By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent
Argentina’s Jewish population of 400,000 is still hemorrhaging from the worst economic meltdown in its history. In 2001, the rich became the poor within a single day that rivaled the sheer panic of the 1929 stock market crash in the United States
Diego Freedman, associate director of the American-Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s Latin American office in Argentina, told an early morning audience at the downtown offices of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle in early October that when the Argentinean economy tanked, the banks went into bankruptcy.
"Imagine, one day, all your savings in the bank are frozen and you cannot withdraw any of your money," said Freedman. "All the Jewish organizations went into deep crisis because Jewish families supported each organization."
Although Jews make up only 2 percent of a population of over 39 million people, Argentina still has the sixth-largest Jewish population in the world. It is Latin America’s third largest economy.
While speaking and fundraising in the Pacific Northwest, Freedman, who is responsible for community planning and restructuring in his country, told the crowd that "54 percent of the population in Argentina went into poverty and the unemployment rate [was] 24 percent."
The 60 Jewish day schools that were open and thriving have been cut to nearly half.
"Our program provides 1,000 meals every day to kids who attend Jewish schools," he said.
Before joining the JDC, Freedman was the executive director of the Sociedad Hebraica Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires. Freedman also spent two years in the JDC’s Paris office helping Jewish communities in Europe.
"We have field staff all over the world," said Michael Novick, Executive Director of Strategic Development at the JDC, who attended the speaking engagement. "He is on a West coast swing. Diego is speaking at a lunch to the Young Leadership of the Ben-Gurion society and to the volunteers of the Herzl-Argentina Partnership."
The JDC provides a safe haven for Jews in distress anywhere in the world, whether due to political persecution or in the case of Argentina, economic disaster. They help rebuild Jewish communities. The JDC is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year.
According to the JDC’s Latin American office, 1,200 people enter the social services caseload every month in Argentina. Freedman says that every day, 36,000 Jews need money to eat. He calls them "the new poor."
"Right now we have 26,000 people in the JDC caseload," said Freedman. "The elderly and single mothers are out of the labor market. We know they need help from us."
The JDC also needs help to fill the over 10,000 prescriptions for medications that are needed each month.
"It’s a very difficult situation," said Fanny Goldman, who lived in Argentina, moved to Jerusalem for six years, then came to Seattle in 1985. Her daughter and two grandchildren still live in Argentina.
"I was down there for five weeks and I just came back," she said. "The damage is so deep. Jewish professionals are working as limousine drivers and any other services they can. I do think it will get better. Argentines are very proud. We don’t like charity."
According to the BBC News, the Argentinean government had liabilities of about $128 billion, equaling nearly 50 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. The Argentinean economy, they reported, has been in a slump due to the effects of a strong U.S. dollar and the collapse of the thecurrency in Brazil, Argentina’s main trading partner. The Argentinean peso is pegged to the dollar.
According to a Feb. 2002 report in The Economist, many industries could not compete abroad after Brazil’s devaluation. Argentina found it hard to shake off a recession because it was not competitive enough, the report said.
"I wanted to hear about the situation in Argentina, being a Sephardic Jew," said Keith Gormezano, an operations and office manager in Seattle. "What happened in Argentina could happen in Brazil."
In May 2003, Nestor Kirchner became president of the Republic of Argentina. Kirchner was declared the winner of a runoff election by default after Carlos Saul Menem withdrew his candidacy on the eve of the election. At the time, 51 percent of the population was considered below the poverty line. The unemployment rate is still high, at 17 percent.
"It’s a very unstable country," said Freedman, whose father was from Poland and emigrated to Argentina in the early 1900s. "The political situation is stable right now, but it can change."