Aims and objectives
Conducting a systematic survey of archival material that reflects the past of the Jewish communities and organisations in the southern areas of the Buenos Aires and La Pampa provinces. This survey will provide information about the existing material, try to prevent its loss, and offer the opportunity to produce security copies and enable its accessibility for research.
The material, produced since the end of the 19th century, includes: minutes of board meetings, correspondence, publications, original photos, etc., of synagogues, community organisations, schools, financial and production cooperatives of the agricultural settlements; maps of colonisation, etc.
The outcome will be a detailed written survey report which will provide the following information:
- A list of institutions (and towns) in the mentioned area, holding archival materials.
- Detailed description of the archival material, including:
Character of the material: minutes, correspondence, photos, publications, maps, etc.
Years of reference
Format: bound or loose pages.
Number of pages (photos needed) of each unit and of the entire collection.
Where is the nearest and most convenient company for digitisation.
Evaluation of the budget for digitisation. - Disposition of the legal owner of the material to sign an agreement about use by the British Library of the digitised material for research and public use.
- Negotiation with the legal owner of the material whether the originals will be kept in situ or deposited in a professional archive in Buenos Aires (like Fundación IWO).
The outcome of this survey will indicate the possibility to continue to the next step of this project: digitisation of all the registered archival material and the transfer of the copies to the British Library, and to Jewish archives in Buenos Aires and Jerusalem.
If this project of recovering archival material that is in danger succeeds, we hope to continue it in other provinces in Argentina such as Neuquén, Mendoza, San Juan, San Luis, Tucumán, La Rioja, Salta, and others.
Outcomes
The survey submitted as part of the project. It provides a detailed list of all the existing material in the visited institutions, a total of 28,000 bound pages (e.g. minutes books), 15,500 loose pages (correspondence) and 6,000 photographs. The survey, in the cases of Tandil, Medanos, Tres Arroyos, Suarez and Rivera, reflects remaining material, since important segments of documentation have been lost.
