Synagogues and network paint centers are closed, however, Jewish net paintings have uncovered tactics for making paintings, mainly.
Since March 20, Argentina has imposed one of the strictest COVID-19 quarantines in the world, and its capital, home to the country’s entire Jewish community, will reopen soon.
Jewish schools and synagogues have been closed for five months, but most of the city’s advertising and advertising activities have also closed, leading to a local economic crisis affecting most of the city’s businesses, both Jewish and non-Jewish. part of 2020 showed an inflation rate of about 20% and now the peso, the local currency, is losing value: in January, it took 63 pesos to buy a dollar; now exceeds 120 pesos.
Despite the shutdown, the virus continues to advance in Argentina. The National Health Ministry reported a new record of deaths (283) in one day on August 19. Since the start of the pandemic, nearly 312,000 more people have become inflamed with COVID . -19, with 6,330 deaths.
Frustration boiled in the Jewish network: at the beginning of the crisis, in March, members of an Orthodox congregation were arrested for performing a mikva, or ritual bath, and later, brides were arrested at their own wedding for convening such a giant meeting. An Orthodox rabbi said Tuesday that “Judaism in Argentina has reached a low point. “
For the first time in history, the busy occasions commemorating the fatal attacks on the Israeli Embassy and the AMIA Jewish Center in the city in the 1990s were streamed online.
But there were also positive points, such as an agreement between the Orthodox network and the government on how to keep rituals safe, and an operation that led nearly a hundred Israeli rabbis to certify a delay of thousands of tons of kosher meat.
This is how some local Jewish establishments are doing as the pandemic continues.
Synagogues can slowly reopen
Many have asked the government to restart some recreational and economic activities, and since July 18, the city has noticed some slow reopenings. Synagogues can open for 10 members at a time, as long as the mask is used and the fitness protocol is tracked.
But despite new measures, many temples will remain closed to the public and will continue to be offered online for fear of the virus’s continued spread. Lately it’s winter in this South American country.
Major conservative synagogues such as NCI Emanuel, Bet El, Bet Hillel and Amijai will close.
“Government and society are in favor of some normalization, but the dangers still exist,” said Ariel Stofenmacher, 57, rector of the conservative Latin American rabbinical seminary.
“Flexibility is driven by economic needs, other people have had enough. But we are still in the middle of winter and without a vaccine, I would probably not call other people to unsern,” added Alejandro Avruj, 50, the rabbi of Amijai, who has published Kabbalat Shabbat with prominent musicians.
The Habad Lubavitch Orthodox Motion has opened its establishments with mandatory fitness protocols. “We will open our temples to 10 other people with strict disinfection measures and all the needs of government regulations for our other people,” said Tzvi Grunblatt, 66, general manager of chabad bankruptcy in Argentina.
A thriving kosher deli
The kosher food here, which combines flavors of Sephardic and Askenazi immigrants with classic Argentinian meat, has a charm for Jewish tourists.
The local kosher food market costs around $25 million a year, according to data provided throughout the city. The city has hosted a kosher festival since 2013, and 11 hotels in the city are kosher certified with workers trained for the kosher tourist.
Restaurants have been closed since March 20 and many are suffering, but some have strangely discovered an opportunity to grow. Brothers Leandro, 42, and Esteban Olsztajn, 44, opened a gourmet kosher food venue three years ago in central Buenos Aires. Orthodox neighborhood “El Once”, right between the Toratenu Orthodox School and the Jewish Community Center Maccabi.
The “Oh Brothers,” as they are called, intended to recreate some of the atmosphere of a Manhattan Jewish grocery store instead of eating that bears the nickname; however, they sell all kinds of Jewish dishes, kosher sushi and other fusion dishes. expanding their delivery service in the face of the pandemic, tripled their sales.
When Stephen was asked why he thought this had happened, he said, “I in God, don’t you?”
Esteban is Orthodox, but his brother and business spouse is not. He gave an explanation.
“After closing, we received orders from all corners of the city, not just from our nearby neighbors,” Leandro told JTA.
A hospital that has JCC
The Jewish Community Center of Buenos Aires, called Sociedad Hebraica Argentina, is one of the largest Jewish centers in the city, hosting youth sports leagues, classes, professional courses, adult systems and more. We had to put it all online temporarily – however, it found a way to be useful.
Part of its 420-acre outdoor site in Pilar, a 300,000-inhabitant city on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, has become a transitional hospital. The municipality of Pilar managed the site, which had 230 beds for COVID-19. patients And that’s just one example.
