Awardwinning journalist Javier Sinay investigates a series of murders from the nineteenth century unearthing the complex history and legacy of Moiss Ville the Jerusalem of South America and his personal connection to a defining period of Jewish history in Argentina.When Argentine journalist Javier Sinay discovers an article from 1947 by his greatgrandfather detailing twentytwo murders that had occurred in Moiss Ville at the end of the nineteenth century he launches into his own investigation that soon turns into something deeper an exploration of the history of Moiss Ville one of the first Jewish agricultural communities in Argentina and Sinays own connection to this historically thriving Jewish epicenter. Seeking refuge from the pogroms of Czarist Russia a group of Jewish immigrants founded Moiss Ville in the late 1880s. Like their towns prophetic namesake these immigrants fled one form of persecution only to encounter a different set of hardships exploitative land prices starvation illness language barriers and a series of murders perpetrated by roving gauchos who preyed upon their vulnerability. Sinay though a descendant of these immigrants is unfamiliar with this turbulent history and his research into the spate of violence plunges him into his familys past and their link to Moiss Ville. He combs through libraries and archives in search of documents about the murders and hires a book detective to track down issues of Der Viderkol the first Yiddish newspaper in Argentina started by his greatgrandfather. He even enrolls in Yiddish classes so he can read the newspaper and other contemporaneous records for himself. Through interviews with his family members current residents of Moiss Ville historians and archivists Sinay compiles moving portraits of the victims of these heinous murders and reveals the fascinating and complex history of the town once known as the Jerusalem of South America.Sinay acknowledges the impossibility of fully separating legends from facts. .