RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — The mayor of Mexico City laid the foundation stone of a Jewish community center slated to cost nearly $5.3 million.
Miguel Angel Mancera hailed the Jewish community’s decision to invest in the city as seen by its decision to build the Kehila Ashkenazi in the Cuauhtemoc borough. The official considers the initiative a sign of trust in the country’s growth, La Razon newspaper reported Tuesday.
“The Jewish community is showing a substantial, permanent impulse, honoring ancestral values of their people, but living with this dialectic of Mexico, showing affection to the city and to all who live here,” he said.
Mancera pointed out that the city’s constitution mentions the fight against anti-Semitism. In turn, the president of the Central Committee of the Jewish Community of Mexico, the country’s Jewish umbrella organization, cited the governmental support provided to carry out local projects.
“It is very important for us that you know that we value a lot the fact that every time we approach any city official to bring up a community theme, they always welcome us very well,” Moises Romano said.
Last week, the Argentine Jewish watchdog Observatorio Web reported that the support expressed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in January for President Donald Trump wanting to build a wall separating the United States and Mexico triggered an “alarming” wave of anti-Semitism online.
Mexico is home to some 50,000 Jews, Latin America’s third largest Jewish community after Argentina and Brazil.
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