Alpersohn, Marcos
ALPERSOHN, MARCOS
ALPERSOHN, MARCOS (Mordecai ; 1860–1947), Argentine farmer and Jewish writer. Alpersohn was born in Kamenets-Podolski, Russia. His father, Israel, was a shoḥet and melamed. In his youth Alpersohn was a maskil, writing Hebrew articles in the Jewish press. In 1891 he emigrated to Argentina and settled in Colonia Mauricio, the first agricultural colony founded by the *Jewish Colonization Association (ica). From the very outset he wrote pamphlets in Yiddish under a pseudonym criticizing the ica administration. After 43 years in Mauricio, he began to spend winters in Buenos Aires but remained on his farm during the summer.
Alpersohn was a prolific writer. In his three volumes of memoirs ("The ica and Its 30 Years of Colonization in Argentina"), novels, plays, stories, and newspaper articles, he described with much color the life of the Jewish farmers in the ica colonies. He is considered one of the outstanding Yiddish writers of Argentina.
bibliography:
M. Alpersohn, Colonia Mauricio (n/d); H. Avni, Argentina ha-Aretz ha-Ye'udah (1973).
[Efraim Zadoff (2nd ed.)]