Manuel Tenenbaum, Latin American Jewish Congress head for 3 decades, dies

(JTA) — Manuel Tenenbaum, who served for three decades as head of the Latin American Jewish Congress, has died.

Tenenbaum, who was also an educator and author, died and was buried Tuesday in his native Montevideo, Uruguay. He was 81.

In 1978, he was named executive director of the Latin American Jewish Congress, leading the regional branch of the World Jewish Congress from its Buenos Aires office until 2007, when he retired.

Earlier in the 1970s, Tenenbaum was president of the Central Jewish Committee of Uruguay, which he represented at World Jewish Congress meetings, and headed B’nai B’rith Uruguay.

The son of Polish immigrants, Tenenbaum was president of the Jewish youth movement of Uruguay and was the first president of the Latin American Jewish Youth Council.

Tenenbaum “was greatly respected and admired among Latin American Jews, and he was a man of many achievements,” World Jewish Congress CEO Robert Singer said in a statement. “His work in South America did a great deal to put the WJC and the LAJC on the map there. He established close relations with elected leaders, church representatives and civil society.”

Tenenbaum was director of a secondary school in Montevideo, on the faculty of the Jewish teachers’ seminary and a college professor. He authored several books and many papers on Jewish history, and received a number of awards for his work.