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November 18, 1994 - Image 74

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1994-11-18

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

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PUBLISHED BY THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

The March of Memory

can serve in the military, the intelligence services.
But it is almost as if this has not quite registered
n the plaza just outside the Central Courthouse, yet on the people. Socially activist as they may be
one of those giant stone structures Buenos Aires in their hearts, for many of them, their hands are
seems to specialize in, a group of some 60 people frozen. History has all but paralyzed them.
are gathered for the weekly March of Memory,
It has not silenced them, however. 'We always
held each Monday to commemorate the bombing. talked," Ms. Diamondstein said. "Even during the
At 9:53 a.m. — the moment — there is a minute of military regime, we talked."
silence. Afterward a small bald-headed man blows
Sophia Guterman, 53, lost her only child, her
a shofar, inexpertly.
daughter, Andrea, in the AMU bombing. It was
In a country like Argentina, sometimes one's a full week before they recovered her body. Friends
presence alone can seem like a statement. Beatrice and relatives swarmed through the streets, visited
Malamud, whose son died in the bombing, stands hospitals, police stations, circulating her picture,
with her daughter-in-law, her face behind her glass- hoping against hope.
es set in heavy lines of grief. "All the people who
Mrs. Guterman did not. "I knew. In the first
had family, they come here, all the weeks, asking moment, I knew," she said. But she managed to live
for justice," she said. "We feel this makes something through those seven days of waiting-. And she knows
better than to stay at home crying.
if she could do that, she must do anything.
"Not all the dying were Jews. This is not a thing
What she has chosen to do is talk. To tell her
of religion. It is the spirit of Argentina." As for story again and again. Maybe talking is not enough.
justice, "We have hope. We have to have hope."
But it is something she feels she must do.
Rabbi Sergio Bergman, of the Reform Temple
She sits next to her husband in their immacu-
Emanuel, helped organize the weekly march. But late apartment as the interpreter reads the letter
it is clear that standing in mute appeal is not really she wrote to her daughter, the letter the newpaper
his style. Action is more his forte. A slight, balding, published.
intense man of 32, he is one of the rare people in
"When you were small, I told you how your grand-
Buenos Aires who sits on the edge
of his chair during an interview, as
if ready to spring up at any time.
After the bombing, Rabbi Berg-
man, whose synagogue is in the Jew-
ish neighborhood of Belgrano, set up
a central office to coordinate volun-
teers. "We advertised on the radio,
on TV. 'If you want to help, come
here,' " he said. Information was fed
into a computer and jobs were
assigned.
The need for volunteers has end-
ed, but Rabbi Bergman sees no
reason to stop the momentum. He
has begun a series of weekly meet-
ings at his synagogue, with psy-
chologists, teachers, neighbors, Jews
and non-Jews, who gather to discuss
the problem of discrimination in
Argentinian society on every level
— and to try and figure out what to
do about it. Group leaders have con-
tacted various schools, Jewish and
non-Jewish, urging them to confront
the problem at the earliest level.
`We offered them a kit with a cat-
alog of exercises to do, with litera- Rabbi Sergio Bergman organized the March of Memory.
ture and videos," said his sister,
Marisa Bergman, 28, who is coordinating the effort. parents came here to Argentina, how they suffered,
"Everybody likes to think this is a really egali- living here. We taught you to have love for other
tarian society," said Carole Diamondstein, a small, people, to believe in justice, to do good.
sprightly woman who moved here 32 years ago from
"You went out the morning of July 18 ... and you
Chicago, and is participating in the Temple never came back. It was seven days of terrible,
Emanuel project. "But it's not." After the bomb, painful anxiety until they found your body.
"when the dust cleared, there was the feeling that
"If you were small again, I don't know if I would
we really have to work on the problem of discrim- tell you the same things I did before. I think to-
ination here." Anti-Jewish, anti-gay, anti-Arab, day I would tell you that justice will only be justice
anti-woman — the gamut. Black and indigenous when guilty people are found and brought to
people are not mentioned; there are almost none in punishment ..."
Argentina.
She is a sturdily built woman, dark eyes, curly
Rabbi Bergman also is conscious of the need for hair, obviously Eastern European heritage. She
people to become more politically active, to believe could be a cousin, an aunt. There is dignity, even
they can have some impact on the government. This nobility, to the way she sits unmoving in her
is not something that will come easily. Argentini- straight-backed chair, listening to her own words
ans are not used to real democracy, and have a hard being read in a language she does not know. We
time believing they can make a change. There is exchange a long look. I have heard, I say silently.
a new anti-discrimination law on the books; non- I will remember.
Catholics for the first time can be elected president,
Slowly she nods her head. 0

I

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