JWR Wandering Jews




Jewish World Review Dec. 3, 1998 /14 Kislev 5759


Latin America Diarist

Where receiving a solid Jewish education is a birth-right


By Marcia H. Kay

JEWISH DAY-SCHOOL EDUCATION, a rapidly growing force in the American Jewish community, is not new to the Jews of Latin America.

In fact, Jewish day-school education is deemed so important to the future of Jewish life in Latin America that the 250,000 Jews in major cities in both Central and South America have made Jewish day schools a top priority. Every Jewish child is educated in a Jewish day school, regardless of ability to pay.

Kliksberg, in his role as a social scientist, will be running a symposium on Dec. 7 and 8, "Combating Poverty in Latin America at the close of the 20th Century." Organized by the IDB and the Latin American Jewish Congress and co- sponsored by the World Bank, The Organization of American States and The Washington College of Law of The American University, the symposium is one of a series of such meetings organized by a religious community. A previous meeting dealing with the same subject matter was organized by the Catholic Church of Latin America.

The purpose of the symposium is to analyze the challenges facing Latin America in terms of social issues. The Jewish communities in Latin America "represent a vibrant, proactive sector that has accumulated broad experience in social issues," said Kliksberg. Those communities will be represented by the Latin American Jewish Congress, an umbrella organization for the region’s Jewish groups.

The symposium will explore topics including "Social Work and Jewish Communities in Argentina and Brazil"; "Violence and Co-existence — an Overview and Prospects," hosted by Manuel Tenenbaum, director of the Latin American Jewish Council; and "Social Work and Jewish Communities in Mexico, Uruguay and Venezuela."

For Dr. Bernardo Kliksberg, a social scientist with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Jewish presence in Latin America is an important one, not just for Jewish continuity, but for the general population as well. Kliksberg, whose family fled a shtetl (village) outside of Bialystok, Poland, for Buenos Aires in 1930, sees education as one of the most important avenues for maintaining Jewish continuity in countries where the poverty level is high and where anti-Semitism is a constant concern.

Kliksberg sees the problems of Latin America and its Jewish population being counter-balanced by the communities’ many accomplishments. While he expounds on the steps the community has taken, he is quick to note that the Jewish community is not immune to the problems that face the whole of Latin America.

"The idea is to challenge the youth," he said. As president of the Commission for Human Development, which was established by the Latin American Jewish Congress, he looks into ways to fight poverty and how it contributes to social problems in different communities.

Kliksberg also is director of the Jewish Cultural Review, a publication written in Spanish that encourages contemporary writers to contribute. Through this publication, Kliksberg feels the Latin American Jewish community has been put in touch with Jewish contemporary thinking.

Much of the Latin American Jewish community existed before World War II. There also was a large migration after the war to countries that, while accepting Jews, also were allowing Nazis to live under the protection of the government. There are about 500,000 Jews living in Latin America today. The largest populations are centered in Argentina, with 250,000 Jews; Brazil, with 130,000; Mexico, with 40,000; and Venezuela, with 30,000. Kliksberg cites the Jewish commitment to Israel as an important link to Jews in the Diaspora. More than 80,000 Latin American Jews live in Israel today. There are about 10,000 Jews from Uruguay who have made aliyah.

In Venezuela, 90 percent of the Jewish youth, about 2,500 students, are in Jewish day schools. There are three day schools in Caracas, the country’s capital. There are eight day schools in Mexico City. "In Latin America, all Jewish day schools are full day schools," said Kliksberg. "This is an important achievement." He said the quality of the education also is better than public education and other private schools. But it also is a challenge to a community where the economic problems of the society have penetrated the Jewish community.

"The Jewish community has the responsibility for financing the schools, not just the parents," said Kliksberg. For parents who cannot pay, the local Jewish organization pays. "We cannot have any child out of school due to [the lack of] economic resources." Perhaps due in part to the emphasis on day-school education, the intermarriage rate among Latin American Jews is low in comparison to that in the United States, thought to be about 52 percent. In Venezuela and Mexico, the intermarriage rate is lower than 20 percent.

"The key reason is the influence of the school," said Kliksberg. Many couples meet their future spouses while in school. "They grow up together," he said. Since the July 1993 bombing of the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, the Jewish community has called on the Argentine government to bring the perpetrators to justice. Although he said there has been "progress by the government ... no important results have been forthcoming."

Along with its achievements, the Jewish community has been confronted by several problems, including poverty among people who were once in the middle to upper-middle class. "We have important social problems," he said. Although Latin America is one of the most democratized areas in the world, about 46 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. Sixty percent of children live below the line, and unemployment is 10 percent. For young people, that number more than doubles.

This has caused, said Kliksberg, "destruction of the families, with 30 percent of the Latin American families living with one parent," most often the mother. "The husband has left because of an impossibility to cope with the problems." Many Jewish families have lost their economic positions when small businesses closed. Pensioners lost their incomes, and many young Jewish families found themselves on unemployment.

Because of the economic downturn, Jewish families and communities have found themselves asking for help from Israel and the American Jewish community, said Kliksberg.

"There is a new kind of assimilation in Latin America," said Kliksberg. "Many families want to be Jewish, but cannot afford it. People who cannot afford the minimum are slowly coming disconnected."




Marcia H. Kay is Managing Editor of Washington Jewish Week.


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