It played a major role in purchasing land and building Jewish settlement in Palestine and later the State of Israel until the association disbanded in 1957.
The Jewish Colonization Association (JCA or ICA) was founded by Bavarian philanthropist Baron Maurice de Hirsch in 1891 to help Jews from Russia and Romania to settle in Argentina.
[2] At the end of 1899 Edmond James de Rothschild transferred title to his colonies in Palestine, plus fifteen million francs to the JCA.
[4] Between 1895 and 1899, Rothschild's development agency and PICA planted Palestine’s first major forest in Hadera, primarily aiming to drain swamps.
[5] After the 1929 Palestine riots, PICA extended its support beyond forestation, helping to rehabilitate agricultural colonies that had been damaged in the unrest.