El Gaucho Judio

I wanted to do this blog chronologically so it would be the easiest for you to follow, but if you want to skip to an incredible story (probably the most) go to the last notebook slug.

Trapped in Buenos Aires - and loving it

Saturday morning, I went to the boat terminal in Buenos Aires to catch a ship to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay. The staff at two different youth hostels told me that it would be no problem to get a ticket the day of the ship. I arrived three hours early just to be safe.

Well, after waiting twenty minutes in one line, fifteen in another, and half and hour in a third, I finally spoke to ticket salesman. He told me that there were no tickets available (in the tourist class) until Monday morning. If I was going to go to Uruguay, I wasn´t going to take the eight-hour bus from Buenos Aires to Montevideo. I was going to do this crossing like every other tourist does - by water. I kindly thanked the salesman for giving me reason to spend two more days in Buenos Aires, purchased my ticket, and went in search of a place to stay.

My taste buds love me, but arteries are about to go on strike

Why was I most excited about the opportunity to spend two more days in Buenos Aires? The two more steaks that I would eat for dinner. In my three meaty meals in Buenos Aires, I sampled three cuts of meat. Do you know that feeling of meat melting in your mouth? Yeah. (Back to being vegetarian)

Some people go to London to shop, others to Paris

I go to Buenos Aires. I have my store, as well. It´s the Coto across the street from the mall with the McDonald´s in it. In two trips to Argentina, it is where I found the best deals. Becuase my bag didn´t have too much space in it, I had to restrict my purchases a little. I bought a really soft, zip sweatshirt for equivalent of 10 bucks and a three pairs of socks for two dollars (I don´t want to go into how necessary it was for me to get new socks. Dire straits is how I would define the situation).

Missed My Tiger - or Tigre

Last time I was in Bueos Aires, I passed on the opportunity to visit the suburb of Tigre. It´s about 20 km from Buenos Airest on the Parana River Delta. Many people from Buenos Aires have homes in this area. The main form of transit in this region is boat. I would say that not going to Tigre last night was a mistake. Luckily, I had this chance (Don´t worry about the water being brown. It´s because of sediments in the river, plus I didn´t drink any of it).

U R Gay. Ha, ha, ha

The first 21 years of my life, the most I knew about Uruguay is that Homer Simpson doesn´t know how to pronounce - or read- the country name.I also knew that they won two World Cups in soccer (including the first) and that a player with one arm scored a goal for Uruguay in the 1930 World Cup.

Well, Uruguay is probably the most tranquil country in South America. There is a relatively high standard of living, a stable currency, and great beaches (in the summer). It is a great change of pace from the cosmopolitan lifestyle in Buenos Aires on the other side of the River Plate. Yesterday morning, I took the boat from Buenos Aires to Colonia del Sacramento, as I had planned on Saturday, and ambled through the towns enchanting old streets before catching a 4:30 bus to Montevideo. I went to dinner in Montevideo before a midnight bus to a town on the Argentine border.

My stay in Uruguay was brief, but there is very little to do there, especially off-season. I can tell people that I was in Uruguay, but the lady at border control messed up when stamping my passport and you can barely read that it says Uruguay.

Probably the best story of my trip

I arrived in Concordia, Argentina at 9:00 a.m. this morning with no clue of what there was to do in this border down except smuggle stuff. The city isn´t really covered in my Lonely Planet book except for the fact that it exists as a border crossing with Uruguay. I went to the municipal tourism office to see if they had any ideas for how someone could occupy 11 hours here. They gave me a map and sent me on my way. I perused the map and something caught my eye - Museo Judío. Then, I checked my dictionary to make sure there wasn´t another meaning for the word Judío that I was unaware of. I checked and the only listed meaning was ¨Jew.¨

Off I went. My expectations were minimal. After all, I was in the middle of the pampas. I knock on the door and the curator, Adolfo (but he prefers Nito), welcomed me in. As has been my strategy with other Jewish institutions in South America, I started talked Hebrew so the people there know you are Jewish and don´t confuse you as a threat. He said that he doesn´t speak English (not even recognizing the Hebrew. maybe my Hebrew is just that bad), but then I told him that I understood Yiddish. That one sealed the deal.

Her might have been the curator of the museum, but he had more questions for me than I had for him. It is also that he was such a good curator and didn´t leave much unanswered.

The museum, which opened last year, tells the story of how the Jewish population in the fields of Argentina became the Jewish community in the fields of Argentina. It started with the pogroms of 1882 in the Pale of Settlement (Poland and Russia). In response to these, the Jews of France petitioned to Baron Mauricio Hirsch to help the embattled communities.

He assisted in getting thousands of Jews out of Poland and Russia and into the developing agricultural communities of Argentina. He set up agricultural collectives (very kibbutzy) where the Jews lived, farmed, went to school, went to shul (synagogue), etc. All the collectives were named after Hirsch or his family members. The settlements were throughout northern Argentina. In the schools, the children learned Spanish and Yiddish (which explains Adolfo´s language situation). Half of the day in Yiddish and half in Spanish. They also welcomed non-Jewish students to the school, as well.

A couple years ago, when the Jewish community was raising money to build the museum, a 100 year old man came to them with a check. He wasn´t Jewish, but he spoke perfect Yiddish. He wanted to thank the community for what it had for him in providing an education.

Adolfo, whose grandfather was sponsored by Hirsch to come to Argentina and who was born on one of the settlements (the settlements don´t exist anymore), said that the people in the community had a saying about how successful the Jewish communities were. ¨They grew wheat and turned it into doctors.¨ He says it's a testament to the value that the communities placed on education that the youth became successful professionals.

He just published a book all about the settlements that I bought (It´s in Spanish, so I should finish it in the next decade)

In the temporary exhibition room, there was a display about Rambam in honor of his 800th birthday.

Next door to the museum is the JCC. I sat in there with the guy at the office for a while, just shmoozing. There are about 200 families in the community in Concordia and just one of them keeps kosher. Services are held Friday night and Saturday morning. Like many cities (including my own), the Jewish community is plagued by the exodus of the youth to the big cities.

Well, that´s it for now. I am off to catch my bus to Iguazu. Hope you found this tale as interesting at I did. If you ever want to borrow Adolfo´s book, let me know.