Argentina

Argentina, 30 years later

Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver executive director Ezra Shanken, left, and Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs Pacific region vice-president Nico Slobinsky were in Buenos Aires last month. (photo from Jewish Federation)

Nico Slobinsky was a 15-year-old high school student in Buenos Aires when, on July 18, 1994, the principal announced that their Jewish community centre and administrative hub had been blown up in an apparent terror attack.

The Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (Argentine Israelite Mutual Association, or AMIA) building was attacked by a car laden with 275 kilograms of explosive ammonium nitrate fertilizer and fuel oil. The building collapsed, killing 85 and injuring more than 300.

The AMIA attack remains the most significant terrorist attack in Argentina’s history. Two years earlier, though, the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires was the target of a suicide bombing, on March 17, 1992, in which 29 were killed and 242 wounded.

“I remember vividly the morning that the building was targeted and blown to pieces,” said Slobinsky, now the Pacific region vice-president of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA). “I remember the pervasive feeling [that] we are no longer safe and what’s going to become of us. I remember the dinner that night at my family’s home, where the bombing, the targeting of the AMIA, was all that my parents were talking about and what was going to happen next. There was a lot of uncertainty at the time and, 30 years later, I can tell you that the same feeling of lack of justice and lack of safety persists.”

The perpetrators of the AMIA bombing have never been brought to justice, nor have the perpetrators of the earlier embassy attack. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the 1992 embassy bombing but it was only this year that an Argentine court ruled that Iran was behind the 1994 bombing, through their international terror subsidiary Hezbollah.

Two of Slobinsky’s friends were murdered in the attack and many in his circles of acquaintances were killed or injured. He attended and helped organize memorial events on the anniversaries of the AMIA bombing when he lived in Argentina, until 2000, and then joined with the Argentine community in Israel when he lived there.

Last month, Slobinsky traveled to Buenos Aires for ceremonies marking the 30th anniversary of the atrocities. He was joined by a small delegation of other Vancouver Jewish community leaders, including Ezra Shanken, chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, and his wife, Rachel Shanken, director of operations at Jewish Family Services Vancouver; Karen James, who is on the national board of CIJA and also on the board of the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI); and Candace Kwinter, who is on the board of JAFI, as well as the board of Jewish Federations of Canada-UIA, and her husband, Alan Kwinter, who is on the board of Congregation Beth Israel.

The anniversary of the terror attack coincided with a meeting of the World Jewish Congress in Buenos Aires, which the Vancouverites attended.

It is widely believed that there was government complicity in the AMIA attack. Police who were routinely stationed in front of the building departed before the bombing. Rubble from the building, which should have been preserved for investigation, was dumped in a river. In 2015, Alberto Nisman, a prosecutor leading the AMIA investigation released a 300-page report accusing then-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and other political leaders of covering up Iranian involvement. Hours before Nisman was to present his findings to parliament, he was found dead in his apartment. The government declared it a suicide.

James was impressed with the panoply of world leaders who attended the AMIA commemoration and the WZO conference, particularly Javier Milei, the new president of Argentina, who has made justice for the AMIA terrorists a belated priority. The presidents of Uruguay and Paraguay were also in attendance, as were Jewish parliamentarians from around the world, including Liberal Member of Parliament Anthony Housefather, and special envoys for antisemitism from scores of countries, including Canada’s Deborah Lyons, Deborah Lipstadt of the United States and Michal Cotler-Wunsh of Israel.

Family members of the bombing victims spoke and time has not lessened the agony of the attack, said James.

“They were sobbing and some couldn’t finish speaking,” she said. “There’s never been closure for them. It was so emotional. I was in tears.”

Candace Kwinter said that standing shoulder to shoulder with the families affected 30 years ago was an act of bearing witness.

“We’ve all been to Israel since 10/7 and it just feels like another deep, dark, awful part of our history,” she said.

Supporting Slobinsky in the return to the time and place of the bombing was a motivator for those who joined the trip, according to Alan Kwinter.