According to Argentina’s Jewish umbrella organization DAIA, all of its 140 establishments across the country have presented their amenities and volunteers to national and local governments to deal with the crisis. They did so as they went through their own economic crisis, as members had more difficulty paying their dues.
Like Hebraica, another well-known jewish network medium is Hacoaj, a sports and cultural club with about 7,500 members in Tigre, a town in the northern province of Buenos Aires (in addition to the city of Buenos Aires, which is the capital of the country, there is also a province of the same name). Hacoaj has diversified a diversity of ‘home’ activities and reduced memberships by 20%. Some members have donated their discounts to other members in need.
The Kosher Nostra
Buenos Aires is home to some 159,000 Jews, according to 2018 of the world’s Jewish population through expert Sergio Della Pergola, giving Argentina the largest Jewish population in Latin America.
Local Jewish entrepreneurs, artists, professionals and creatives have been greatly affected by the general slowdown and strict bans on meetings and social events.
Cancellations of occasions and performances included the 72nd Israel Independence Day birthday party, organized through the Argentine Zionist Organization. The biggest charm was for the local klezmer organization “La Kosher Nostra”, a band so small in 2011 that it now plays for thousands. of stadium enthusiasts across the country. In 2016, the band performed twice in front of a crowd of 10,000 in South Africa.
“To honor Israel, we recorded a video in the participation of more than 60 Argentine artists,” Jonathan Strugo, 27, one of the group’s creators, told the Jewish Telegraph Agency.
The crisis
Every week, the principals of the city’s most important Jewish schools, such as Scholem Aleijem, ORT, Martin Buber, Taryet, Beth, among others, hold Zoom meetings to discuss the situation. Most of them have reduced their costs, but the currency crisis. it’s no easier.
Prior to the pandemic, the Jewish organization AMIA responded to about 40 new applications for financial assistance per month. Since quarantine, this figure has increased to more than 500 consistent with the month (an increase of 1,200%).
The AMIA coordinating activities with communities across the country, called Vaad Hakeilot, has introduced a platform that allows others to donate to other Jewish institutions.
A special segment on education attracted the attention of major media outlets and grossed $400,000.
“The request for help has tripled,” economist Miguel Kiguel, 66, president of the Tzedak Foundation, a charity NGO, said in a recent interview. “There are many instances of other people who have jobs, who have a life, but since closing, all those basic structures have to collapse.
Tzedaku implemented an emergency program called Guesher (“bridge” in Hebrew) for Jewish families in Buenos Aires with a transitional economic assistance program to meet their fundamental needs, such as food, fitness and shelter, for up to six months.
Cinema and crashes into a wall
Jonas Papier, 50, runs Motivarte and runs one of the world’s most awarded photography schools, has 2,000 fellows and has won a record seven nominations for the World Photography Organization Student Focus Award; a motivarte student won the 2017 edition.
He reached coaching agreements with Betzalel, Israel’s outstanding Academy of Arts and Design, and Paper visited Israel several times to teach. In 2019, he took to the streets of Tel Aviv to teach his outstanding street photography course, in Spanish, Hebrew and English.
He had planned a 2020 edition in Tel Aviv with new projects to involve Israeli institutions.
“We miss the Israel. La the school’s construction is empty. Now I’m too busy transforming the school’s total concept into a virtual platform,” Paper said. “The good news is that we are reclaiming our technical staff with professionals who have taught here in the afterlife and now live in Europe and Israel. “
For more than 16 years, the Buenos Aires Jewish Film Festival has released 250 films through Israelis such as Yosef Shiloaj, Dan Wolman, Ayelet Bargur, Igaal Niddam, Ilan Heitne, David Volach and Jorge Gurvich, and Americans Ann Coppel, Hilary HelsteinArray Adam Vardy, Gaylen Ross and Adam Zucker.
The festival’s creator, Luis Gutman, 73, told JTA that the weight devaluation made it difficult for him to buy the rights to the films to be shown at the festival. For 16 years, the festival screened films at Cinemark film station for two years. weeks in November.
“Cinemark still ensures whether cinemas will reopen this year and I’m unsuccessful in buying the rights to movies and displaying them online; so if the film industry stays closed, I don’t think there’s a festival this year and it will resume operations in 2021,” he said.
However, one is safe.
“[P] or I’m sure it may not be an online festival,” Gutman said.