MENKEN, STANWOOD J. Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society of the United States: Report on the Formation of the First Russian Jewish Colony in the United States at Catahoula Parish, Louisiana.

In 1882 the Hebrew Foreign Mission Society of New Orleans, working in tandem with the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society, set up an agricultural colony of Russian-Jewish immigrants at Sicily Island in Catahoula Parish. Unfortunately, the project had to be abandoned when the Mississippi River overflowed that very year, flooding the entire area. See EJ, Vol. XI, col. 519. Concurrently, a German-language edition of this report (Bericht…) was issued in Frankfurt a/Main. (See Kestenbaum Sale 23, Lot 20). Evidently, it was the intention of the sponsors of the project to solicit financial support from both the English and German Jewish communities.