Behind the Headlines a Nightmare Continues in Argentina

Renee Epelbaum, one of the leaders of the “Madres” — the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo of Argentina who have been demanding since 1976 an accounting from the government on the fate of their “disappeared” children — has charged that the DAIA (the representative body

Epelbaum told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that when she was visiting the U.S. in late 1978, early 1979, she asked leaders involved with the World Jewish Congress to express concern about the violations of

The effect of the DAIA’s opposition to statements of concern by American Jews about human rights abuses in Argentina, she said, was pernicious. Such statements, she said, “could have saved

The junta, Epelbaum said, was concerned about its economic and political relations with the U.S. “They had enough (trouble) with the charges that they were criminals and kidnappers. They did not want to be charged with being anti-Semitic.” She continued:

“The junta believed that the Jewish community had influence in the U.S. and Canada, and the world in general, so they tried to be supported by the DAIA so that nobody, particularly in the U.S. — the ‘Jewish lobby’ — would say anything against them.”

Rabbi Marshall Meyer, who was the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth-El, a Conservative synagogue in Buenos Aires, during the reign of terror and a member of the Permanent Assembly for Human

He told the JTA that he had been present at a meeting in New York in 1980 or 1981 of DAIA leaders with those of American Jewish organizations. The DAIA leaders, he said, told the participants in the meeting that

Alan Rose, executive director of the Canadian Jewish Congress, told JTA in a telephone interview that DAIA leaders had cautioned that any “representations to the Argentine government about the concern of Canadians over human rights violations should be

The CJC, he continued, realizing it should “not be heroes in someone else’s back yard, was careful not to embarrass the Jewish community in Argentina (out of) fear that there would be consequences.” Rose refused to go into details

Rabbi Morton Rosenthal, director of the Latin American Affairs Department of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, and of its Argentine Prisoner Project during the reign of terror, told the JTA he did not accept the concept that the

Israel Singer, secretary general of the World Jewish Congress, said that the cautioning by some, “not all,” of the DAIA’s leaders against speaking out “did not put a damper on us.” He said WJC president Edgar Bronfman spoke out very forcefully against the junta at the 1981

FEARFUL ABOUTTHE FATE OF JEWISH COMMUNITY

Jewish observers familiar with Argentina have expressed the view that the DAIA may have

“On June 5, 1978, the DAIA received a note sent by the Interior Minister in which he made some complaints about the campaign waged abroad including Israel against Argentine authorities”

Epelbaum told the JTA that the attitude of the organized Jewish community in Argentina was “very upsetting to me, painful, very sad.” It was not only the Jewish community that did not take strong action on behalf of the

The Madres, Epelbaum among them, are still marching in the Plaza de Mayo because “we still haven’t gotten the answer as to what happened to most of the children” and because all the criminals have not