The history of the Jews in Argentina goes back to the early sixteenth century, following the expulsion of Jews from Spain. Sephardic Jews fleeing persecution immigrated with explorers and colonists to settle in what is now Argentina, in spite of being forbidden from travelling to the American colonies. In addition, many of the Portuguese traders in the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata were Jewish.
An organized Jewish community, however, did not develop until after Argentina gained independence from Spain in 1816. By mid-century, Jews from France and other parts of Western Europe, fleeing the social and economic disruptions of revolutions, began to settle in Argentina. Argentines of both Ashkenazi and Sephardic heritage have left their mark on all aspects of Argentine culture, including in areas such as cuisine.
Reflecting the composition of the later immigration waves, the current Jewish population is 80% Ashkenazi; while Sephardi and Mizrahi are a minority. Argentina has the largest Jewish population of any country in Latin America, although numerous Jews left during the 1970s and 1980s to escape the repression of the military junta. They emigrated to Israel, West Europe (especially Spain), and North America.
The community numbered about 400,000 after World War II, but the appeal of Israel and economic and cultural pressures at home led many to leave. Instability in Israel in the early 21st century has resulted in a modest reversal of the trend since 2003. During a major emigration wave in the 2000s, more than 10,000 Argentine Jews settled in Israel.
History
Early years Some Spanish conversos, or secret Jews, settled in Argentina during the Spanish colonial period (16th–19th century), had assimilated into the Argentine population. After Argentina gained independence, the General Assembly of 1813 officially abolished the Inquisition.
The second wave of Jewish immigration from Europe began in the mid-19th century, during revolutions and extensive social disruption. Much of the Great European immigration wave to Argentina came from Western Europe, especially Spain and Italy.
Argentine Jewish women played a vital role in their communities, supporting charities, synagogues, and libraries while also organizing community events such as weddings. In 1860, the first Jewish wedding was recorded in Buenos Aires. A minyan was organized for High Holiday services a few years later, leading to the establishment of the Congregación Israelita de la República.
Agricultural settlement
In the late 19th century, Ashkenazi immigrants fleeing poverty and pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe settled in Argentina, attracted by its open-door immigration policy. These Jews became known as ("Russians").
In 1889, a group of 824 Russian Jews arrived in Argentina on the S.S. Weser and became gauchos (Argentine cowboys). They bought land and established a colony named Moisesville.
In dire economic straits, they appealed to the German Jewish philanthropist Baron Maurice de Hirsch, who founded the Jewish Colonization Association which helped manage the various colonies. In its heyday, the Association owned more than 600,000 hectares of land. Between 1906 and 1912, some 13,000 Jews immigrated to Argentina every year, mostly from Europe, but also from Morocco and the Ottoman Empire. By 1920, more than 150,000 Jews were living in Argentina.
After the death of his son and heir, de Hirsch devoted himself to Jewish philanthropy and alleviating Jewish suffering in Eastern Europe. He developed a plan to bring Jews to Argentina as autonomous agricultural settlers. This meshed with Argentina's campaign to attract immigrants.
The 1853 constitution guaranteed religious freedom, and the country had vast, unpopulated land reserves. Under President Julio Argentino Roca, a policy of mass immigration was encouraged; it provided relief to refugees fleeing the violent pogroms in the Russian Empire from 1881 onwards.
Jewish agricultural settlements were established in the provinces of Buenos Aires (Lapin, Rivera), Entre Ríos (San Gregorio, Villa Domínguez, Carmel, Ingeniero Sajaroff, Villa Clara, and Villaguay), Circuito Histórico de las Colonias Judías and Santa Fe (Moisés Ville). The national census of 1895 recorded that, of the 6,085 people who identified as Jewish, 3,880 (about 64%) lived in Entre Ríos.
Despite antisemitism and increasing xenophobia, Jews became involved in most sectors of Argentine society. Many settled in cities, especially Buenos Aires. As they were prohibited from positions in the government or military, many became farmers, peddlers, artisans, and shopkeepers.
Jewish women in Argentina were essential in sustaining farmland and raising children who would continue this work. Eastern European and German Jewish women had many responsibilities on the farm, with mothers and daughters working together to complete tasks in the field.
They shared the physically demanding burden of farm life, preparing the fields for harvest and helping in the eventual yield of crops. They were also responsible for taking care of animals, preparing food, and performing other household tasks such as cleaning and laundry.
Young Jewish women from Eastern Europe were also forced into sex work by the Zwi Migdal, an organized crime group run by Jews in Poland in the 19th century, based mainly in Buenos Aires.
20th century
World War II and antisemitism
Argentina kept its doors open to Jewish immigration until 1938, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in Germany began to take more actions against Jews, and tensions rose across Europe in preparation for war.
The government imposed new regulations on immigration; it was severely curtailed at a time of increasing persecution of Jews and the outbreak of World War II, when Jews sought a safe haven from the Nazis. Among the refugees who found exile in Argentina were numerous musicians.See documentary film "El Exiljo de los Musicos" ("The Exile of the Musicians"), 2025.
