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The DIAI (Delegacion de Asociaciones Israelitas Argentinas) was founded in 1939 as the political arm of the Jewish community. The DIAI protects Jewish rights and represents the community in the government. Another organization, the AMIA, an Ashkenazic mutual-aid society, provides health and human services to Argentina’s Ashkenazi population. After the expulsion from Spain in 1492, conversos (or secret Jews) settled in Argentina. Most of these immigrants assimilated into the general population and, by the mid 1800's, few Jews were left in Argentina. Argentina gained its independence from Spain in 1810. Bernardino Rivadavia, Argentina’s first president, gave support to policies that promoted freedom of immigration and respect for human rights. In this atmosphere of tolerance, a second wave of Jewish immigration began in the mid-19th century with Jewish immigrants arriving from Western Europe, especially from France. In 1860, the first Jewish wedding was recorded in Buenos Aires. A couple of years later, a minyan met for the High Holiday services and, eventually, the minyan became the Congregacion Israelita de la Republica. In the late 19th century, a third wave of immigration fleeing poverty and pogroms in Russia, and other Eastern Europe countries, moved to Argentina because of its open door policy of immigration. These Jews became known as "Rusos" and became active in Argentine society. In 1889, 824 Russian Jews arrived in Argentina on the SS Weser and became gauchos (Argentine cowboys). The gauchos bought land and established a colony, which they named Moiseville. Due to lack of funding, the gauchos appealed to Baron Maurice de Hirsch for funds and the Baron subsequently founded the Jewish Colonization Association. During its heyday, the Association owned more than 600,000 hectares of land, populated by more than 200,000 Jews. While non-Jews now own many of these cooperative ranches, Jews continue to run some of the properties. Between 1906 and 1912, Jewish immigration increased at a rate of 13,000 immigrants per year. Most of the immigrants were Ashkenazi Jews from Europe, but a number of Sephardic Jews from Morocco and the Ottoman Empire also settled in Argentina. By 1920, more than 150,000 Jews were living in Argentina. Anti-Semitic attacks against Jews were infrequent in Argentina before World War I. Following the Russian Revolution, between 1918 and 1930, anti-revolutionary feelings developed into full-blown anti-Semitism against the Rusos. From January 7-13, 1919, a general strike in Buenos Aires led to a pogrom against the Jews. Many were beaten and had their property burned and looted.i Despite anti-Semitic actions against the Jews and increasing xenophobia, Jews became involved in most sectors of Argentine society. Still they were unable to be work in the government or military and so many became farmers, peddlers, artisans and shopkeepers. Cultural and religious organizations flourished and a Yiddish press and theater opened in Buenos Aires, as well as a Jewish hospital and a number of Zionist organizations. Juan Peron’s rise to power in 1946 worried many Jews because he was thought to be a Nazi sympathizer with fascist leanings. Peron halted Jewish immigration to Argentina, introduced Catholic religious instruction in public schools and allowed Argentina to become a haven for fleeing Nazis. According to Argentine journalist and historian Jorge Camarasa, author of two books on Nazi refugees in South America, “There are indications that Peron received Nazi Funds and access to secret Swiss accounts in payment for allowing people like Eichmann a new start.” Many former Nazi officers served as military trainers and advisers under Peron. On the other hand, Peron also expressed sympathy for Jewish rights and established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1949. Since then, more than 45,000 Jews have immigrated to Israel from Argentina.i Peron was overthrown in 1955, which was followed by another wave of anti-Semitism. In 1960, Israeli agents abducted Adolf Eichmann who was deeply involved with the formulation and operation of the "final solution to the Jewish question." He drew up the idea of deportation of Jews into ghettos, and went about concentrating Jews in isolated areas with murderous efficiency. The Eichmann trial in Jerusalem, in April 1961, aroused further anti-Jewish sentiment in Argentina. Argentina was under military rule between 1976 and 1983. During this period, Jews were increasingly targeted for kidnapping and torture by the ruling junta; about 1,000 of the 9,000 known victims of state terrorism were Jews. According to the Jerusalem Post, the Israeli government had a special agreement with the Argentine government to allow Jews arrested for political crimes to immigrate to Israel. Once the military’s power waned in Argentina, anti-Semitic attacks also declined. In 1983, Raul Alfonsin was democratically elected as president of Argentina. Alfonsin enjoyed the support of the Jewish population and placed many Jews in high positions. Carlos Saul Menem was elected president in 1989, his Arab origin and support