The Jewish community in Argentina is worried and uneasy as a result of recent synagogue bombings and an upsurge of anti-Semitic manifestations, Bertram H. Gold, executive vice-president of the American Jewish Committee, declared here today. His statement was based on reports from the AJC office in Buenos Aires.
During the past few weeks, the Jewish community there has been especially concerned about demands by local anti-Semitic groups that the government institute political and economic measures against Jews to coincide with Columbus Day, Oct. 12, also known as the Day of the Spanish Race. These inflammatory statements, it is believed, may have been designed to stimulate overt anti-Semitic actions by certain groups doing “their own justice.”
A new threat to Jewish security is the appearance of anti-Semitic material in “Las Bases.” a fortnightly Journal published by followers of former President Juan Peron, Gold reported. The publication, which has been appearing since the beginning of the year, is the first Peronist periodical permitted by the government since Peron’s ouster in 1955. Argentine Jews were shaken by a recent article in it by Peron’s private secretary, Jose Lopez Rega, which included a variety of anti Semitic statements and accusations against Jews –including some which echoed Arab League propaganda.
Other incidents include distribution of anti-Semitic pamphlets by mail, with the false return address of a Catholic order of teaching nuns, and a physical attack on an Israeli exhibition of industrial farm products at a fair recently sponsored by the Argentine Rural Society.
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