ABSTRACT
As an alternative to the plan for bringing orphaned children to Paraguay, it was proposed to the Bruderhof representatives in Europe that the communities absorb displaced persons from the refugee camps. The Paraguayan communities had to aim toward self-sufficiency and they enjoyed the advantages provided by the size, constituents, and variety of their population. In the Bruderhof settlements in Paraguay, solid foundations had been established for community life both socially and culturally, albeit from an economic standpoint they still found it difficult to function. In the course of the first decade of settlement in Paraguay, internal tensions were created within the commune as a result of power struggles and shifts in the Bruderhof leadership. The search for contact with similar groups prompted the establishment of relations with Jewish Zionist groups and the Jewish pioneering movement, the latter finding a common language with the Bruderhof against their common background of communal life.