“It was important certainly to support Nico and also, in this time when there is rising antisemitism and there are so many people that are turning their backs on the Jewish people, I feel that it’s important for us to come together as a community, a global community as well as the local community, and for us to be there with those families that lost their loved ones and have never had justice,” he said. “It was important for me that we show solidarity with them, that they feel that they’re not alone.”

Slobinsky acknowledged the emotional impacts of the commemoration and drew contemporary connections from lessons of the past.

“It was difficult to be there with thousands of Argentinians on the streets still asking for justice 30 years later,” he said, noting that this early life experience reinforced his commitment to taking a leadership role in Jewish life.

“For those who argue that Canada should embrace the Iranian regime by reestablishing diplomatic ties, the 30th anniversary of the AMIA bombing that we just attended is just another painful reminder that Iran and its proxies like Hezbollah must be held accountable not only for the horrific attack on the AMIA [but] for their export of terrorism around the world,” said Slobinsky. “In memory of my friends Viviana and Christian and to the victims, the survivors and their families – I will never forget.”

Golem dances tango & more

University of Victoria’s Prof. Dan Russek spoke about Jewish writers in Argentina and Mexico, as well as Jorge Luis Borges’ Jewish-related writings. (photo from Dan Russek)

Dan Russek spoke on 20th-century Latin American writers, both Jewish and those who have been influenced by Jewish themes, at a Jan. 10 Zoom event organized by Congregation Emanu-El in Victoria.

Entitled The Golem Dances the Tango, the talk began with discussion of four Jewish authors – Alberto Gerchunoff and Ana Maria Shua of Argentina and Margo Glantz and Myriam Moscona of Mexico – before examining Argentine Jorge Luis Borges’ Jewish-related writings.

Gerchunoff (1883-1950) painted an idealized version of Jewish life in the Argentine countryside in his writings, with religious Jews as peasant farmers in a new land, explained Russek, an associate professor in the University of Victoria’s department of Hispanic and Italian studies.

In his best-known work, The Jewish Gauchos of the Pampas, a series of vignettes, “Gerchunoff was keen to find parallels between peasant life in Argentina and the Bible, and explore the interaction between Jews and the local residents,” Russek said. In one story, El Episodio de Myriam, a Jewish girl from a pious family elopes with a non-Jewish boy, causing uproar in the community.

Shua represents a more modern writer, less attached to traditions, said Russek. In her 1994 novel The Book of Memories, an anonymous narrator tells the story of the Rimetka family. “Gossip reigns supreme in this fictionalized account of a family. One feels as though we are witnessing a family dinner, perhaps a seder,” Russek explained. The narrator presents different and sometimes contradictory accounts, he said, creating a “series of foibles and misadventures with no end.”

Mexico’s Glantz incorporates much of her family story into her most-recognized book, The Genealogies, published in 1981. The daughter of immigrants from Ukraine, her father, Jacobo Glantz, was a promoter of Jewish intellectual life in Mexico, and once penned a poem about Christopher Columbus in Yiddish.

The Genealogies “is a form of literature as transcription and personal document,” Russek said. “It is a family story centred on her parents and her own coming of age. In Glantz, we see an adoption of Jewish culture but not of Jewish faith nor a strong sense of belonging.”

Moscona, a poet, journalist and translator, was the most contemporary writer of the four. Born in Mexico City to Ladino-speaking Bulgarian immigrants, her autobiographic novel Tela de sevoya explores her quest to find her cultural and linguistic heritage.

Russek then discussed Borges, a Judeophile who had several Jewish friends, from his time studying in Geneva, as well as literary mentors, such as Baruch Spinoza and Franz Kafka. Borges credited his English Protestant grandmother for providing a passion for Israel through a love of the Bible, and recognized Judaism as a pillar of Western Civilization.

In 1934, early in his literary life, Borges wrote an article called “I, A Jew,” which was a defence against an attack from a fascist magazine accusing him of hiding his Jewishness. In it, Borges says he would not mind at all being Jewish.

