Report: Anti-Semitism up in Argentina

By Florencia Arbiser · May 8, 2007

BUENOS AIRES (JTA) – A Hitler poster displayed at a parking lot on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. Anti-Semitic graffiti in a provincial public school. Swastika T-shirts sold at a national beer celebration. Anti-Jewish chants by fans at soccer stadiums. A threat to turn a schoolboy into soap. These were among the incidents detailed and analyzed in a comprehensive annual report on anti-Semitism in Argentina prepared by the Center for Social Studies, an investigative institute of the DAIA Jewish political umbrella group.The 454-page report, which was presented May 2 at the National Book Fair here, showed a 36 percent rise in anti-Semitic incidents last year. In all, the center counted 586 anti-Semitic events, 213 more than in 2005.The total in 2006 represented a marked rise from 1998 to 2004, when fewer than 200 incidents were reported each year.Most of the incidents in the report – 67 percent – were graffiti. Media editorials and other public expressions also were highlighted.Marisa Braylan, the center’s director and author of the study, said 2006 “might be remembered as the year of a relevant anti-Semitic reappearance in Argentina,” much of it sparked by last summer’s war between Israel and Hezbollah.The publication, now in its ninth year, is a key source of information for universities around the world. It is cited in the U.S. State Department’s Annual Report on International Religious Freedom and Tel Aviv University’s annual report on worldwide anti-Semitism.Copies of the report were given to the hundreds attending the book fair on May 2.