At 9:53 a.m. this July 18, a loud siren will sound in front of 633 Pasteur St., where the AMIA Jewish community center is located. The siren will mark the moment 10 years ago on a Monday morning when a bomb went off, killing 85 people in the most devastating terrorist attack in modern Latin American history. Hundreds of Argentines are expected to be standing on Pasteur and in nearby streets to commemorate the anniversary of the tragedy.
The DAIA political umbrella group, together with AMIA and Familiares de Las Victimas — the biggest group of victims’ relatives — jointly organized the commemoration ceremony in Buenos Aires.
The next day, DAIA’s president, Gilbert Lewi, will be in New York to take part in a commemoration there of the AMIA attack.
The American Jewish Committee, which recently gave an award to Argentine President Nestor Kirchner for his friendliness to Jews and Jewish interests, is sending a delegation to ! Buenos Aires to take part in the local ceremony.
Kirchner said he’ll attend the July 18 commemoration at the AMIA center, and the day will be declared a national day of mourning. The president attended last year’s commemoration a few weeks after taking office, and he has been praised for his commitment to investigating the attack.
Because of infighting in the community, Familiares at first opposed co-sponsoring the demonstration with local Jewish leaders.
“We finally decided not to show our differences to the world on such a day. We’re privileged to honor the victims,” Sergio Burstein, a prominent member of Familiares, told JTA.
Barely a week before the commemoration, Familiares still hadn’t chosen a speaker. “We need to make sure we have someone that won’t break down,” Burstein said.
The Familiares speech will come after speeches by representatives of AMIA and DAIA. AMIA President Abraham Kaul said he will speak on the 10-year investigation of the attack, ! focusing on how the case has lost its focus.
Ten days before the ce remony, DAIA leaders also had not chosen a speaker.
“No matter who talks, he’ll express the will for truth, justice and unity that DAIA feels,” said Jorge Kirszenbaum, the DAIA vice president.
Many Jews are concerned that DAIA officials — aside from Lewi — are still linked to the organization’s former president, Ruben Beraja. Beraja has been criticized by local Jews because of his ties to former Argentine President Carlos Menem and the former investigative judge on the AMIA case, Juan Jose Galeano.
Menem has been implicated in media reports of hindering the AMIA investigation because of his ties to Iran, which is believed to have been behind the 1994 attack.
When many Argentine Jews were furious about the slow pace of the investigation into the AMIA bombing, Beraja refused to criticize the authorities. Beraja currently is in prison for developments related to a bank bankruptcy.
DAIA is considering having a victim’s relative speak to avoid public criticism, ! according to local press reports.
Kirchner, who was applauded at last year’s commemoration, still hasn’t announced whether he’ll attend.
Two other organizations of victims’ relatives, Memoria Activa and Apemia, are not taking part in the main celebration. Memoria Activa, which for years has been harshly critical of the investigation, is holding a ceremony the night beforehand in front of the city’s central courthouse and will then hold an overnight demonstration with the group Youth in Guard.
Apemia, led by Laura Ginsberg, who was among the first to offer harsh criticism of the Menem government in her speech at the 1997 commemoration, still hasn’t decided how to mark the occasion.
At the main celebration, a child’s poem child will be read, accompanied by music. Every shop in the area — a supermarket, kiosks, parking lots, grocery stores– will be closed.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
