(by Ezequiel Barrasa)

Meer was born in Bessarabia (Romania between wars, and now Moldova). He married twice and lived in Machkautz, about 60Km north of Kishinev, Moldova), and was brother to Joseph Davidovich Rabinovich. Meer migrated to Argentina with his second wife and 7 children in 1894. The family sailed from the port of Odessa on September 21, 1894 aboard the vessel Giava and arrived in Argentina on November 16, aboard Royal Mail Line's SS Arno, on a voyage chartered by Baron Hirsch of the Jewish Colonization Association.

They lived in an agricultural colony* in Entre Ríos province for a few years, but Meer was not a farmer and disliked the hard work of the field. Most importantly, he wanted his children to study, and there were no universities at the colonies. After a few years, the family moved to La Plata, where their children graduated, and then to Buenos Aires, where they married.

In the 1895 census, they claim to have had 11 children, but I still haven't found my great-grandfather's wealthy siblings. Those missing ones didn't travel with the family, and I don't know if they stayed in Bessarabia or died before the trip. I also don't know if he had children with his first wife, nor do I know anything about his childhood and life before traveling to Argentina.

But now, with you, I add a very amazing new page to my book/tree, with the Meer’s siblings and the history before their arrival to Argentina!

Meer died on October 23, 1922 and he is buried in the Liniers Cementery, Buenos Aires.

To date, there are more than 200 Meer descendants, currently liveing in Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Venezuela, United States, England and Israel.

*The Jewish Colonization Association (JCA) established numerous agricultural colonies in Entre Ríos, Argentina, the largest of which was Clara, founded in 1894

(photo: courtesy Gabriel Enrique Raby, grandson of Isaac Rabinovich).