Insight Remember When . Presidential Impact From the pages of the Jewish News from this week 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 years ago. Local family inspired by hope of a better life for Argentinas Jews. ROBERT A. SKLAR Editor 23rd International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies' annual summer conference. Kirchner was there to meet with President Bush. y chance, a Huntington Woods family with Argentine roots heard the A Couple With Charisma new president of Argentina detail his governing agenda to re-ener- The Kirchners were instant hits at the gize the lagging, but important South embassy reception. American country. "It was as if a 'new millennium Juan David C. Sloan, his wife, Kathy, and Peron and Evita' had just entered the their 16-year-old son, John, met room and were speaking to us," said President Nestor Kirchner and his Sloan, who was invited by the wife, Christina, at the Argentine Secretary of the Embassy, Julio Embassy in Washington on July 23. Mercado. "However, the political and Sloan, who has more than 100 personal differences are monumental. cousins living in Argentina, said "Even if you were not familiar with Kirchner, a Peronist Party politician the Spanish language," Sloan added, from the southern, oil-rich province of "you could sense the feeling that this Santa Cruz, talked about: man cared and that he intended to • reducing government cor- ruption and rebuilding the relationship between the presi- dent and the populace; • re-opening the probe and files into the 1994 bombing of the AMIA (Jewish community) headquarters and the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy, both located in Buenos Aires; • meeting with leaders of the Jewish community at the presi- dential offices, Casada Rosada. Kirchner also talked about . reversing the immunity given David Sloan speaking with President Kirchner. to leaders of the so-called dirty war against opponents of the Argentine military dictatorships from right the wrongs of so many years." 1976 to 1983. An official investiga- As he was about to leave for a meet- tion concluded that 9,000 people were ing with Jewish leaders in New York, killed or disappeared during the peri- Kirchner greeted the Sloans and posed od of these military regimes, although for a picture. "This is where we were human rights organizations say the really able to meet him, and I could figure could be as high as 30,000. ask some questions in my elementary "At least 45 perpetrators have been Spanish," Sloan said. "We connected." arrested and are being held for either trial or, if necessary, extradition," Hopeful Signs Sloan said. "There's a roundup, and all past A record 6,325 Argentine Jews made oppressors of the people will be aliyah last year — 2,600 during the brought to justice," he vowed. first half. This year, only 485 made Sloan, a Southfield-based attorney, aliyah during the same time frame, was in Washington to address the despite the Jewish Agency of Israel's promise of significant help to new immigrants. The falloff is tied to the hope that the economy will improve in Argentina, a country largely of immi- grants. Nearly 55 percent of Argentines still live below the poverty line. However, official unemployment has fallen to 15.6 percent, down from 20 percent a few months ago. Employment consulting companies say the demand for employees has risen 30 to 50 percent. "There is an opening and hope that things might improve," said Patrico Abranzon, a political scientist special- izing in international migration and a consultant to Argentina's Jews. "The psychosis is over. Some of the country's 200,000 Jews, mainly members of the middle class, are re-opening their businesses. The rate of aliyah, though dropping, is returning to the levels before Argentina's economic crisis. Until the crisis, 1,000 people moved to Israel from Argentina each year. Despite the renewed optimism in Argentina, °effects of the economic meltdown still are evident. The number of Argentine Jews embracing an integrated social welfare net has risen to 36,000 from 9,000 in 1999. The net has been jointly cast by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, a local wel- fare foundation called Tzedaka, the Jewish community's central institution AMIA, Chabad-Lubavitch and the Sephardi community. The net provides food tickets, medi- cine, rent, scholarships and job train- ing. More people are seeking help than giving it up. Kirchner's May 25 election helped spur the sudden interest among Argentine Jews in staying put, Sloan said. "For the first time in many years," Sloan said, "there is hope in Argentina for the entire population, including the Jewish community." E " — The Jewish Telegraphic Agency contributed to this report. Maya Letbovic of Jerusalem becomes the first native Jerusalem woman to be ordained a rabbi. Nine computers are stolen from Bais Chabad in Farmington Hills, worth an estimated $4,000. It Temple Beth Jacob in Pontiac elects Arvene Dickstein, the first female president since its inception in 1923. Gideon Biran, director of the Detroit office of the Israel Aliya Center Inc., will speak at the first Flint Jewish Community Council board meeting. Congregation Beth Abraham's Detroit-based leadership training group will send delegates to the ninth annual Yeshiva University Synagogue Council Youth Seminar in Camp Monroe, N.Y. The Livonia Jewish Congregation bowling league announces registration for its fall league. mosa The Detroit Board of Education elects Rabbi Leon Fram of Temple Israel as a member of the Detroit Library Commission. A group of 42 members of the General Zionist Youth movement of Buenos Aires, Argentina, sail to settle in Israel. lo arnsimasums, Detroiters of all faiths mourn the unexpected death of highly esteemed Judge Harry Keiden. Mrs. Joseph M. Welt, one of the most prominent women leaders in Detroit, is named one of three national delegates of the National Council of Jewish Women to the American Jewish Conference. — Compiled by Holly Teasdle, archivist, the Rabbi Leo Al Franklin Archives of Temple Beth El Si22 2003 29