While anti-Semitic actions in this country have decreased in intensity in recent months, “rightist tendencies” in public opinion have become more apparent, Dr. Isaac Goldenberg, president of DAIA, central organization of Argentine Jewry, said here today.
Reviewing DAIA activities in 1961, Dr. Goldenberg said, at a press conference today, that small but strongly organized neo-Nazi organizations are behind the rightist tendencies that have become evident in Argentina. He declared there has been an increase in the distribution in Argentina of “gross” anti-Semitic literature, imported from Mexico.
Dr. Goldenberg also deplored the spread of the so-called “free education” movement in this country’s public schools. Many public schools, he said, are passing from Federal governmental Jurisdiction, under the label of “free education,” into the hands of provincial governments which permit the introduction of Catholic, religious education into the public schools.
To help offset the rightist tendencies, Dr. Goldenberg announced the establishment of a Juan D. Alberdi Prize to be awarded to the person in Argentina who has performed outstanding work in the field of increasing. Jewish-Christian understanding. Alberdi was a noted 19th Century Argentinean identified with the spread of democratic principles here.
Dr. Goldenberg called upon Jewish institutions here to show more active interest in acute, local Jewish problems, requesting that Jewish organizations display more activity without leaving all problems to DAIA.
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