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30

FRIDAY, OCT. 16, 1987

Argentine Jews Wary
Of Democracy's Future

AVIVA CANTOR

B

uenos Aires — With
the dawn of democ-
racy in Argentina,
this country's Jews have
plunged into a struggle to
work out a question they have
not actively discussed in the
past half-century: How in-
volved should Jews be as a
community with the general
society and its pressing
concerns?
And, in trying to determine
the degree of their involve-
ment with Argentine society,
Jews are also engaged in a
debate on a related and equal-
ly controversial issue: What
kind of communal structure
is most appropriate for their
relationship with the general
society: monolithic or
pluralistic; speaking with one
voice (as it has done officially
until recently) or many?
The flashpoint for this
debate is an issue that has
engaged all Argentinians
since the 1983 elections that
brought Raul Alfonsin and
his Radical Civic Union Par-
ty to office after the
nightmare of terror under the
eight-year junta rule ended:
How "invested" should they
be in the new democracy,
given the fact that all elected
governments of the past 50
years have been overthrown
by coups? How much support
should they lend to it, and
how should this support be
expressed?
Amalia Saionx de Polack,
president of Argentine WIZO
and vice president of the
DATA (Delegacion de Asocia-
ciones Israelitas Argentirms),
the officially recognized
political umbrella organiza-
tion for Argentine Jewry, told
a delegation of North
American Jewish journalists
and communal leaders who
recently visited the country
under the auspices of
Aerolinas Argentinas (the
gbvernment airline): "For the
first time Argentina is trying
to implement a democratic
system. The country is a
social laboratory. People who
come from the roots of a
Spanish-C atholic-Indian
system (which did not
tolerate) a lot of different opi-
nions are trying to grow up
and be a democratic country."
The debate on how far to go
in support of the new
democracy • takes place
against the backdrop of
political developments that

This article is the first of a
series.

appear to place it at risk.
These include the dissatisfac-
tion of the armed forces with
the trials of officers who
perpetrated human rights
atrocities during the reign of
terror, and the pressure the
military has placed on the
government to be done with
such trials; and Argentina's
severe economic crisis.
Both of these elements go
hand in hand, because an
unresolved economic crisis
could destablize the regime to
the point where the armed
forces would have the support
of some sectors of the public
for taking over, as has hap-
pened so many times in the
past.
A 36-year-old man who said
he had lived only one-sixth of
his life under democracy said
that "the entire community is
very shaky. No one knows
what will happen next
month." Argentine Jews, in
interviews, spoke of "a per-
vasive sense of unease," and of
feeling nervous, fearful and
"psychologically depressed."
While all Argentineans live
with this sword of Damocles
hanging over them, Jews
especially feel its presence
consciously and acutely.
While the junta did not touch
any Jewish institutions dur-
ing its reign, many Jews
remember all too well that
Jews constituted a dispropor-
tionate number of the
estimated 30,000
desaparecidos (people who
disappeared and are presum-
ed murdered), and that Jews
who disappeared or who were
imprisoned were subjected to
worse mistreatment than
non-Jews.
The question Jews are
struggling with, therefore, is
not whether to support the
new democracy — which the
overwhelming majority do —
but how far to go in express-
ing their support. The con-
tinuum of opinion ranges
from that of the leaders of
DATA, which is careful and
cautious whenever a com-
munal response is called for,
to the vibrant Hebraica com-
munity center, which takes
out newspaper ads in support
of democracy and human
rights and whose members
march with those of the Con-
servative Comuidad Beth El
and the small militant
Jewish Human Rights Move-
ment (JHRM) in public.
Given the wide range of opi-
nion in the community as to
how far to go in support of
democracy, the various
Jewish institutions in Argen-
tina differ sharply,

.

