Carl Glick, HIAS president, and Gaynor 1. Jacobson, executive vice-president, who have just returned from a fact-finding mission to major Jewish communities in Argentina, Chile. Brazil and Uruguay, reported that they met with diplomats of the United States and other nations, Jewish community leaders, officials of the Intergovernmental Commission on European Migration and the United Nations High Commission on Refugees.
According to Glick, a major concern of HIAS was the well-being of 500,000 Argentinian Jews. Under the Peronist government, the country had suffered from political turmoil, social unrest and heavy inflation pressures. The HIAS group arrived in Buenos Aires simultaneously with the revolutionary takeover by a military government. In support of the new regime, the Jewish community participates in the rebuilding of the country and hopes for an end to instability and urban terror.
The Jewish communities of Santiago, Chile and Montevideo, Uruguay are primarily middle class and have suffered serious economic distress as a result of rampant inflation: The great majority of Jews in Chile and Uruguay support the present military governments. While coping with the ongoing pressure of inflation, the Jewish communities are maintaining their religious and educational institutions, Glick and Jacobson reported.
BRAZILIAN JEWS HAVE MOST FREEDOM
They observed that Brazil afforded its citizens the largest measure of freedom of those nations visited. This was strikingly indicated when a delegation of Brazilian Jewish leaders were encouraged to visit with President Ernesto Geisel to express concern about Brazil’s anti-Zionist vote in the UN in November 1975.
It was indicated to the Jewish community that this position in the UN reflected Brazil’s large balance of payments deficit caused principally by the increase in the price of imported oil and efforts to encourage Arab petro-dollar investments.
While in Brazil, the HIAS representatives were cordially received by Foreign Minister Azaredo da Silveira and Justice Minister Armando Falcao. The ministers expressed high regard for the constructive accomplishments of the Brazilian Jewish community. Glick and Jacobson were accompanied on their tour by Fred Weinstein, HIAS director of Latin American operations.
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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.
