Russek, David S. (1888-1950)
David S. Russek was a Mexican banker and landowner who played a significant role in the the Sommerfelder migration to the Santa Clara settlement in Mexico in the 1920s.
Russek was one of the heirs to the massive Santa Clara estate in the state of Chihuahua. Concerned about the liquidation of his family’s holdings in the land reforms being prepared in post-revolutionary Mexico and aware of the Canadian Mennonite emigration movement, he traveled to Manitoba in the winter of 1921-22 to promote sale of his family’s land to the Sommerfelder Mennonites. Russek met with Abraham Doerksen, Ältester of the Sommerfelder, who found him persuasive; before this, the Sommerfelder had been focused on Paraguay along with their co-religionists, the Chortitzer, in eastern Manitoba. With Doerksen now in favour of a move to Mexico, the Sommerfelder conference split. Some followed Doerksen to Mexico and some went to Paraguay; most simply remained in Canada.
Russek visited Manitoba several times in 1922 and also sent representatives to continue to promote Mexico. That summer he led Sommerfelder delegates on an inspection tour of land in Mexico and sold them 12 000 acres from the Santa Clara estate in Chihuahua. He also sold 3125 acres from the Zuloaga estate, close to Cuauhtémoc, to a small Sommerfelder group headed by Jacob Sawatzky and John Fehr.
When the first Sommerfelder immigrants arrived at the end of 1922, they discovered that the land they had purchased had insufficient water. It is unclear what misconceptions or deceptions may have taken place to cause this, given that the delegates reported that the land Russek had shown them did have sufficient, operable wells. The water shortage threw the Sommerfelder settlement plans into disarray and caused an early halt to the migration. At this point Russek intervened to save the settlement, purchasing a drilling machine and drilling three deep wells (over 150 meters deep), one at the existing village of Neuanlage, and the other two at the future sites of Sommerfeld and Silberfeld.
By 1922 Russek had also established a bank in San Antonio de Los Arenales (present day Cuauhtémoc) to serve the financial interests of the immigrating Mennonites. At the time Russek’s banking operation was the largest in Chihuahua. When his bank failed due to political instability in late 1923, Mennonite depositors lost several hundred thousand pesos. This added significantly to the Mennonites’ hardships during their early years of settlement in Mexico.
Bibliography
"Residence of D.S. Russek." Mennonite Heritage Archives webpage. Link
"David Simon Russek Ramirez." FamilySearch webpage. Link.
“Ein Bild aus Unserer Geschichte." Die Mennonitische Post 43, no. 17 (February 7, 2020).
Russek, David. "David S. Russek and Co. Correspondence." Mexico Mennonite Files, 1875-1931, vol. 4297 no. 11. Mennonite Heritage Archives, 600 Shaftesbury Blvd., Winnipeg, Man., R3P 0M4.
Sawatzky, Harry Leonard. They Sought a Country: Mennonite Colonization in Mexico. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971. Pp. 50-57, 71-73, 125-129.
Schmiedehaus, Walter. The Old Colony Mennonites in Mexico. Translated by Erwin Jost. Edited by Glenn Penner. Mennonite Heritage Archives, 2021.
| Author(s) | Gerald Ens |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 2025 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Ens, Gerald. "Russek, David S. (1888-1950)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 2025. Web. 19 Jan 2026. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Russek,_David_S._(1888-1950)&oldid=180647.
APA style
Ens, Gerald. (2025). Russek, David S. (1888-1950). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 19 January 2026, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Russek,_David_S._(1888-1950)&oldid=180647.
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