President Raul Alfonsin of Argentina has offered to host an international gathering of the World Jewish Congress in Buenos Aires. He extended the invitation to WJC president Edgar Bronfman in the course of a four-hour meeting with a WJC delegation at the Presidential Palace here Monday.
Bronfman is winding up a tour of Latin American countries which included meetings with President Jose Sarney of Brazil and President Julio Maria Sanguinetti of Uruguay.
Alfonsin told him, “With the restoration of democracy in our country, we would be most honored to host the leadership of Jewish communities around the world in Argentina.” Argentine Foreign Minister Dante Caputo participated in the discussions with the WJC group, leaders of the Latin American Jewish Congress and the DAIA, the central representative body of Argentine Jewry.
An official spokesman said “a broad range of political issues” were discussed. The WJC said Alfonsin reported on his recent visit to the Soviet Union and confirmed that Bronfman and other WJC representatives were recently in contact with Soviet officials in the U.S. and Latin America with respect to the situation of Soviet Jews.
Before coming here, the WJC group was told by President Sanguinetti in Montevideo that he would continue to support the cause of Soviet Jewry. He stressed Uruguay’s deep commitment to human rights and the struggle against racism and anti-Semitism.
The Argentine Minister of Interior, Antonio Troccoli, had a two-hour meeting with WJC officials focussing on neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic activities in the country. “Remnants of the extreme anti-Semitic right remain in the country, but this government is committed to eradicating those vestiges of hate,” Troccoli said.
In each of the countries visited, the WJC delegation submitted to the Foreign Ministries the documents of the United Nations War Crimes Commission relating to the Nazi past of Austrian President Kurt Waldheim. Officials of each government made it clear that there are no plans to invite Waldheim to visit any country in Latin America, the WJC reported.
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.
