Argentina
Overview
Argentina is home to Latin America’s largest Jewish population, whose history goes back to the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions when Jews fled to Argentina to escape persecution. It is also the 5th largest Jewish population in the world, with the majority of the community comprised of Ashkenazi Jews and a significant Sephardic community.
Need
Argentina has one of the highest Human Development Index levels and GDPs per capita in Latin America. Because of its stable economy, Argentina has long boasted a sizable middle class. However, when the economy collapsed in 2001, the relatively prosperous Jewish community was left reeling as much of that middle class imploded, with many of its members losing their jobs, businesses, homes, and savings.
Response
JDC’s presence in Argentina since World War II made it possible to initiate an immediate and widespread response to the 2001 economic crisis by expanding existing welfare and relief services to aid those most profoundly affected by the crisis. JDC’s efforts include:
- A network of Social Assistance Centers (75 at the height of the crisis) that provide meals and food packages, supermarket debit cards, clothing, medicines, subsidies for rent and utilities, and help with mortgage payments
- Training and counseling programs for Jewish professionals and lay leaders and help restructuring and stabilizing communal institutions
- The 13/17 Program, which provides Jewish teenagers with a nurturing Jewish framework for sports and cultural activities during summer and winter school breaks
Impact
JDC implements critical programs ranging from providing for the basic needs of babies and toddlers to career counseling and job training for the unemployed. JDC’s programs include:
- Baby Help provides diapers, formula, medications, and baby equipment to more than 600 babies and toddlers, up to age five, as well as pre-natal support to pregnant mothers
- The central community pharmacy fills an average of 7,885 prescriptions monthly
- More than 6,700 individuals have found jobs through career counseling, training, and placement assistance from the JDC-supported Ariel Job Center since its founding in 2001, and more than 16,000 have participated in job training courses
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