FJMC Mission to South American: Exploring the Breadth of Conservative/Masorti Judaism

by Richard Gray, Bruce Sicherman, and Michael Abadi

The Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs opened new doors with its February 2008 mission to Chile and Argentina. Missions come in a variety of flavors – from visits to cement our relationship to our homeland, to service trips to help the disadvantaged in cities such as New Orleans, to culture-sharing trips designed to build communal bridges. This mission combined Jewish identity-building with forging new friendships between participants, Latino rabbis and their congregants, plus adventure with a side trip to Argentina’s magnificent Iguaza Falls. We saw how Latino Judaism is the festive side of the Conservative/Masorti movement.

Rabbi Shmuel Szteinhendler, former regional director for Masorti in Latin America, hosted us for the entire time. Our first visit was to Beit Emunah in Santiago, Chile, where FJMC donated a sefer Torah. As soon as we got there, we began to see the differences in shul cultures between North and Latin America, from their lack of Men’s Clubs (a North American phenomenon) to their rabbi-centric leadership. We visited several Masorti kehillot (communities) in Santiago as well as one in the coastal town of Vina del Mar.

In Argentina we were joined by several local leaders, including Leandro Galanternik, who will be youth director for Marom in Brazil starting in August. In Buenos Aires we visited AMIA, the umbrella organization for Jewish life, whose building had been destroyed by a terrorist car bomb in 1994 and rebuilt almost immediately. In the center court there is a Yaakov Agam sculpture in memory of the 86 victims of that bombing. AMIA’s director, Gregorio Spivak, a Masorti Jew, explained that much of Jewish life is controlled by the Orthodox chief rabbi, and he talked about that community’s attempt to exclude those with Masorti conversions from burial in Jewish cemeteries. There is also a high level of intermarriage and lack of lay infrastructure.

The next morning we visited the Seminario Rabinico Latinoamericano, founded by Rabbi Marshall Meyer, known for his human rights activism in the 1980s. (In the Winter 2007 CJ, Rabbi Meyer’s widow, Naomi Meyer, discussed their life in Argentina in “Looking South.”) While at the Seminario we met with board members of Masorti Amlat (the Latin American section of Masorti Olami), whom we presented with a gift of 118 mezuzot and six sets of tefillin.

We celebrated a completely musical Kabbalat Shabbat at the Bet El kehillah, hosted by Rabbi Silvina Chemen. All the prayers were sung to dynamic Latin tunes and the ruach was palpable. For Shabbat morning services, we were divided between congregations Or Israel and Bet Hillel.

We came to Chile and Argentina expecting to encounter an impoverished Jewish community. We left with the knowledge that there is a thriving Masorti presence that feels close to its amigos from North America. As participants in the first Masorti mission to South America, we left with much good will for future missions. We are inviting our new friends to the FJMC biennial convention in Philadelphia in July 2009, and we are exploring ways to enhance FJMC programming, such as Passionate Davening and Keruv, with Latino Jewish culture. To hear the spirit of Latino Masorti Judaism listen to the Ladino Birkhat at www.fjmc.info/LadinoBirkat.wma. You will come away with a sense of the broadness of the appeal and web of Conservative/ Masorti Judaism.