Borges lauded Israel in his poetry. In his 1969 collection In Praise of Darkness, he views Israel as a place that transcends Jewish history and the stereotypes associated with Jews. Two of the poems were written after the Six Day War and herald Israeli heroism on the battlefield.

In “Israel, 1969,” Borges writes, “You shall forget your parents’ tongue and learn the tongue of Paradise. / You shall be an Israeli. / You shall be a soldier. / You shall build the homeland with swamps, you shall erect it in deserts.”

Jewish characters and themes appear in “The Secret Miracle” and “The Death and the Compass.” And Borges had an abiding interest in kabbalah, which is documented in his essays and lectures. About his story El Aleph, Borges wrote: “In the kabbalah, that letter [aleph] signifies the En Soph, the pure and unlimited godhead; it has also been said that its shape is that of a man pointing to the sky and the earth, to indicate that the lower world is the map and mirror of the higher.”

Russek concluded with Borges’ poem “The Golem,” from the 1964 book El otro, el mismo. “Despite the logical structure of the poem, the theme deals with magic, myth and religion. The main philosophical/theological subject is the relationship between the creator and its creatures,” Russek said.

Russek is the author of Textual Exposures: Photography in 20th-Century Latin American Narrative Fiction and the upcoming Exercises in Urban Mysticism, a book of illustrated poetic prose. He coordinates Victoria’s annual Latin American and Spanish Film Week at Cinecinta.

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

More than meets eye

Catalina Beraducci plays Noemí Goldberg in the Topic film Noemí Gold. (photo from Topic)

For his first feature film, writer and director Dan Rubenstein has done well. Noemí Gold, which is currently streaming exclusively on Topic, is a quietly engaging story that touches upon serious issues, though never delves into them. While the story is somewhat scattered and doesn’t always make sense, the acting is strong and the glimpse into Argentine culture interesting.

The title role is played by Catalina Beraducci, who is perfect for the part. Noemí Goldberg, 27, has accidentally become pregnant from a tryst with an egotistical artist of questionable talent and character. She is an unassuming person, recently graduating with her master’s in architecture, though she doesn’t appear to have a job. When she seeks a doctor who can perform an abortion – which was an illegal procedure in Argentina until just last month – she has some trouble raising the money she’ll need to go to Uruguay to get one.

Noemí has a couple close friends – eccentric roommate Rosa and party-girl Sol – both of whom help in small but important ways. Also in Noemí’s court is her grandmother, though we find out later in the movie that their relationship has had its complications. Lastly, while all this is going on, Noemí’s cousin, David, comes to visit from Los Angeles, where his family moved when he was 7, for tragic reasons we eventually find out.

David and Noemí were once close, but, for most of the movie, their interactions are strained. David works for an energy drink company and his job is, literally, to post photos on Instagram of himself enjoying the drink in various places and while doing various activities. (He is the only one in the film who has a job, it seems.) Social media plays a prominent role in the narrative as a whole – and, hopefully, younger viewers will take it not only as a representation of themselves in film but as a critique of how much time they dedicate to promoting the fun they are ostensibly having versus actually having fun.

Women’s rights, religion (via a discussion with and seduction attempt of two young Mormon missionaries), what constitutes art (one amusing scene features an objectively poor dancer filming her own performance using a camera on a selfie stick, while being cheered and applauded by an adoring audience), the importance of forgiveness, the challenges of being a good friend, the imperfection but necessity of family, and many other topics run through Noemí Gold. There are no pronouncements and the laidback pace could fool one into thinking there is not much of substance in the film, but they’d be wrong.

Stories about diversity

Cynthia Fidel was the coordinator of AMIA’s literary contest, which resulted in the publication Primer Concurso de Cuentos Infantiles. (photo by Rebeca Kuropatwa)

When the AMIA (Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina) bombing occurred in Buenos Aires on July 18, 1994, there was already tension in Argentina between different religious and other groups. The bombing was a sad reminder of the need for diligence – and creativity – in mitigating hatred and fear.

