Background
Gerchunoff was born in the Ukrainian province of Kamenets-Podolski in the small town of Proskurov. The family moved to Tulchin, where his father ran a small business. The Gerchunoff home was a meeting place for influential townspeople and Jewish thinkers who were attracted not only to Gregory Gerchunoffs charm as a conversationalist and a talented storyteller, but also to his vast knowledge of Judaism. It was here that the young Gerchunoff first learned about Baron de Hirsch’s settlements in Argentina.
Education
Moved by Hirsch’s dream, the Gerchunoff family decided to emigrate to Argentina, and in 1890 embarked on what was to be a long and fascinating journey to Buenos Aires. The family was taken to Moisesville, one of the first Hirsch settlements.
There, the Jewish Colonization Association provided them with fifty hectares of land, along with tools and seeds, with which they were to create a home out of the desolate area of the Argentinian province of Santa Fe. The JCA ensured a Jewish education for all, so that Alberto Gerchunoff attended the settlement school during the mornings and Hebrew school in the afternoons.
Due to the hardships of rural life, to the hostility of their neighbors, and to the death of Gregory Gerchunoff, the family moved to Entre Rios. While Gerchunoff's older brother decided to become a farmer, a Jewish gaucho, in Entre Rios, the rest of the family moved to Buenos Aires. It was in Entre Rios that the richness of the colloquial Spanish, reminiscent of an archaic 16th-century Spanish, aroused Gerchunoffs interest in the Spanish language.
Career
Upon arriving in Buenos Aires, Gerchunoff worked as a street vendor and construction worker in the busy suburbs of the Argentinian capital. As a student, he began attending meetings of the Socialist party, where he met and became close friends with influential intellectual figures such as Leopoldo Lugones, Payro, and later Ruben Dario.
Although financial difficulties forced him to leave his university studies, Gerchunoff persisted in his desire to write, and by 1901 was writing for several city newspapers. He later worked as editor and director of La Nación and El Mundo and published several books on the life of the Jewish gauchos, among other topics. In 1931 he was invited to become a member of the first Argentinian Academy of Language, an honor he refused in protest against the military takeover of the government.
With the outbreak of World War I, Gerchunoff dedicated himself fully to the Jewish cause. As a journalist in the 1930s, he was active in anti-Nazi publications. Following World War II, he became an active Zionist and in 1947, traveled throughout , South America to solicit contributions for the foundation of the Jewish state.
Views
Quotations:
Often, towards sunset, after a day of profound identification with the universal Christian life of the metropolis and the country, I feel a morbid need for the ghetto. That is when I submerge myself in the cafe of Corrientes, where amid the turmoil of tea cups and neighborhood quarrels, I contemplate the animated movement of this strange and fabulous world. The mysterious attraction of Jewishness is satisfied in me as if I would be returning from a trip to Warsaw, to Bucharest, to Odessa.
Membership
Member: Círculo de la Prensa, Society Argentina de Escritores, Institute Cultural Argentino-Nicaragüense, Institute Cultural Argentino-Palestinense.
Personality
He is considered an important figure in Argentinian literature of the modernist period.
