Vol. LXXXII
No. 46
Omaha, NE
18 Tamuz, 5763
July 18, 2003
SERVING NEBRASKA AND WESTERN IOWA FOR 82 YEARS
Argentine Jews Must Depend on Outside Help to Survive Financially by LARRY LUXNER BUENOS AIRES (JTA)-- 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 was inaugurated last May after his main rival, Carlos Menem--who governed Argentina from 1989 to 1999-dropped out of a runoff election. “Last year people were expecting riots and even the possibility of a civil war,” said Rabbi Tzvi Grunblatt, Director General of ChabadLubavitch 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.” Economists expect Argentina's GDP to grow by 3 percent to 4 percent this year, after shrinking nearly 11 percent in 2002--the worst performance in a century. Even so, an estimated 60 percent of the country’s 36 million inhabitants, and 35 percent of the country’s
mist at the Washingtonbased InterAmerican Development Bank who has been asked to advise K i r c h n e r. “The suffering of Argentina’s Jews will continue, and we very urgently need more help from Intersection of Pueyrredon and Corrientes, in Jewish the AmerBuenos Aires. Photo by Larry Luxner/JTA ican Jewish 200,000 Jews, live below the poverty community. Every day, there are new line. Unemployment is well over 20 Jewish poor in Argentina.” percent. Even for Jews who are not impover“I think the new president has the ished, the country’s economic crisis has best of intentions and has a very good triggered changes--some subtle and team, but he cannot make miracles,” some not so subtle--in their daily lives. said Bernardo Kliksberg, an econo“As a precaution we never kept our
money in Argentine banks, but in my practice the crisis affected us terribly,” said Freddy Rosenmeyer, 71, a Buenos Aires dentist. “Our expenses jumped by 300 percent, but we couldn’t increase fees for patients. We lost business because people couldn’t afford dental care. I belong to a health insurance plan in which 50 percent of the patients were dropped because they couldn’t pay their monthly premiums.” Rosenmeyer shares his practice with his wife Alicia, 62, who’s also a dentist. In his spare time, he volunteers at the Asociacion Filantropica Israelita, a Jewish charity in nearby Belgrano. “We’ve had to live much more modestly these days,” he said. “For example, I drive a 10-year-old car and my wife’s car is seven years old. Before, we used to change cars every two or three years. All my sons have economic difficulties, and my daughter Deborah is an architect, but she works as a secretary in my practice because nobody’s building anything.” (Continued on page 12)
Former Omahan Makes “Quickie” Trip to Israel by MARC WARREN (Editor’s note: Marc Warren, son of former Omahans Marilyn and Marty Warren of St. Louis, MO, has worked on Wall Street since 1985 and is currently an investment banker for USB. He lives in New York City with his wife, Barbara, and their children Rachel, 6, and Ben, 3. His aunt, Lois Epstein, shared Marc’s journal with the Press; what follows are excerpts from that journal.) In June, Jonathan Resnick and I led a group of 10 New York real estate professionals on a solidarity mission to Israel. The trip, four days, was organized by the Real Estate Division of UJA- Federation New York and was intended to enable us to reach out to Israelis during this difficult time, see where UJA’s support in Israel actually goes, and support the ravaged tourist economy. As one who had been to Israel only once previously and is not at all an expert in Israeli history or politics, the idea is to just report on what I saw and heard. Our group is from both Manhattan and the New York suburbs, holds various levels of religious observance and Jewish involvement, and is in their 30s or 40s. All but one had been to Israel at least once, two or three on multiple occasions. Before checking in to our hotel, we stopped at the Wall for about 30 minutes. It was quite emotional for me when I said Kaddish for a childhood friend that died the prior week from a brain aneurysm. Michael Oren, senior fellow at the Shalem research facility and the American-born writer of Six Day War, joined us for dinner. His talk centered on the fact that the 1967 War was an existential threat (i.e., the threat of complete destruction) to Israel and that the current terrorist threat is really the same thing. According to Oren, American officials in 1967 were concerned of another Holocaust and had contingency plans to evacuate all the Jews from Israel. Oren actually sees a number of existential threats to Israel today, among them: a) conventional Arab
threats--their troops number 3-4 million; b) nonconventional Arab threats (i.e., missiles, WMD, etc.); c) demographics with the Israeli Arabs (huge fertility vs. Jews with twice the Israeli birthrate which itself is twice the American birthrate); and d) terrorism (undermines society and drives off investment). Oren does not think the Road Map will work as he says the Arabs do not want their own separate state--they have had the chance before (i.e., Oslo accord) and will continue to fight violently to extinguish the Jewish population from the entire area-they want the entire land only. He said the message A Zaka volunteer explained the organization’s mission of retrieving that “if you continue to bodies and body parts in the aftermath of a terrorist attack in Israel. blow yourself up, you will be rewarded” must end. INSIDE: The upside from the violence is the Israelis’ Medical Ethics Series Starts in Aug ... page 7 resilience and their attitude that “life goes on”. The national will has not been broken, he added. The History Footprint ......................... page 12 We met with a volunteer group called ZAKA. The mostly Orthodox group was set up to perform the Coming next month: special issue on holy job of returning all body parts from “unnatural Simchas (weddings, B’nai Mitzvah, deaths” (suicides, car accidents, drownings and, anniversaries, birthdays, etc.) Send your now, terrorist actions). These 600 people employ a articles and photos from your family’s spesystem of scanners, beepers, walkie-talkies, cell cial events to: The Jewish Press, 333 So. 132 phones, and motorcycles to generally be the first on St., Omaha, NE 68154 or call 334-6450 for the scene to a tragedy. more information. (Continued on page 8)