buenos aires | Argentina may have a new president, but life is still a struggle for thousands of Jews in what was once South America’s most prosperous nation.
President Nestor Kirchner took office after his main rival, Carlos Menem — who governed Argentina from 1989 to 1999 — dropped out of a runoff election. While the economy has improved somewhat, the trauma of the collapsed financial system has left lasting effects for the country’s approximately 200,000 Jews.
“Last year people were expecting riots and even the possibility of a civil war,” said Rabbi Tzvi Grunblatt, director general of Chabad-Lubavitch Argentina. “People felt they didn’t own anything. It was like the floor was moving underneath your feet. That’s why nobody was spending a penny. They didn’t see any future here. But today, there is optimism.”
Even for Jews who are not impoverished, the country’s economic crisis has triggered changes — some subtle and some not so subtle — in their daily lives.
About 10,000 Jews have left Argentina since the crisis hit, Grunblatt said. About 6,000 moved to Israel, while the rest relocated to the United States or other countries.
The departure of so many Jews has made it nearly impossible to raise funds in the local Jewish community. In years past Chabad’s budget was $4 million, but only $600,000 of that went to social relief; the rest was spent on educational activities and youth programs. This year, Grunblatt has a budget of nearly $8 million; most of it will go to emergency relief.
While Argentina’s economic crisis has wrecked thousands of lives, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, Grunblatt sees a silver lining.
“This crisis definitely got a lot of people who were already out of the community back into the community,” the rabbi said. “Since December, we’re having a brit milah almost once a week of grown children who were never circumcised. All these families are finally reconnecting to the community.”
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