The Rothschild family has a long association with Israel. In the 1880s Baron Edmond de Rothschild (1845-1934) funded Jewish communities in Palestine and encouraged the development of agriculture and industry. In 1899 the Rothschild communities were transferred to form the Palestine branch of the Jewish Colonisation Association and in 1924 Baron Edmond de Rothschild created a separate Association to manage these settlements – the Palestine Jewish Colonisation Association (PICA).
As well as offices in Palestine, PICA had offices in Paris under the oversight of James, as President of PICA. The administrative records created by this Paris office are now housed at Waddesdon due to the connection with James and later Dorothy. They contain correspondence, financial records, censuses, photographs and publications relating to the management of the communities, land ownership, individual inhabitants, and the politics of Jewish resettlement in Palestine, as well as industry, vineyards, and agriculture.
