The Simon Wiesenthal Center submitted the Argentinean Jewish settlement of Moises Ville for inscription as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Center proposed the city, whose name in Spanish means City of Moses, at the World Heritage Committee meeting of the United Nations’ scientific and cultural arm, which will conclude on July 6 in St. Petersburg.

The Center, a human rights organization and the only Jewish organization accredited to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, presented Moises Ville as a successful example of immigrant absorption.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

“Each ethnic and faith community deserves respect for its narrative as a contribution to its host country and to universal heritage” said Shimon Samuels, the Center’s director for international relations, in a statement. “The inscription of Moises Ville would represent acknowledgement of a diasporic best practice as an example for the sites of other ethnic and faith migrant communities around the world.”

Moises Ville was founded in 1899 by Jews fleeing pogroms in the Ukraine. The settlers created an agricultural community, in addition to the Kadima Yiddish theatre, which attracted productions from New York, Warsaw and Buenos Aires. Moises Ville also fostered and cooperative relations with the local Argentinean and Italian settlements. In honor of its 1999 centennial, the Argentinean government declared Moises Ville “a historic village”.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount