Jewish & World News

Argentina's Congress approved an agreement with Iran to jointly investigate the 1994 bombing of the Buenos Aires AMIA Jewish Community Center. The legislative body's Lower House early on Thursday approved the bill establishing the joint program  with 131 votes in favor and 113 against, after 13 hours of debate. The accord was approved last week in the Argentine Congress' Upper House. No single political representative of the main opposition parties voted for the bill, but the government party has its own majority in both chambers.

The president of the AMIA Buenos Aires Jewish center said the truth commission agreed to by Argentina and Iran "will allow a third bombing in Argentina." “This pact is viewed by some people as a step forward. This may be a step to the precipice," Guillermo Borger said. "It will allow a very unfortunate third attack.”

The Buenos Aires City Legislature unanimously approved a declaration to remember the Israeli athletes murdered at the Munich Olympics in 1972. "This year we sadly commemorate the 40 anniversary of Munich massacre against the Israeli delegation. That deplorable event forces us to have memory and not only is it a vindication in favor of these Israel athletes, it is also is a current claim in favor of respect and tolerance,” said the declaration, presented today by legislator Claudio Presman of the Radical Civic Union party.

The Buenos Aires city government has launched a program to make the city “the kosher capital of Latin America.” The program, Buenos Aires Kosher Friendly, is a result of a year of work with hotels, restaurants, tour services providers and Jewish institutions, according to the Buenos Aires city government, which announced the initiative this week at the Buenos Aires Jewish Community Center.

Smoking may have saved Lea Kovensky’s life. On a hot afternoon of March 17, 1992 – exactly 20 years ago this Saturday – Kovensky stepped outside the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, where she worked as a secretary to the military attaché, to light up a cigarette. Suddenly, a huge explosion occurred. “I was knocked to the ground by the blast and several of my teeth were broken,” the 56-year-old Israeli-Argentinean recalled in a phone interview from Buenos Aires on Thursday.

Jewish groups have condemned an anti-Semitic cartoon strip, “FieSSta” by Gustavo Sala published in Argentine paper Pagina/12 and called on the country’s government to denounce the daily newspaper under Argentina 's anti-discrimination law. Following protests from the Simon Wiesenthal Center and countless activists, the Argentine daily issued an apology on its website. The cartoon strip’s main character, DJ David Gueto (a caricature of the French DJ David Guetta) plays music in a concentration camp. At first, the prisoners don’t want to dance because they feel there’s nothing to celebrate, saying: “Do you know that they kill us in gas chambers and make soap with us?” Hitler then appears and convinces them to dance because “life is short.” Hitler thanks the DJ, saying: “If they are relaxed, the soap will be better.” B’nai B’rith International expressed its deep outrage and revulsion toward the cartoon, its creator and the newspaper that chose to publish it. “We hope the Arg...

Argentina's first Jewish foreign minister, Hector Timerman, has hailed his recent appointment as a "symbol of progress" for a society historically plagued by anti-Semitism.