I feel like I need to make a high holiday post here, since I have spent a lot of time in services, eating, or in transit over the past few weeks to observe Rosh Hashana and Iom Kipur (as the spell it here...the letter "y" is pronounced like "sh" or "j"). I know I have mentioned the Jewish community here, so I hope there isn't too much overlap with other posts, but it's hard to remember everything I have put in here.
But first...a surprisingly spot-on article from Charleston's very own Post and Courier about Buenos Aires. This really gives a great description of the city and is worth reading.
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2010/jun/20/streets-of-buenos-aires/
When I arrived in Buenos Aires, Victoria (my brother Joseph's girlfriend...who happened to grow up here) connected me with one of her high school friends and her family. They have been incredibly helpful in giving me suggestions for things to do, connecting me with people at Hillel, and, most recently, inviting me to spend Rosh Hashana and Iom Kipur with their family. I joined their family for meals, slept at their house, and went with them to services...their hospitality was really incredible, and they were able to answer all of my questions about Buenos Aires and its Jewish community.
Before coming here, I was under the impression that the Jewish community was past its prime, that it was still here but rapidly shrinking due to an aging population, secularization, and people moving (mostly two Israel and the US). While all of these things are happening, I have in no way gotten the impression that the Jewish community here is on a worse trajectory than the US. There are 20+ conservative synagogues (and a conservative rabbinical school) as well as 40+ orthodox ones. While people tend to have family in the US, Europe, and Israel, there doesn't seem to be a burning desire to leave the country. All of the synagogues here have a lot of security, but this is very understandable, since two bombings in the early 1990s at the Israeli Embassy and the city's major Jewish center killed over 100 people. Anti-semitism here, however, really seems to as rare as in the United States. Despite being a majority Catholic country, this tends to be a pretty open place (to an extent...gay marriage is legal but abortion is both illegal and not appropriate for dinner table conversation).
So, what were the high holidays like at an Argentine conservative synagogue? Pretty darn cool. The synagogue that this family goes to is one of the only ones in la zona norte, an upper middle class suburban area to the northwest of the city. The others, which I think are limited to a Jabad house and small sephardic and/or orthodox congregations, serve a different demographic, so this is kind of the catch-all place for people who don't want to travel into the city (also, the reform movement doesn't exist here). This congregation, called Lamroth Hakol, has grown so much in recent years that they can't fit into their building despite a recent renovation and expansion. Services for the first day of Rosh Hashana and Iom Kipur were at a convention center nearby. The 1478-seat room was almost completely full, especially for the evening services (I think a lot of people still have to work during the day on Jewish holidays/Shabbat here...evening services tend to be bigger) and was well over capacity with 300+ people standing to hear the final shofar blast at the end of Iom Kipur.
The services, which were mostly Hebrew but also included some Spanish readings, were led by the congregation's rabbi, two cantors (one of whom also performs regularly in operas), a 4-person back-up choir, a cellist, a violinist, a pianist, a flautist, and another musician who alternated between alto saxophone, guitar, and percussion. It was a little bit of a performance, but somehow it's more engaging to listen to 12 people leading a service together than 1 cantor like the services I am used to.
With no travelling on the agenda for this week, it should be more relaxed and routine, and I will be sure to post any exciting updates here.
¡Gmar jatimá tová, buen año, y que seas inscrito en el libro de la vida!
Jacob
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