of Peron worried the Jews, however, and he did not follow in Peron’s footsteps. Menem appointed many Jews to his government, visited Israel a number of times and offered to help mediate the Israeli-Arab peace process. After a Jewish cemetery was desecrated in Buenos Aires, Menem immediately expressed his outrage to the Jewish community and, within a week, apprehended those responsible. President Menem also ordered the release of files relating to Argentina’s role in serving as a haven for Nazi war criminals. A law against racism and anti-Semitism passed in the Argentine parliament in 1988.i At least 180 Nazi war criminals settled in Argentina during and after World War II, according to a state panel probing Nazi activities in the country. But even as the panel issued its final report in December 1999, some of its members said the number is probably a lot higher and called for more research on the subject. The report focuses on such diverse issues as Argentina's immigration policies, Nazi investments in Argentina and the influence of Nazism on Argentine jurisprudence. Among the panel's findings: *The Nazis who found refuge in Argentina included 30 Germans, 50 Croats and 100 officials from France and Belgium. *Argentina's political and intellectual climates in the 1930s and 1940s were receptive to Nazi and fascist ideas. *Argentina's air force and military industries attracted Nazi technicians. *Undetermined quantities of looted gold and art entered Argentina during and after the war from Nazi and fascist countries. But the question is, is Argentina still a haven for Nazi war criminals? According to Shimon Samuels, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Europe and Latin America, it is. He claims that there may be up to 17 wanted war criminals that may be alive an at large in the South American nation. Samuels said he has submitted "again and again" a list of Nazi officials allegedly living here to "three interior ministers of the Carlos Menem administration." Argentine authorities never tried to find, or extradite, those on the list. Samuels' list includes two Dutch nationals, Abraham Kipp and Jan Olij Hottentot, wanted by Holland on charges of genocide for their role in the deportation of Dutch Jews and anti-fascist activists during Germany's occupation of Holland. Hottentot is also charged with torturing war prisoners on the Russian front and with killing Jews while commanding an extermination group. In 1992, a reporter from the local Clarin newspaper photographed the Dutchman at his home in suburban Buenos Aires. Neo-Nazi individuals and groups continued to operate openly in Argentina, supported by a wide circle of sympathizers. The well-known neo-Nazi Alejandro Biondini, who has been active since the 1980s, leads one of the two main nationalistic right-wing parties, Partido Nuevo Triunfo (New Triumph Party -- PNT). He served a jail term in 1996, under Anti-Discrimination Law No. 25.592, for displaying a swastika on the cover of his publication Libertad de Opinión. In 1998 Biondini put this publication on the Internet, becoming one of the first neo-Nazis in Argentina to disseminate his ideas via this medium. Alejandro Ivan Franze, leader of the Partido Nuevo Orden Social Patriótico (New Order Social Patriotic Party -- PNOSP), formed in 1996, has succeeded in attracting nationalistic right-wing figures from smaller groups to his organization. The party, which is basically a skinhead group, aspires to participate in national elections. At present, it organizes military-style parades and gatherings, for example, on so-called Sovereignty Day, commemorating the Falklands-Malvinas war, when marchers sport neo-Nazi uniforms and symbols and perform the fascist salute. The police have not, so far, intervened. Despite Menem’s sympathetic policies and a democratic regime, the Jews of Argentina were targets of two major terrorist attacks. The Israeli Embassy was bombed in April 1992, killing 32 people. In 1994, the Jewish community headquarters in Buenos Aires was bombed, killing more than 100 people and wounding at least 200 others. The community’s archives were destroyed in the bombing and the event left many emotionally scarred. Though Iran was suspected of involvement with the help of Argentine police, the culprits have never been found. On another occasion, spectators at a soccer game in Buenos Aires jeered at the members of a visiting Jewish team, hurled neo-Nazi epithets at them and threw bars of soap on the playing field-in direct reference to the myth that the Nazis produced soap made from the bodies of their Jewish victims. The year 1999 was marked by a decrease in anti-Semitic incidents compared with previous years. Nevertheless, several serious incidents were recorded, including the planting of two explosive charges at the entrance of the homes of two Jewish families in Paraná in August 1999. The charges were discovered after anonymous calls to the homes of the families and the police. In addition, there were two major desecrations of Jewish cemeteries, one on 19-20 September, when 63 graves were desecrated in the main Jewish cemetery La Tablada, and another on 30 September when 12 