BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — Some Argentinians who moved to Israel have launched a campaign to rebuild a Buenos Aires province Jewish center destroyed in a tornado.
The campaign by former members of Bet Am del Oeste-CISO, the only Jewish club in the Greater Buenos Aires western area, has brought in $7,000 in its first two days; the institution needs at least $50,000 to rebuild. It was destroyed in the April 5 storm, which has caused 17 deaths and major damage. Bet Am del Oeste-CISO has 400 members.
The new Israelis are donating $100 for each of their children.
"The objective is to raise quickly 100 donors of $100 to buy the material to solve the emergency,” Ariel Yeguerman of Kibbutz Or Haner told JTA. The kibbutz is located in southern Israel, near the city of Sderot.
Leandro Niborski, the director of the center’s youth department, told JTA that the emigres “called us to say that they made aliyah because of the education and values they received here, so now they feel the obligation to contribute in this emergency.”
The Argentinian minister of federal planning, Julio de Vido, in a news conference Monday called the storm “an unprecedented tornado that caused the immediate collapse of 30 percent of public services.”
Buenos Aires is the largest province in Argentina with more than 15 million inhabitants. It has the same name as the capital city.
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