After the bombing, it was very difficult for people to feel comfortable enough to return to the AMIA building, especially parents with small children. Hence, the Jewish education advisor for AMIA, Gabriela Wilensky, developed a program called AMIA for Kids. On two Sundays a month, she brought in top performers to engage children and their parents in forming fresh connections between families and AMIA.

In 2014, Wilensky came up with the first literary contest for kids that would have them explore the concepts of culture and identity. The idea was to involve the greater Buenos Aires community by partnering with 40 public and private schools, with children of all religions. Recently, the literary contest coordinator, Cynthia Fidel, moved to Winnipeg with her family.

“This contest was part of the 20-year anniversary of AMIA, which happened in 2014,” said Fidel. It was open to children from 8 to 12 years old.

When all was said and done, Fidel and Wilensky received 200 story submissions. With the help of a couple of local children’s book authors, 10 winning stories were selected to be published in a book called Primer Concurso de Cuentos Infantiles (First Contest of Fairy Tales) that was published by MILA for Kids, a division of MILA publishing house.

“They talked about different problems, ideas and questions regarding cultural diversity and identity,” said Fidel. “The first prize went to a girl who wrote about cultural diversity. It’s a collection of certain ideas and questions but, above all, it’s a collection of all the incredible imaginations of the kids.”

Now there is talk of launching a second literary contest, because of the success of the first. “They were really happy about what happened with the kids,” said Fidel.

The contest, which was open to children of all origins and faiths, has sparked dialogue between the kids. The main talking point has been respecting each other’s ideas and understanding that agreement is not needed to achieve mutual respect. Fidel loosely translated one of the first lines in the book’s preface: “Nobody is the same, nor worse or better, just different.”

Primer Concurso de Cuentos Infantiles is 84 pages long and includes the 10 winning stories, as well as an extra story written by several children together.

“Some of the stories talk about some kind of conflict situation and how they solved that situation,” said Fidel. “A recurring theme revolves around how they solved it and prevailed using dialogue.”

An excerpt from the book, as translated by Fidel, reads: “There was a society where some people had curly hair, so they thought they had the right to have more time in front of the mirror, to comb their hair. But, others who had different kinds of hair thought they deserved more time. There were others who were taller and they thought they deserved to cut their hair, while short people didn’t deserve that right.

“Until, one day, a girl wished in her heart that everybody would become equal and have the same characteristics. The wish came true and the entire world became grey – colorless and boring. She wished again to have colors and differences in her world, and everybody got their characteristics back. But, now, everyone loved their uniqueness and celebrated others’ uniqueness, too.”

Fidel is a strong believer that adults can learn a great deal from children. “From my experience,” she said, “it is amazing what you can learn from kids and their reflections if you give them the opportunity to express themselves.”

Fidel said the literary contest is a great representation of AMIA as a whole, as their main principles revolve around democracy and pluralism, and creating spaces for all through communal living and coexistence. “They promote those values,” said Fidel. “I’m very proud to have worked there.”

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

Nisman was a true hero

Gustavo Perednik, right, with Alberto Nisman in Jerusalem. Nisman’s work inspired Perednik’s novel. (photo from Gustavo Perednik)

The day before he was to present to Argentina’s parliament allegations that the government tried to cover up Iran’s involvement in the 1994 terror attack against the AMIA (Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina) Jewish community centre, federal prosecutor Alberto Nisman was found shot dead in his home on Jan. 18.

Led by another prosecutor, Nisman’s AMIA case was dismissed last week by a federal judge on the basis of insufficient evidence. An appeal will likely follow (as at press time, it had not), and the case will continue. No one has been found responsible for the bombing of the AMIA, nor that of the Israeli embassy in 1992. Nisman’s suspicious death is under investigation.

image - To Kill Without a Trace book cover — *To Kill Without a Trace* author Gustavo Perednik speaks at the Waldman Library on March 23.

