The S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation has made a grant of $123,999 to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee to respond to the unhinging of Argentina and its Jewish community.
The overseas committee of the JCF approved the grant at a December board meeting, even before the recent crisis.
The Jewish Federation of the Greater East Bay has set up a mailbox specifically for aid to Argentina, and the Jewish Federation of Greater San Jose will take up the matter when it begins its next allocations cycle, on Feb. 15.
Faced with an emergency request from the JDC for more than $4 million, the United Jewish Communities, the umbrella of the federation system, set up a task force last week to decipher the scope of the problem and determine how to respond. The task force, headed by Karen Shapira, chair of the UJC’s Israel and Overseas Pillar, came as Argentina devalued its peso, sending the country into further economic uncertainty.
Argentina’s economic and political collapse presents a first for the organized American Jewish world: Unlike rescuing Soviet refuseniks or airlifting Ethiopians to Israel, this operation addresses the unique challenges of saving a hearty, modern, Western community.
The challenge comes as UJC’s principal overseas partners — the JDC and the Jewish Agency for Israel, which are primarily concerned with community support and helping Jews move to Israel, respectively — have been providing relief on the ground.
“This is an unprecedented historical event for the Jewish community,” said Will Recant, JDC’s assistant executive vice president for Latin America. Unlike so many modern Jewish relief efforts, this isn’t a poor country emerging from communism, Recant said.
This time, Jewish agencies are challenged with a new set of questions.
He offered the case of a middle-class Jewish Argentine family whose wage earner has lost his job and can no longer pay the mortgage.
“What do you do? Do you let them lose their house? Do you give them a subsidy so they can make this month’s mortgage payment? Do you give them a job so they can meet their mortgage payments in the future? Or do you tell them to sell their apartment and get out of there, you can’t afford to live like that anymore?”
These are the questions facing the organized Jewish community as it tries to accommodate the swell of Argentines begging for aliyah, or immigration to Israel, and others who want their old lives back.
And it’s not just the 26,000 Jews living below the poverty line in Argentina who are requiring attention.
With Jewish day schools and community centers closing and consolidating, the entire infrastructure of the 200,000-strong community has been impacted.
That’s not to mention the 6,000 to 7,000 Jews who are currently in the process of preparing for aliyah; applications increased threefold since the rioting broke out last month, according to Jewish Agency officials.
Foreseeing the drop in Argentina’s economy, the JDC stepped up its work there four years ago and has been providing food and medicine in 37 Jewish centers across the country.
JDC officials say because of the emergency efforts in recent months, the resources budgeted for Argentina for this year will last approximately six more weeks.
At that time they hope the UJC will have come through with a strategy and funding — to the tune of $4.7 million.
They are hoping the Argentine Jewish community, which has retained some of its wealth, can raise an additional $4 million.
But this week’s devaluation of the peso may prevent Argentine Jewry from coming up with that much. The JDC’s local partner institutions will now be losing 30 to 40 percent of the value of their money, Recant said Monday.
Although some individual federations have already made special allocations or are considering doing so, many are trying to educate their communities and wait for more information from UJC.
In the meantime, Recant said he is “hopeful and optimistic” that the federation system will come through.
He said JDC expects a response in early February.
The Jewish Agency, meanwhile, says funds devoted to helping transport and absorb immigrants to Israel from Argentina will pay off.
Middle-class Argentines moving to Israel are often well-trained in computers or business and are people who “can contribute much to Israeli society,” said Yehuda Weinraub, a Jewish Agency spokesman.
Israel is offering Argentine Jews an additional $16,000 above normal absorption funds to make aliyah.