Although warned on several occasions by the German authorities to repatriate its Jewish citizens, the Argentine government refused to repatriate its approximately 100 nationals living in German-occupied Europe before the country severed diplomatic relations with Nazi Germany under Allied pressure in January 1944. All are believed to have been exterminated.
Juan Domingo Perón's rise to power in 1946 in Argentina after the war worried many Jews in the country. As Minister of War, he had signed Argentina's declaration of war against the Axis powers, but as a nationalist, he had earlier expressed sympathy for them. He was known to admire the Italian Fascist leader, Benito Mussolini.
Perón introduced Catholic religious instruction in Argentine public schools; he allowed Nazis fleeing prosecution in Germany to immigrate to the country. Perón also expressed sympathy for Jewish rights and in 1949 established diplomatic relations with Israel. Perón's government was the first in Argentina to allow Jewish citizens to hold office.
Among the most notable Nazis who immigrated to Argentina was Adolf Eichmann, a high-ranking official who had supervised the death camps; he lived near Buenos Aires from after World War II until 1960. Israeli agents tracked him down and abducted him from a Buenos Aires suburb to Israel for trial for war crimes. Eichmann faced trial in Jerusalem beginning in April 1961; he was convicted of crimes against humanity and hanged in May 1962.
Perón was overthrown in 1955, with the unrest unleashing a wave of antisemitism. Since then, more than 45,000 Jews have migrated to Israel from Argentina. Others have migrated to Europe and other destinations.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the Tacuara Nationalist Movement, a fascist organization with political ties, began a series of antisemitic campaigns. They encouraged street fights against Jews, and vandalism of synagogues and Jewish cemeteries. Tacuara salió a la calle , Página/12, 15 May 2005
A poll in 1964 shows that 26 percent of Argentine citizens and 76 percent of the Argentine military would bar Jewish immigrants' entry into Argentine.
Junta rule Between 1976 and 1983, Argentina was ruled by a military junta that oppressed many and "disappeared" countless victims. During this period, Jews were a prime target of the military government, in part because many opposed this dictature but also due to the Nazi ideology which permeated the ranks of the military, with some generals being obsessed with the "Jewish question".
Some sections of the military government believed in the "Andinia Plan", a fictional Israeli conspiracy to take over part of the Patagonia region and establish a second Jewish state there. Some Jewish prisoners were even interrogated over their knowledge of Andinia Plan and were even asked to provide details of Israeli military preparations for an invasion of southern Argentina.
During the period of military rule, people who opposed the government were arrested, imprisoned, and often "disappeared", being subjected to torture and execution, and Jewish victims were singled out for especially harsh treatment. The number of Jewish victims may have been as high as 3,000. Despite being less than 1% of the population, Jews made up around 12% of the victims of the military regime.
One Jew, Jacobo Timerman, a journalist who extensively covered government atrocities during the Dirty War, became the single most famous political prisoner of the entire Dirty War following his arrest and imprisonment.Rein & Davidi, "Exile of the World" (2010), p. 4. "Once his arrest became public knowledge, Timerman was the most famous Argentine political prisoner both inside and outside of the country". Timerman was eventually released, largely as a result of US and Israeli diplomatic pressure, and was expelled from Argentina. He lived in Israel until the junta fell.
Israel had a special agreement with the Argentine military government to allow Jews arrested for political crimes to immigrate to Israel, citing an Argentine law that allowed Argentine citizens in prison to emigrate if another country was willing to take them in. Israeli diplomats in Argentina helped organize the emigration of Jewish dissidents who had been arrested. This included leftist activists whose arrests had had nothing to do with their Jewish origins.
As well as official Israeli government efforts to secure the release and emigration of imprisoned Jews, many Israeli embassy personnel also took extensive independent efforts to rescue Jewish prisoners.Mualem, Yitzhak: Between a Jewish and an Israeli Foreign Policy: Israel-Argentina Relations and the Issue of Jewish Disappeared Persons and Detainees under the Military Junta, 1976-1983
The number of Argentine Jews emigrating to Israel greatly increased throughout the period of the junta. Some Jews also emigrated to Spain, other European countries and the United States. American-Jewish organizations began preparing for a mass exodus of Argentine Jewry.
The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society secured a promise from the government of Brazil to provide temporary asylum for the 350,000 Jews of Argentina if it became necessary, and in 1976, the US State Department promised Rabbi Alexander Schindler of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations that it would issue 100,000 visas for Argentine-Jewish refugees if it became necessary.
During the 1982 Falklands War, around 250 Jewish soldiers served in the Falkland Islands and strategic points in Patagonia. During their service, they suffered antisemitic attacks by officers. The Argentine government allowed five rabbis to visit them: these were the only chaplains permitted to accompany the Argentine Army during the conflict and were the only non-Catholic chaplains ever permitted to serve.