Two reports revealing the extent of anti-Semitism in Argentina were released by DAIA (Delegación de Asociaciones Israelitas Argentinas), the Jewish umbrella organization, on Oct. 5, 2011.
An opinion poll conducted by the Gino Germani Institute of the University of Buenos Aires found that 45 percent of those polled “would never marry a Jew” and that 30 percent "would not live in a neighborhood with a large presence of Jews." The poll also showed that four out of 10 respondents have a negative opinion of “Jews being involved in politics” and five out of 10 think that Jews talk too much about the Holocaust. Some 54 percent of those polled agreed that Jews “are the first ones to turn their backs on the needy.”
The survey was commissioned by DAIA and the Anti-Defamation League, which interviewed more than 1,500 people from across the country.
DAIA called the results of the poll “disturbing and alarming.” According to Nestor Cohen, lead investigator from the University of Buenos Aires, “Jews are perceived as powerful, not supportive, and not loyal to Argentina.” He added that in this case, "discrimination has more to do with an anti-Jewish and not an anti-Israeli feeling; it is not related to Israel's political decisions."
Also released was the Report on Anti-Semitism in Argentina 2010, published by The Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS), a non-governmental organization that has been working since 1979 to promote and protect human rights, and to strengthen the democratic system in Argentina.
The Center has been listing anti-Semitic incidents reported in the country, various dimensions of the problem, its forms of manifestation, and the trivialization of the Holocaust (Shoah) without interruption since 1998.
The Annual Report showed that in 2010, anti-Jewish expressions appeared in public spaces, including graffiti with Nazi symbols, verbal slurs, and there was a large increase over previous years in digital and virtual anti-Semitism. In previous years, there was also the desecration of Jewish cemeteries, including 40 graves at the Jewish cemetery in Misiones in May 2009.
Approximately 300 anti-Semitic incidents are reported in the country every year.
Federal Judge Daniel Rafecas, who presented the reports, said that “Argentinean institutions have worked very hard in recent years to fight against every type of discrimination. What is important now is to start working hard with the Internet, where many anti-Semitic incidents take place nowadays.”
There are nearly 200,000 Jews in Argentina today. They form by far the largest community in Central and South America. A generation ago it was over 300,000. Some of the numbers have left for Israel, while others emigrated to Western countries. Much of the decrease in numbers represents assimilation and intermarriage.
The numbers of Jewish poor in the Argentinean community has skyrocketed in recent years. Professional status is no longer seen as the key to economic stability. At least 20,000 Jews are in need of welfare - about 10% of the community - and the number is constantly increasing.
Compared with the situation in many other Western countries, the Argentinean Jews have experienced many periods of relatively recent anti-Semitism. As a result, many Jews there feel insecure.
The mid-fifties were difficult, but the situation worsened after Israel’s capture and abduction of Adolf Eichman in 1960 and his trial in Jerusalem the following year. Assaults on Jews became widespread and bombings of Jewish buildings and institutions were common. Governments came and went, but the attacks on the Jews continued, often condoned by the government. By the mid-sixties, Argentina was a world center of anti-Semitism.
The rise of the military regime in 1976 showed an increase in activities against Jews. The regime was dedicated to crushing liberal and radical unrest and used the most brutal methods to suppress any opposition. The regime claimed well over a thousand Jewish victims, and recent evidence suggests that the Jews suffered harsher torture than other prisoners.
In the early 1990s, two serious terror attacks against the local Jewish population and Israel hit the community. In 1992, the Israeli embassy was bombed, with a loss of some thirty lives and in the summer of 1994, the AMIA building, the center of the Jewish community institutions, was blown up at the cost of about a hundred lives.
