Argentina’s Jewish gauchos museum vows to stay open amid leadership feud

The Villa Domínguez Jewish Museum in Argentina's Entre Ríos province remains open despite months of tension between its former director and the local municipality, the head of the provincial Jewish community told JTA. Osvaldo Quiroga, who led the museum for nearly 40 years, resigned in January 2025 and no successor has been named. The museum preserves the history of Jewish gauchos, immigrants who blended Jewish and Eastern European roots with Argentine ranching culture.

The Villa Domínguez Jewish Museum in Argentina's Entre Ríos province is still open and operating, the head of the provincial Jewish community confirmed to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, after months of tension between its former director and the local government. Marina Garber said the building belongs to the municipality while the Jewish community safeguards the objects, and that the partnership would continue. The museum drew international attention late last year when visitors reported water damage to walls, documents and historical objects. The reports came months after Osvaldo Quiroga, a local historian who had led the museum for nearly 40 years, resigned in January 2025. No successor has been named. According to Pablo Soskin, the DAIA representative in Entre Ríos, Quiroga stepped down on Jan. 24, municipal officials initially declined to accept the resignation, and he later used accrued vacation time before being reassigned within the museum to a non-directorial role. The museum belongs to the Jewish community although its director was a municipal employee, a hybrid arrangement the article says created friction once images of the damage circulated online, as far as Europe. The article attributes part of the tension to limited government attention to the site and to resentment among some officials over Quiroga's media prominence, without naming them. Villa Domínguez is a rural town of around 2,000 inhabitants, 225 miles north of Buenos Aires, with nine remaining Jews. The museum, founded in October 1985 and housed since 1996 in the town's former pharmacy building, preserves the history of the Jewish gauchos — immigrants who combined Jewish and Eastern European roots with Argentine ranching culture. The colonies were established from the late 1890s, after the SS Weser arrived in 1889 and Baron Maurice de Hirsch created the Jewish Colonization Association in 1891. A four-community tourist trail — Basavilbaso, Villa Domínguez, Villa Clara and Villaguay — has operated for more than 20 years.