On Tuesday May 26, 2015, we had a tour of Jewish neighborhoods and visited the site of AMIA, which is known as the “mother institution” and center of institutional life for the Jewish community. AMIA opened in 1945 and was the source of community initiatives, the Jewish Education Central Council, the Federation of Jewish Communities of Argentina, and Tzedaka Foundation, among others. The building moved after two suicide bombings, the first in 1992 and the second in 1994; destroying the building along with 85 victims being killed. The new building was inaugurated in 1999. The lives’ of the 85 victims are still being cherished to this day.

Yaacov Agam, a world-renowned Israeli artist, created a monument to the memory of the terrorist attack on AMIA. This monument portrays 7 different positions that each represent a part of the Jewish tradition.

This symbolizes an explosion of 9 columns for the destruction of Jewish values and symbols, a reminder of the July 18, 1994 tragedy.

In this position the star of David appears. The white color refers to the purity of the souls of the 85 people murdered and the paper of the documents and books that were destroyed in the home of AMIA.

 This is a double Menorah, seven-branch candle-holder that is the symbol of light and the Jewish people. One of the mirror images faces heaven, conveying hopes and illusions for the future, spirituality and study. The other faces the earth, concrete actions, as a form of reducing the traditions values, the essence and the roots.

Two white triangles appear, overlapped by a blue and a red one. The first symbolizes a man with broad shoulders and narrow hips, while the red one represents a women with narrow shoulders and broad hips. The man-women union is represented by the overlapping of both triangles, a union that then forms the family and the home, the principles that have kept the Jewish people alive along its history.

This is the institutional symbol of AMIA. This is a representation of a community that stands on its feet again, responding to hatred and violence with love and intelligence. It projects towards the future, securing continuity, supporting and endorsing every individual and collective expression of Jewish life in Argentina.

There are 250,000-300,000 Jewish people in Argentina that make up 54 communities, most of which are in big cities such as Buenos Aires. AMIA is an institution that fulfills its initial objectives, providing answers to the vital needs of the community. They aid 4,000 underprivileged families. They offer recreation and assistance to over 2,500 seniors. They help educate over 18,000 students. They help find over 2,000 jobs a year. They host centers attended by over 300 physically challenged persons. They organize a vast agenda of free activities attended by more than 100,000 people a year. It is unbelievable how much AMIA does to support the Jewish community of Argentina. They make life easier for the Jewish people and instill them with hope, so they are a very essential organization for Jewish life in Argentina.

The breakdown of the Jewish Community in Argentina cities.

This represents the “Disappeared Jews”

On Tuesday May 19th, we took an excursion to San Telmo to tour the Zanjon de Granados museum. The Zanjon, which means creek, was an abandoned house/property that was first bought with the intentions to invest to the neighborhood, however, the owner discovered a tunnel in the back of the house. The owner hired archeologists from the University of Buenos Aires and they found signs that the house was once used to run a colonial drainage system and ran to a creek.

 This is where water was filtered and cleaned of sediments.

You can see lighter spots where the archeologists broke through to explore the tunnel.

This ended up being one of the first private archeological works and it is very fascinating how this property was built on the southern creek that led to the river. The tunnel was separated by house so that each neighbor could privately use their tunnel. The entire restoration process took about 20 years and it is believed that it took about 50 years to tunnel the whole stream.

The tunnel that used to have cement walls for separation between neighbors homes. 

One house had a pile of trash clogged in their tunnel. After archeologists removed the trash one of the families bedroom collapsed into the basement.

In 1871, the house was bought out and drained and turned into a tenement house for mostly Italian immigrants. These immigrants were indentured servants in this house for almost 100 years. It was very interesting to be able to see first hand the changes that were made to convert the house from a drainage system over a creek into a slave tenement house. We could see how big rooms were turned into smaller rooms with bars on the windows and lower entrances.

The Zanjon requires a lot of funding from governments and events they host such as banquet and tours. The museum is not quite ready to be fully opened yet but is a great establishment for so much history and culture. All in all, we had the chance to learn a lot of history that pertains to Spanish America and developments of the unique mixture of culture between the Natives, Spanish and French from the Zanjon.

Smaller rooms for slaves with bars on the windows.

You can still see the brick and adobe from the original house.

Something you won’t normally see, the bottom of a well.