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| ==Definition== | |||
| Zwi Migdal was a criminal organization of Jewish gangsters specialized in prostitution and trafficking of white women from the poor shtetls in Europe to the world. In its heyday, after the First World War, it counted with 400 members in Argentina alone, and made annual profit of 50 million dollars in the turn of the century. Its centre was Buenos Aires, with branch offices in several locations in Argentina and Brazil; New York City, NY; Warsaw, Poland; South Africa; India; and China. | |||
| ==Origin and Meaning of the name== | |||
| Originally called Jewish Mutual Help Warsaw Society, the organization changed its name to Zwi Migdal in the late 1890s, when the Polish Embassy made an official complaint to the Argentinian authorities regarding the use of the name Warsaw. | |||
| Zwi Migdal means "strong power" in yidish, and this name was chosen also to honor Luis Migdal, one of the first founders of the organization. | |||
| ==Background Information== | ==Background Information== | ||
| Thousands of naive, impoverished Jewish girls from eastern Europe were sold by Jewish mobsters into sexual slavery. Originally believing they were leaving their homes to get married. Most of these women were from poor families, their parents hoping for a better life for their daughters, were shipped off to various locations. |
Thousands of naive, impoverished Jewish girls from eastern Europe were sold by Jewish mobsters into sexual slavery. Originally believing they were leaving their homes to get married. Most of these women were from poor families, their parents hoping for a better life for their daughters, were shipped off to various locations. This kidnapping, rape and forced prostitution of young Jewish women lasted from the end of the 1860s until the start of the Second World War. | ||
| This hugely profitable (annual revenues of $50 million in the 1890s) commerce in flesh was operated by the Zwi Migdal, a criminal association It was centred in Buenos Aires, with branch offices in several locations in Brazil; Buenos Aires, Argentina; New York City, NY; Warsaw, Poland; South Africa; India; and China. | |||
| The first boatload of young Jewish women arrived in Brazil in 1867; by 1913, there were 431 brothels in downtown Rio alone. | The first boatload of young Jewish women arrived in Brazil in 1867; by 1913, there were 431 brothels controlled by the Zwi Migdal in downtown Rio alone. | ||
| Three women - |
Three women - largely illiterate, bitterly poor and despised by the mainstream Jewish community - banded together to form their own benevolent society: the Chesed Shel Ermess, or Society of Truth. At the forefront were Sophia Chamys, Rachel Liberman and Rebecca Freedman, who also managed to get to a police station, and provide testimony which helped an honest cop destroy the Zwi Migdal in Argentina in the 1930s. | ||
| * Sophia Chamys - was 13 when her father arranged her marriage to a well-dressed stranger from Lodz. She died at the young age of 18. Sophia's "husband" was, in fact, a wheeler-dealer in an international prostitution ring - Zwi Migdal. Chamys ended up, locked in a whorehouse, despised and shunned by the more respectable members of the city's Jewish community, which refused even to give the prostitutes proper burials. | * Sophia Chamys - was 13 when her father arranged her marriage to a well-dressed stranger from Lodz. She died at the young age of 18. Sophia's "husband" was, in fact, a wheeler-dealer in an international prostitution ring - Zwi Migdal. Chamys ended up, locked in a whorehouse, despised and shunned by the more respectable members of the city's Jewish community, which refused even to give the prostitutes proper burials. | ||
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| * Rebecca Freedman - became their leader (the women called her their queen) and made it her mission to perform the sacred tahara ceremony of washing the dead. Deeply religious, she died in either 1984 or 1986, at the age of 103.She was last president of the Society of Truth. | * Rebecca Freedman - became their leader (the women called her their queen) and made it her mission to perform the sacred tahara ceremony of washing the dead. Deeply religious, she died in either 1984 or 1986, at the age of 103.She was last president of the Society of Truth. | ||
| * Rachel Liberman - her statements to Lt. Alsogaray, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, helped Argentinian police to dismantle the Zwi Migdal for a few months in that country. She was born in Poland, 1900 and died in Buenos Aires in 1935. | |||
| * Rachel Liberman - more information needed on this hero. | |||
| THE POLACAS ("POLISH WOMEN" in Portuguese) first organized in 1906, in Rio de Janeiro, setting up the Jewish Association for Charity, Burial and Religion (ABFRI). Their goals, they wrote in the charter, were: "To set up a synagogue, and there practice all the ceremonies of the Jewish religion. To grant sick members in need of treatment outside the city a third-class train ticket and three pounds sterling. To grant members a third-class funeral." In its heyday, the organization existed in several cities, and several rabbis, all since deceased, were in its employ. | THE POLACAS ("POLISH WOMEN" in Portuguese) first organized in 1906, in Rio de Janeiro, setting up the Jewish Association for Charity, Burial and Religion (ABFRI). Their goals, they wrote in the charter, were: "To set up a synagogue, and there practice all the ceremonies of the Jewish religion. To grant sick members in need of treatment outside the city a third-class train ticket and three pounds sterling. To grant members a third-class funeral." In its heyday, the organization existed in several cities, and several rabbis, all since deceased, were in its employ. | ||
| ==Sources== | |||
| Vincent, Isabel - Bodies and Souls, Harper Collins ed., New York. ISBN-10: 0060090235 / ISBN-13: 978-0060090234 | |||
| Kushnir, Beatriz - Baile de Máscaras, Imago Editora, Sao Paulo. ISBN: 8531204852 | |||
| ==External Links== | ==External Links== | ||
Revision as of 22:11, 11 June 2007
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Definition
Zwi Migdal was a criminal organization of Jewish gangsters specialized in prostitution and trafficking of white women from the poor shtetls in Europe to the world. In its heyday, after the First World War, it counted with 400 members in Argentina alone, and made annual profit of 50 million dollars in the turn of the century. Its centre was Buenos Aires, with branch offices in several locations in Argentina and Brazil; New York City, NY; Warsaw, Poland; South Africa; India; and China.
