Palestine Jewish Colonization Association
The Palestine Jewish Colonization Association, commonly known by its Yiddish acronym PICA, was established in 1924 and played a major role in supporting the Yishuv in the British Mandate of Palestine and later the State of Israel until the association disbandment in 1957.
The Jewish Colonization Association was founded by Bavarian philanthropist Baron Maurice de Hirsch in 1891 to help Jews from Russia and Romania to settle in Argentina. Baron de Hirsch died in 1896 and thereafter the JCA began to also assist the Jewish settlement in Palestine. At the end of 1899 Edmond James de Rothschild transferred title to his colonies in Palestine plus fifteen million francs to the JCA. In 1924 the JCA branch dealing with colonies in Palestine was reorganised by Baron de Rothschild as the Palestine Jewish Colonization Association, under the direction of his son James Armand de Rothschild.
After the 1929 Palestine riots PICA helped to rehabilitate agricultural colonies that had been damaged.
James de Rothschild, who died in 1957, instructed in his will that PICA should transfer most of its land in Israel to the Jewish National Fund. On December 31, 1958 PICA agreed to vest its right to land holdings in Syria and Lebanon in the State of Israel.
