Representatives of the principal Jewish communities of Latin America re-affirmed the inviolability of human rights and the democratic process in addressing issues of Jewish and general regional concern at the three-day Annual Plenary Assembly of the Latin American branch of the World Jewish Congress which just ended here.
The gathering brought together Jewish leaders from Mexico and Central America, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela to analyze the problems of Latin America and their effect on the life of the Jewish communities.
Prof. Manuel Tenenbaum, director of the WJC Latin American branch, observed that “clear to all the participants was the increasing vulnerability of the Jewish communities becoming trapped by the various conflicting situations on the continent of a general nature. “These conflicts arise, he noted, from the region’s serious economic problems which lead to indebtedness and its adverse social effects.
DANGER OF GROWING ANTI-JEWISH AGITATION
The Plenary Assembly also alerted Latin American public opinion against the growing anti-Israel and anti-Jewish agitation in the region and condemned the use of international forums to “defame Israel and the Zionist movement that fathered the State.”
It declared 1985 a year of commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the end of World War II which should serve as “a warning to all of society as to the dangers of Nazism, neo-Nazism and any other expression of racial or religious hatred.”
NUMBER OF RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED
A resolution adopted by the Assembly reaffirmed its “unshakable commitment to the philosophic and ethical principles that underscore the essential dignity of man and, in accordance with the tradition arising from the very origins of Judaism, defends the full application of human rights and the idea of humanistic pluralism.”
Another resolution welcomed the trend in South America to solve international disputes by peaceful means, an example being the conclusion of an agreement between Argentina and Chile on the Beagle Channel, a waterway at the southern tip of the continent that traverses the territory of both nations.
HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD TO COSTA RICA’S PRESIDENT
The Assembly presented its 1984 Human Rights Award to President Luis Alberto Monge of Costa Rica “in consideration of his and his country’s honorable record on human rights and the respect for national self-determination of the Israeli people that his government demonstrated by transferring the Costa Rican Embassy from Tel Aviv back to Jerusalem.”
The Assembly’s 1984 Award for Jewish Intellectual Merit went to Eugen Relgis, a Rumanian-born writer living in Uruguay, for his contribution, in more than 100 literary works, to humanism and a better understanding of Judaism.
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