Update July 2021: The Blecher family came from Skuodas, in the Telsiai Gubernia in what is now northern Lithuania, on the border with Latvia. They can be found by searching 'Blecher' in the Telsiai area in the Jewish Gen Lithuanian database. This is an exciting new piece of information. We know that the other related families came mostly from Courland (Latvia): Litmanovich, Wolfson, Aronson, and . I just found Belkind in Skuodas as well. Tuber we now know was from the family of Rabbi Dov Ber Tauber, who died in Jerusalem in 1900, but who was a rabbi in various parts of the Russian Empire. We are missing information still on where the Seltser/Seltzer family came from.

We are very fortunate to have two pieces of evidence that provide mid 1800s family history for the Blejer / Bleger families of Argentina. The first is the list of signatories (heads of household) of the Jewish agricultural village of Novopoltavka in the Kherson Gubernia in the Russian Empire from 1843. The Russian government settled approximately 5000 Jews from Lithuania and Courland in a number of agricultural settlements in the early 1800s. There are two Blyakher surnames on the signatory list: Girsh and Vulf. As of August 2012, we now know who these two Blekhers were and how they are related to the Argentinian families.

The 1858 Revision List from Novopoltavka is the second and crucial piece of evidence. It was researched and translated thanks to our cousin by marriage, Yoni Kupchik. From the Revision List, we know that there were four brothers, sons of Leib Blekher, living in two households. The brothers were Girsh (1805), Vulf (1820), Zelman (1822), and Yosel (1824). Girsh and Vulf were the heads of household. And they were the 1843 signatories!! We should be able to trace all the Argentinian families back to one of these four brothers.

As of now we know that Girsh had twin sons, Shmuel and Movsha, and Movsha is the Moises Aron (1851) who was a Basavilbaso settler and among whose descendants are our cousins, Federico, Hernan, and Ana Laura Blejer.

Yosel, who lived in Girsh's household, was the father of Chaim Alter Blecher and of Ben Zion Zeev (Wolf) Blecher who settled in Santa Fe Province in Monigotes. Chaim Alter (Altor in the Revision List) is the ancestor of Mario, Daniel, Sonia, Eliezer, Alejandro, Jose, Teresita, Malka and many others who are mostly from Santa Fe Province or from the city of Cordoba.

There were other Blecher families who came to Basavilbaso with Moises Aron who I need to now try to match up with the various children of Girsh, Vulf, Zelman, and Yosel.

Two closely related Blecher families were brought to Argentina at the turn of the 20th century - the families of Chaim Alter Blecher and Moises Aron Blecher. The family has done a wonderful job of building a tree on Geni, but it's time to collect the family history in one place to make it easier for everyone to share and to contribute. This project will be focused on the early history of the Blecher family in Argentina. Since the family is spread out in in Israel, Argentina and the United States now, I am using English, but anyone who wants to contribute in Spanish instead or in addition is welcome to.

The following topics will be expanded upon in this project:

Blecher, Blejer, Bleger

Our Story Begins in the Kherson Region of Southern Ukraine

Baron Hirsch and Jewish Agricultural Colonies

What We Know about Chaim Alter Blecher and Family

What We Know about Moises Aron Blecher and Family

Sources

• 1858 Novopoltavka, Kherson, Russian Empire Revision List
• List of Basavilbaso, Argentina colonists
• 1843 list of signatories from Novopoltavka colonists translated by Pavel Bernstam
• Generations of Moises Ville, a genealogical site with information from about 250 Jewish families from Moises Ville, Las Palmeras, Monigotes, Palacios and Virginia, all of whom arrived in Argentina between 1889-1905, and a database of about 23,000 people.
• List of Resident Names, Basavilbaso, Argentina, online spreadsheet of families who emigrated to Argentina in the early twentieth century to Basovilbaso - Lucienville, Argentina, A Baron Hirsch Settlement in the Province of Entre Rios.
• Resources for the Basovilbaso - Lucienville, Argentina settlement
• Jewish Virtual Library article on Jews in Argentina Moises Ville site
• Jewish Agricultural Villages of the Southern Ukraine web page on Jewish Gen
• Novopoltavka web page on Jewish Gen
• Israelovka web page on Jewish Gen
• Agricultural Colonies in the Argentine Republic in the Jewish Encyclopedia