11FUETRUI-IALIVISHIM

Peru's Strong Jewish Community Must Resist Changes

By WARREN FREEDMAN
What Jewish community

Jewish world. The net-
work of Jewish schools
excites 20 percent of its and thd beauty of Lima's
membership (or more than Great Synagogue are
1,000 persons) to watch a very impressive.

Bar Mitzva on a Friday
night? Young Rabbi Naftali
Rothenberg, an Israeli-born
disciple, is proud of his , fol-
lowing in Lima, Peru.
He is the youngest of only
30 rabbis serving the nearly
one million Jews through-
out Latin and South
America. He is the official
rabbi of the Union Israelita
Del Peru.
Lima, the capital city of
Peru, has many
synagogues, of which four
are "headed" by young
Rabbi Rothenberg.
Lima Jewry conducts a
wide range of Jewish ac-
tivities and include a
Bnai Brith group, a
Zionist group and a very
active Macabee group.
There is a Yiddish news-
paper.
At the third annual
Inter-American Macabee
Games, this small commun-
ity entertained hundreds of
Jews from abroad. The
Jewish club has a full-sized
- soccer field, an Olympic-size
basketball court which can
seat about 500 in the stands,
and an Olympic pool.
Of the thousand Jewish
families in Peru, only 60
have non-kosher homes!
Peruvian Jews (all 5,500 of
them) are thirsty for in-
volvement with Jewish life.
More than 600 Peruvian
Jews also subscribe to
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
reports in Spanish.
The Peruvian govern-
ment first guaranteed
freedom of religion in
1933, and. during these
past 45 years Peruvian
Jews have organized
facilities which compare
favorably with any in the ,

The Asociacion Judia del
Peru is an effective "um-
brella" organization.
Places of Jewish interest
in Lima include the Colegio
Leon Pinelo on Ave. Juan
Peset y Los Munganes. Here
students receive intensive
courses in Hebrew and it is
the center for Jewish youth.
There is also Cemetario Is-
raelita, Club Hebraica, and
Museo De La Inquisitzia.
But Peru today is a milit-
ary dictatorship intent upon
destroying existing - power
structures and creating an
entirely new 'society. Such
basic industries as fishing,
banking and insurance
have been nationalized
since 1968.
The small Jewish
community , of
businessmen and profes-
sionals appear to have
limited economic oppor-
tunities in a society in
which 86 percent of the
people are Indians and
mestizo, and so the
Jewish community has
dwindled. Anti-Semitism
is also increasing, and the
Leftist government press
is anti-Israel and some-
times anti-Jewish.
There is also the growing
influence of the Arabs and
even the Soviets who have
made Peru a major base.
(Weekly air service via
Aeroflot links Lima and
Moscow.)

!.C.C. License MC125985
spokesman for Lima's Jews by the various congrega-
DRIVEAWAY SERVICE
is a tall, bald man in his late tions. Hasson admits to con-
4713 Horger at Michigan Ave.
40's named Yaacov HaSson. siderable concern about the
P.O. BOX 1264
A Sephardi Jew of Yugoslav long-term future of Peru's
Dearborn, Mich. 48126
origin, Hasson was born in Jewish community.
Tel. 584-5000
Argentina and emigrated as
a young man to Israel. He
returned to South America
to become a teacher in the
Jewish school in Lima, and
he remained.
He is currently a profes-
SELECTED JEWELRY
sor of humanistic studies
and philosophy at the uni-
comPLETE JENNE:lin SERVICE
versity, and is considered
one of Peru's leading intel-
lectuals. He carries the title
13720 W. 9 11ile
oak Park.
of executive director of the
Office of Human Relations
\ ear l'oent 4 /like
of the Jewish-Community of
Peru, for which he receives
a modest salary paid jointly

deals with the impact of the
social and economic reforms
enacted by the left-wing
military government since
1968.
On the other hand, the
new opportunities, far from
crowding Jews out, have
provided a hitherto un-
known fluidity to Peruvian
Jewish life. Jews have slip-
ped rather comfortably into
this layer of nouveaux
riches in Lima, where the
old barriers of race and class
seem to have disappeared.
For the first time,
young Jews can look
beyond business, to
careers in the profes-
sions, in government and
management, in the uni-
versities and the arts.
The
acknowledged

EARLY
DEADLINES

The Jewish News has
early news and adver-
tising deadlines for the
issue of Nov. 24. The
news deadline is noon
today; the display ad-
vertising deadline is
noon Monday and the
classified advertising
deadline is 2 p.m. Tues-
day.

Ahin

ewe ter

LI 7-5068

We Make Our Own Glasses

Pianist Protests

JERUSALEM (ZINS) —
Pianist Artur Rubenstein,
91, who was in Israel to
make an Israeli TV
documentary on music,
summoned reporters to his
hotel after the visit of U.S.
Undersecretary of State
Harold Saunders to the
Mideast.
Rubenstein protested
U.S. support for Arab
i-•'claims to Jerusalem, calling
those claims "absolutely in-
decent."
•

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ROSEN OPTICAL SERVICE

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PRIVATE CLUB MEMBERSHIP

Isaac Goldemberg, a
Peru-born Jew in his 1977
novel, "The Fragmented
Life of Don Jacobo Lerner"
(Pensea Books) has bitterly
criticized the Spanish-
Catholic culture which has
stifled Peruvian and Jewish
life. The novel was never
published in Peru because it

.

TOM BROWNLEE,

New Israeli Stamps Issued

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Shown are new commemorative stamps printed by
the Israeli government to honor, from left, top row.
the 40th anniversary of the United Jewish Appeal,
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the dedication of the new Shaare Zedek medical cen-
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