\”So, where are you doing the seder?\” asks my mother, on the other end of my computer\’s crackly speakers. I had just arrived in Patagonia, a beautiful region of Argentina, blessed with sparkling blue lakes, snow-capped mountains and forests on fire with the colors of fall.
Guarding the entrance to Bodegas Barberis, a family-owned winery in western Argentina, is a small ceramic statue of the Virgin Mary, known locally as the Virgen de la Carrodilla.
On July 18, 1994, Paola Czyzewski was at the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires when terrorists bombed it, killing the 21-year-old law student and 84 other people.
In Jeff Blitz\’s documentary, "Spellbound," Harry Altman grimaces and fidgets at the 1999 National Spelling Bee. The Jewish sixth-grader has been asked to spell "banns," which refers to a Christian marriage notice. He\’s never heard of it.
One of the best University Synagogue tours ever was our 2000 trip to Argentina and Brazil. Both countries were physically beautiful and Jewishly fascinating, and the speakers with whom we met were unforgettable.
Since that time, however, Argentina has been reduced to terrible economic straits, and its once-thriving middle class is in danger of disappearing. That middle class made Argentina unique in South America, where polarization between rich and poor is the norm.
The Argentine government owes $135 billion to the IMF and the world bank, with little chance of ever repaying this staggering amount. In addition, over the past 45 years, 15 of the 19 agreements with the IMF have been broken, and thus, Argentina has zero credibility for further borrowings.
Members of the Jewish community were deluged by calls from friends and relatives Monday after the Times published on its front page the leaked testimony of a defector from Iranian intelligence.
Several years ago, economist and sociologist Paul Samuelson proposed dividing the world into four categories: the rich countries, the poor countries, Japan and Argentina. Everyone knows the state of rich countries and poor countries. However, no one understands why Japan is doing so well and Argentina so badly.
Mariano Fainstein hasn\’t seen his wife in almost three months, and he may have to miss his daughter\’s wedding. Because of the recent economic crisis in Argentina, the 52-year-old electronics engineer temporarily left his home in Buenos Aires in hopes of landing a new job in Los Angeles to support his family. He\’s staying with friends in Sherman Oaks while in talks with a company that has expressed interest in him.
If he gets the job, he won\’t be able to go home in time to walk his daughter down the aisle. To make matters worse, he isn\’t sure his wife is willing to join him here.
It takes a visit to Argentina to understand just how bad this crisis really is.
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