It is within this context that Argentina-born Israeli writer Gustavo Perednik visits Vancouver (and elsewhere) to discuss his novel To Kill Without a Trace: A Prequel to 9/11. Originally published in Spanish in 2009 by Planeta, the English edition was published by Ontario-based Mantua Books Ltd. on Sept. 11, 2004. It was translated by Dennis Burton, and Vancouverite Elena Feder wrote the foreword.

Written as an historical novel, writes Feder, To Kill Without a Trace “recounts the events leading up to the bombing of the AMIA and beyond, exploring the social and political implications both for Argentina and the world. Never losing sight of the human dimension of the tragedy, Perednik’s lightly veiled fiction is accurately based on reported facts and original legal documents, put at the author’s disposal by none other than the chief investigator of the case, Argentina’s prosecutor, Alberto Nisman.

“As it did for its Spanish readers when it was first released,” Feder continues, “this translation of Perednik’s account will make the AMIA bombing and its aftermath more accessible to its English readers. It will help them unravel the complex threads surrounding the facts and events leading up to and following the bombing, and will steer them through the arcane legal and political intricacies of this decades-long case.”

“I was motivated to write the book when I knew the fantastic work done by Alberto Nisman for justice in Argentina,” Perednik told the Independent in an email interview. “Here you have a man fighting by himself against all odds, inspired by the ideal of pursuing truth by all means. Moreover, I was encouraged by the fact that I was able to get plenty of information on Iranian terrorism thanks to my friendship with Alberto.”

Perednik has published novels, essays and countless articles in anthologies and academic journals. He said he chose the fictional form for To Kill Without a Trace “to make it more readable and compelling. The life of Alberto combines many aspects that are appropriate for a fictionalized chronicle: perseverance, idealistic youth and the metamorphosis of a personality due to the sense of a mission he felt about one specific case – the investigation of the AMIA terror attack.”

Perednik and Nisman met about 10 years ago, “when he read an article I wrote and emailed me that he agreed with me and that we should meet. Once we met, he told me that when he was a teenager he had heard me speak several times at the Jewish institution that I headed in Argentina.”

For the novel, Nisman provided “reports, opinions and projects,” explained Perednik. “Sometimes he also gave me pictures, and he often provided me the names of people who could help me in my research for the book.”

Perednik and Feder have been friends for about 15 years. “She translated my book Judeophobia into English – it is still unpublished,” he said, referring to the English edition. The book, which examines the origins and development of hatred towards Jews and various theories explaining it, has already been published in Spanish, Portuguese and Hebrew.

“It all started when she wrote to me about my article ‘Europe the Aggressor,’” he said. “She was on her way to a conference on Jew-hatred in Paris. She was the Canadian representative. Elena put me in contact with the publisher – Mantua Books – and she was kind enough to write the excellent foreword that helps to understand the case.”

Feder has volunteered many hours to the publication. “I do it out of conviction,” she wrote in an email. “I do it to honor the memory of my parents and the decimated family I never met, courtesy of the Nazis, who serve as models and heroes to the current instigators of hatred against the Jewish people.

“I stand on the side of those who consider Iran’s extensive, long-term and long-ranging aim to take over and cleanse the planet of all ‘infidels,’ instrumental in the resurgence and spread of Jew-hatred worldwide. Like my ancestors, I feel personally at risk, not for what I do or what I may or may not believe in, or where I may choose to live, but for who I am in the distorted lens of those who consider both my life, and this life as a whole, worthless.”

“I think Alberto Nisman’s devotion for the cause of justice should be valued everywhere,” said Perednik, “especially during these times in which the terrorist state of Iran seems to get away with its murderous campaign without anyone having the courage to confront it. Alberto had the courage and paid for it with his life. He was a true hero.”

Perednik will appear on CBS’s 60 Minutes on March 8, at 7 p.m. He will be at the Isaac Waldman Jewish Public Library on March 23, 7 p.m., with Feder. An RSVP is required to 604-257-5111, ext. 248, or [email protected] by March 19.