graves were vandalized in the old Jewish cemetery of Ciudadela. In both cases, the DAIA claimed that, once again, police of the Province of Buenos Aires were targeting the Jewish community as part of their resistance to reforms in the police force. Five other desecrations of Jewish cemeteries took place during 1999, including in the city of Mendoza, where 20 gravestones were damaged.vi Four Jewish institutions in the Jewish neighborhood of Once in Buenos Aires received anti-Semitic leaflets in April 1999. The text, printed on colored paper, with a large swastika in the middle, contained veiled anti-Semitic references. Several anonymous false bomb threats were received, the most alarming at the AMIA community building in December, which had to be evacuated. Others were reported at the Keren Hayesod building in July and at the Yavneh school in Buenos Aires in October. A telephone threat to “blow up the cursed Jews” resulted in the cancellation of the premiere of Fiddler on the Roof in October in the city of Tucumán. vi In June 1999 the judicial authorities, acting on information they had received from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, began investigating the activities of Walhalla SRL, a publishing house in San Luis province, which is accused of selling and distributing videos and books containing Nazi ideology. Much of the material in question, such as the Nazi movie The Eternal Jew, is prohibited under the anti-discrimination law. In another case involving the Verdad y Justicia (Truth and Justice) movement, which was allegedly linked to previous desecrations of the La Tablada cemetery, Miguel Angel Russo was given a jail term in October under the anti-discrimination law, for publishing and disseminating anti-Semitic propaganda. Russo is the only Argentinean citizen currently in prison for anti-Semitic activities. In May 1999 the DAIA demanded the dismissal of the three judges who nullified the verdict of a lower court judge in the 1995 case of a skinhead attack, accompanied by anti-Semitic insults, against a non-Jewish youth. The judge had sentenced the three skinheads to prison terms. Judges Bisordi, Basavilbaso and Catuchi, who overturned the sentence argued that the term “dirty Jews” was a general war cry used by such youths, with no anti-Semitic intention. The DAIA’s call was supported by the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights.vi Overly anti-Semitic attacks are only one type of problem currently facing South America’s largest Jewish community. A more existential crisis has been the recent financial troubles facing the community’s institutions. During the 1990s the government’s privatization reforms had a sharply negative impact on the economic status of the urban middle class. Many Jewish business owners have lost their shops and are unable to pay membership or tuition fees to local Jewish institutions and synagogues. These communal institutions now faced declining membership and budgets to maintain their activities and services. In addition, several well-known private banks, which were under Jewish ownership until recently and which were strong financial supporters of Jewish institutions, have been dissolved or sold. The well-developed Jewish day school system is seen as being especially vulnerable to these financial problems.vii Jews are active in all sectors of Argentine society and many are prominent figures in the arts, film, music and journalism. Some influential Argentine Jews include: writer Jacobo Timmerman, owner of a local newspaper who campaigned for human rights; Rene Epelbaum, who founded a protest group for mothers of political prisoners; pianist Daniel Barenboim and conductor Ceszar Milstein.i The future of the Jewish community in Argentina is hard to predict. Outward migration, assimilation and intermarriage have all had their negative effects on the community, as have the recent financial crises and various anti-Semitic attacks. On the other hand, Jewish involvement in Jewish life-both religious and organizational-has continued and in some ways intensified. Bibliography: Bibliography 1. Geller, Doron. The Capture of Adolf Eichmann. Jewish Virtual Library. www.us-israel.org/jsource/Holocaust/eichcap.html 2. Institute of the World Jewish Congress. Community of the Month:Argentina. www.wjc.org.il/argentina.htm 3. Kiernan, Sergio. Speculaion grows about Peron giving Nazis refuge. Jewish Bulletin of Northern California. December 1996 www.jewishf.com/bk961213/irefuge.htm 4. Kiernan, Sergio. Nazis of all nations enjpying life in Argentina, report says. Jewish Bulletin of Northern California. June 1996 www.jewishf.com/bk961213/irefuge.htm 5. Kiernan, Sergio. Report shows 180 Nazis found refuge in Argentina after WWII. Jewish Bulletin of Northern California. December 1999 www.jewishf.com/bk961213/irefuge.htm 6. The Simon Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism. Anti-Semitism Worldwide 1999-2000: Argentina. www.tau.ac.il/Anti-Semitism/asw99-2000/argentina.htm 7. Weiner, Rebecca. Argentina. Jewish Virtual Library. www.us-israel.org/jsource/vjw/Argentina.html Word Count: 2305
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