Origin and Meaning of the name
Originally called Jewish Mutual Help Warsaw Society, the organization changed its name to Zwi Migdal in the late 1890s, when the Polish Embassy made an official complaint to the Argentinian authorities regarding the use of the name Warsaw.
Zwi Migdal means "strong power" in yidish, and this name was chosen also to honor Luis Migdal, one of the first founders of the organization.
Background Information
Thousands of naive, impoverished Jewish girls from eastern Europe were sold by Jewish mobsters into sexual slavery. Originally believing they were leaving their homes to get married. Most of these women were from poor families, their parents hoping for a better life for their daughters, were shipped off to various locations. This kidnapping, rape and forced prostitution of young Jewish women lasted from the end of the 1860s until the start of the Second World War.
The first boatload of young Jewish women arrived in Brazil in 1867; by 1913, there were 431 brothels controlled by the Zwi Migdal in downtown Rio alone.
Three women - largely illiterate, bitterly poor and despised by the mainstream Jewish community - banded together to form their own benevolent society: the Chesed Shel Ermess, or Society of Truth. At the forefront were Sophia Chamys, Rachel Liberman and Rebecca Freedman, who also managed to get to a police station, and provide testimony which helped an honest cop destroy the Zwi Migdal in Argentina in the 1930s.
- Sophia Chamys - was 13 when her father arranged her marriage to a well-dressed stranger from Lodz. She died at the young age of 18. Sophia's "husband" was, in fact, a wheeler-dealer in an international prostitution ring - Zwi Migdal. Chamys ended up, locked in a whorehouse, despised and shunned by the more respectable members of the city's Jewish community, which refused even to give the prostitutes proper burials.
- Rebecca Freedman - became their leader (the women called her their queen) and made it her mission to perform the sacred tahara ceremony of washing the dead. Deeply religious, she died in either 1984 or 1986, at the age of 103.She was last president of the Society of Truth.
- Rachel Liberman - her statements to Lt. Alsogaray, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, helped Argentinian police to dismantle the Zwi Migdal for a few months in that country. She was born in Poland, 1900 and died in Buenos Aires in 1935.
THE POLACAS ("POLISH WOMEN" in Portuguese) first organized in 1906, in Rio de Janeiro, setting up the Jewish Association for Charity, Burial and Religion (ABFRI). Their goals, they wrote in the charter, were: "To set up a synagogue, and there practice all the ceremonies of the Jewish religion. To grant sick members in need of treatment outside the city a third-class train ticket and three pounds sterling. To grant members a third-class funeral." In its heyday, the organization existed in several cities, and several rabbis, all since deceased, were in its employ.
Sources
Vincent, Isabel - Bodies and Souls, Harper Collins ed., New York. ISBN-10: 0060090235 / ISBN-13: 978-0060090234
Kushnir, Beatriz - Baile de Máscaras, Imago Editora, Sao Paulo. ISBN: 8531204852
External Links
Zwi Migdal was a gang in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that lured thousands of Jewish women from eastern Europe, especially Poland, and forced them to become prostitutes in cities like New York, Buenos Aires, and Rio de Janeiro. It operated from the 1860s to 1939.
Zwi Migdal was featured in I.B. Singer's "Scum" and Sholem Aleichem's "The Man from Buenos Aires."
Zwi Migdal is also treated in a recent novel by Tomas Eloy Martinez: The Tango Singer (El Cantor del Tango), Buenos Aires (2004) Grupo Editorial Planeta S.A.I.C.
Zwi Migdal is described by Isabel Vincent is her book Bodies and Souls.
link in french:
See also
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