Survey Finds Most Sephardic Jews in Buenos Aires Lack Higher, Jewish Education

A great majority of Buenos Aires’ Sephardic (Oriental) Jews lack higher education and Jewish education among them is meager, in most cases not being continued beyond the primary school level, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency learned from a survey. The survey, as yet unpublished, was made by the Association Communidad Israelita Sefaradi de Buenos Aires in cooperation with the Latin American department of the American Jewish Committee. It contained the results of interviews with 2,177 families of association members and 500 families of non-members in Buenos Aires and its environs. According to the survey, 95 percent of those interviewed received some sort of formal instruction and about half completed primary school. Only six percent of the parents and 13 percent of the younger generation over 24 years of age completed university studies.

The survey showed that 86 percent of the families in the medium-income bracket had 2.3 children. Only 28 percent of the association members and 13 percent of the non-members were born abroad, mostly in Turkey and other countries with large Sephardic communities. A survey of their means of livelihood disclosed that 40 percent of the parents and 15 percent of the sons over 24 were in business or industry, eight percent of the parents and 13 percent of the sons were professionals, and 20 and 13 percent respectively were employed by others.