RAMIFICATIONS

A few years ago, after a screening of  my documentary Mamaliga Blues (https://www.darkhollowfilms.com/product/mamaliga-blues/), a man came to me and said that he spotted his younger self in one of the photos shown in the film. This is genealogy. Surprising, revealing, it makes us reflect, imagine, put pieces together endlessly.

A genealogical tree ramifies its branches not only into family relationships but also into actions. We can start investigating something and, without knowing where it could take us, end up in a unforeseen scenario. It's beautiful.

I'm writing this because my curiosity was triggered (it's always curiosity at the end, right?) by my own family's history, and now transcends to something else, the immigration of Jews around the globe, and mainly the Baron de Hirsch initiatives. Something that started back in 2005, now dwelves on the Jewish Colonization Association activities.

In 2015 I received a grant from Asylum Arts to produce a film that investigated the first Jewish colony in Brazil, established in 1903, A trip to Philippson (https://www.cassiotolpolar.com/projects). During the research and production process I read Baron de Hirsch's biography, The Moses of the Americas (by Dominique Frischer) and became fascinated by this complex and unique character whose endeavors affected greatly the course of History – but whose life is a bit obscure. 

Baron Maurice de Hirsch

A lesser known character in Jewish and World History, Hirsch's endeavors were highly successful. He was overshadowed by Theodor Herzl, the father of modern political Zionism and was not very fond of the creation of a unique Jewish State as he supported the assimilation and spread of Jews around the globe. Herzl thought Hirsch could be his first and great ally. Both had the energy and interest in making possible for European Jews a new kind of life, but the alliance never happened. They had very different approaches, Hirsch being much more practical and Herzl more idealistic. Nevertheless, his initiatives saved many families from death and were responsible for the creation of a stronger Diaspora, especially amongst Jews originated from the Pale of Settlement (it included Belarus, Lithuania and Moldova, much of present-day Ukraine, parts of eastern Latvia, eastern Poland, and parts of western Russia).

So what will come next? A documentary on Baron de Hirsch's life? Maybe. Let's see where genealogy might take us.

MANY TRIPS TO PHILIPPPSON

Due to my latest film project, A Trip to Philippson, I've been researching about this Jewish colony in Brazil, actually the first one in the country, established in 1904 by the JCA (Jewish Colonization Association), which had been helmed by the late Baron Hirsch. I was there three times between 2015 and 2017. The place where 38 families were placed after a long trip from Bessarabia to become farmers and consequently save themselves from the violent pogroms, is now a peaceful farm. The Philippson Farm has been reduced in size comparing the original 4,472 hectares, but it's still hauntingly beautiful, with its rolling hills, vast green fields, secret rivers and water ponds. It eerily resembles the Moldovan countryside landscape. 

From the old colony days, only a few things remain. The cemetery has been recently renovated and is one of the most important historical monuments of local Jewish history. And at first sight, that's it. The houses, railway, school and synagogue have vanished. But with the help of a guide, we could locate some foundations of the school and synagogue, and then later we heard there is still the mikvah somewhere around.

Philippson is now a profitable example of soy and corn harvesting farm, and no more a colony. One can read stories about it in books, but cannot be witness to its memories. Only a few photographs of that time remain. In A Trip to Philippson, much of these images will be shown.

I was glad to be there and will never forget it. It is there that modern Jewish life in Brazil began, and like most immigration stories, it was not an easy one. The settlers suffered from all kinds of issues, but were successful in surviving and moving onto a new life. 

Philippson was not alone. Experiments like this were held in Argentina, Uruguay, the US, Canada and Turkey. Thanks to the Baron Hirsch and the JCA, many Jews were able to flee persecution in the old World to start anew in a land that was not theirs, but that would soon become their descendants'.