project donated by the architect Bernardo Resnik, a moisesviller resident of Rosario whom we thank his selfless work. Have also offered their projects, in a disinterested way too, Engineer Roberto Gianti and Architect Natalio Kanzepolsky, moisesvillers living in Cordoba and Rosario respectively, whom we also are grateful. The work was done by local artisans and with the invaluable cooperation of the Municipality of Moises Ville.
Architect Resnik description of his project is as follows:
LOCATION: Opposite the factory SanCor in the opposite shoulder. Reason: View from the route in the right side entering Moises Ville.
ISSUE: A "100" entwined with a candlestick, with all the appearance of a ship. Reason: The ship was the means that brought the settlers from Europe, and the candlestick a symbol of Jewish culture.
MATERIAL: Reinforced concrete and steel. Reason: From the practical standpoint are durable materials that require very little maintenance. From a symbolic approach, these materials represent the strength and toughness.
DISTRIBUTION: Two principal planes, the first a ploughshare, while the number "one". The second plane, larger, has two large holes. Reason: The smaller plane symbolizes the time lived in the nineteenth century, the largest plane, the longest lived in the twentieth century. The ploughshare in the nineteenth century is the beginning of agricultural activity. Holes with increasing size as a double "zero" round off the "hundred" and symbolize the progress of the population.
COMPLEMENT: A silhouette of a candelabra, built in pipe and sheet, shaping the mast. Reason: The curve of the candlestick fits into the number "hundred", representing the Judaism which shaped the population. Amid that Jewish life arises the Argentinean flag, the culmination of the work.
So far the explanation of the architect. A clear and concise description for a work of pure lines, severe, without ornate or unnecessary frills. The concepts correspond to the forms and effortlessly may be recognized the 100, the boat, the plow and the candlestick, without doubts and without ambiguity.
There is however a point which I want to point out to you and as you will see it's not just a detail. The architect says, "Holes with increasing size as a double "zero" round off the "hundred" and symbolize the progress of the population."
In correspondence with what is observed this is an ambiguous description, because looking from the right toward the center of the monument, population actually increase, the monument is growing in height. But looking from left to right, reading the zeros after the one, the height decreases ie the population decreases. Is it a mistake of the architect? Is it a separation from the clarity of expression that we observed? I think not.
I think the creator has expressed his doubts, his uncertainty about a problem in his own language, the one of forms and materials. And the problem that expresses, I think, is that the population of Moises Ville possibly advance, but the Jewish settlers of Moises Ville, whom celebrate with its neighbors hundred years since his arrival to colonize this land, are actually becoming less. It is no coincidence that an event of this nature is expressed in some way in the Centennial Monument.
Possibly most moisesvillers, those living in Moises Ville and those living outside, at some point have thought about this reality. It is no accident, for example, that the new honorary moisesviller, Antonio Germano living in Rafaela, author of the book "The goblins of Moises Ville," which is represented in these days in Kadima theater, has placed its action in a disused synagogue about to be demolished and populated by elves who look after the town which have built in life. Nor is it coincidence that three moisesvillers social science scholars have organized with the approval of the commission of celebrations, meetings where you can talk on the topic of immigration, emigration and uncertainty. They interpret that there is an underlying concern and would be good to bring it to light.
I want to end these words with a brief reflection on the migration of Jewish settlers and their descendants in our country. Firstly, in the last fifty years of Argentina's history, has deepened a widespread migratory movement from countryside to city, and the population of Jewish settlements did not have to be excluded from this phenomenon. Subsequently, the creation of the State of Israel called many Jews who recognized in that fact the revival of their ancient homeland. Doubtless there are here two good reasons for the decline of the Jewish population of Moises Ville. But I think there is a third, perhaps the most important: When Rabbi Aaron Goldman named this village, in tribute to who liberated the Jewish people from slavery, and feeling himself released with his arrival in these lands, he was more successful than he imagined.
The years lasted in the colony reaping what the land offered produced a change of mentality in the colonists, free from persecution in their country of origin. It was like the 40 years in the desert. The slave became a free man, the fugitive managed security, the fearful managed firmness, the expatriate had homeland. And if in the darkness of discrimination in the country of origin Jews were allowed only one activity - trade - should not be expected that in freedom and peace of the recipient country continue to develop a single business, farming. Changing frame of mind developed creativity and allowed the settlers' children and grandchildren to exercise freely their vocations, were and are professionals, artists, industrialists, workers, traders, politicians, without the meanness of the obligation to trade to survive. These activities can take place anywhere in the country, and its product is also the result of colonization as was the ear of grain or bale of alfalfa.
I remember the well known poster with the tree portraying the Jewish settlement that says: "even continues to bear fruit." This tree will bear fruit even when there is no Jew in Moises Ville, because these fruits are not only those the earth gives, are all produced by the activity of a free man, and he is free because his father, grandfather or great-grandfather was settled in a country where freedom and peace are the most precious possessions.
Ladies and gentlemen, let us inaugurate the allegoric monument. Thank you very much."
Mario Jeifetz
Friday October 27, 1989
