Our Cousins to the South:
THE JEWS OF ARGENTINA IN A TIME OF CRISIS
by Evely Laser Shlensky
For me, and I expect for many of us, the Argentina of my imagination was a jewel of South America, rich in natural resources and culture, home to a large, flourishing Jewish population. My romantic version did not in all ways comport with the reality of a country that harbored Nazis after World War II and conducted a "Dirty War" on political dissenters in the 1970's. Still the country fascinated me.
In the 1990s, reality for Argentine Jews changed abruptly as a result of two terrorist assaults, one on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires , the other on the central Jewish communal building, the AMIA. Both attacks caused numerous fatalities, traumatizing Argentine Jewry.
During the past couple of years, the lives of both the general and the Jewish population have been upended by the country's economic crisis. With soaring poverty and unemployment, the average Argentine, the average Jew, is now desperate.
It was against this backdrop that I joined a small group of the leaders of the World Union for Progressive Judaism in August 2002 for an 11-day trip to Argentina and Brazil . The North American Jewish community has contributed generously to Argentina Jewry through the United Jewish Communities and the Joint Distribution Committee. But as needs continue to far outpace available resources, we wanted to find ways we could be of assistance to our brothers and sisters in the Liberal (as Reform Jews are known in South America ) community.
Although one can do no more in a brief visit than to scratch the surface of a country and a complex culture, a number of strong impressions stay with me:
1) The enormous needs of the people of Argentina have been met with an open-handed, open-hearted response by the Liberal Jews who have organized their religious institutions--congregations struggling to keep their own heads above water--to do God's work: feed the hungry, clothe the destitute, dispense medicines to the ill and offer day care for poor children, regardless of their religion.
The social services are delivered with loving care, sometimes provided in conjunction with local Christian and Muslim groups. I carry with me images of a social hall at the synagogue filled with perhaps a hundred people, who were knitting sweaters and blankets for the needy. I recall women, some of whom wore fashionable clothing attesting to their prior comfortable station, gathering at the synagogue’s soup kitchen for a noon meal. Their own resources were now too meager to meet all their basic needs.
2) At a Liberal Jewish day school, the children were spirited and eager to practice their English as they performed for our group. They demonstrated their Jewish knowledge, while they led us around the school, in which they obviously took great pride. This same school is committed to provide (at significant cost) education for Jewish children with disabilities. Until recently, we learned, the families of most of our young hosts paid full tuition at the school. But times are very hard. Now a great many of the families not only cannot pay the tuition, but they rely on the free lunch provided by the school in order to meet their children’s nutritional needs.
3) I was impressed by the extraordinary rabbinical leadership provided by Rabbi Sergio Bergman. He and the other Liberal rabbis we met in South America were ordained at our Reform seminary, Hebrew Union College . The high quality of rabbinical leadership was evidenced in each city we visited, including Rio de Janeiro , Belo Horizonte , and Sao Paulo in Brazil . In Argentina , Rabbi Bergman has galvanized the synagogue community to respond in amazingly creative ways to the needs of his people. He has inspired a number of young men and women who are now rabbinical students to take the lessons of their mentor to other South American congregations.
With a strong youth movement, an emphasis on Jewish education, a determination to respond to wrenching needs with a universal approach, a strong bond with the Jewish State and an inclusive, egalitarian community--I encountered a liberal Judaism reflecting the very values we North American Reform Jews hold dear. Here, in Argentina , I felt a sense of family: had our grandparents and great grandparents boarded a ship that headed south rather than to this continent, we would be part of this world of our cousins, a world now in deep distress.
Two projects mentioned that would benefit greatly from our tzedakah:
1) The Chavera/Cantas Lunch Program, an interfaith feeding program sponsored by NCI/Emanu-El and others. At present, the budget permits only 40 people to eat three times per week. There are plans to provide free meals for 100 people each day at a total cost of $1800 per month.
2) The School Lunch Feeding at the Arlene Fern Community School ; where approximately 300 children eat five days a week, at a cost of $33 per month per student.
If you, your religious school, youth group, WRJ, NFTB or other group would like to make a donation, please write a check to the World Reform Appeal, designate the contribution for South American Assistance, and send it to ARZA/WORLD UNION, 633 Third Ave. , NY , NY 10017 . Canadian donations should be sent to Canadian Friends of the WUPJ, 3845 Bathurst Street, Suite 301 , Toronto , Ontario , M3H 3N2 . For more information, please call David Suskauer at (212) 650-4280 or email dsuskauer@uahc.org
Evely Laser Shlensky is a past Chairperson of the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism, a member of the URJ and HUC-JIR boards, and a member of Congregation B'nai B'rith in Santa Barbara , CA .
