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PUNTA DEL ESTE, Uruguay (JTA) — The upscale Uruguayan coastal resort metropolis of Punta del Este checks quite a lot of bins for 18-year-old Argentine Sofia Grosz: beautiful seashores, vibrant nightlife, a hub for a lot of of her Jewish college buddies from Buenos Aires.
“Coming right here, it’s nearly a practice in our household,” mentioned Grosz, who belongs to the famed Hacoaj Jewish sport and group middle again dwelling and graduated from a Jewish highschool final yr.
She’s not alone — Punta del Este has lengthy been a haven for tens of 1000’s of Jews, lots of them Argentines, every summer time (which ended lately within the southern hemisphere).
Along with the ritzy seaside sights — individuals like Mark Zuckerberg, Ralph Lauren and Shakira have vacationed right here — town’s laid-back temper, pure magnificence and low crime charge have been a promoting level to Latin American Jews for many years. Jewish builders, whose presence might be traced again to Argentine businessman Mauricio Litman, who based the Cantegrill Nation Membership in 1950, had been additionally closely concerned within the metropolis’s bodily progress. The Cantegrill nonetheless stands, filled with Jews who play golf or playing cards, and now there are issues like a Jewish movie competition and an area kosher pizza restaurant, opened in 2012 by Levi Shemtov, nephew of the well-known Washington, DC-based rabbi of the identical identify.
However for a lot of Jewish households, town situated about two hours east of the capital Montevideo is altering from summer time getaway to year-round dwelling: its everlasting Jewish inhabitants has doubled from round 300 households to 600 because the begin of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
The development isn’t stopping anytime quickly, mentioned Fabian Schamis, government director of the native Comunidad Israelita de Punta del Este, or CIPEMU, a Jewish communal group that was created in 2005 and now boasts over 1,500 year-round members who participate in its cultural programming and “Shabbat on the seaside” nights. The Jewish inflow throughout the summer time is estimated at round 40,000.
A lot of the new everlasting residents are from Argentina, the place the pandemic has raged, and the place a mixture of rising inflation, devaluation of the nationwide foreign money and excessive tax charges had contributed to a recession in recent times.
“Since 2020 we’ve been receiving an enormous inflow of individuals, nearly one hundred pc from Argentina,” Schamis advised the Jewish Telegraphic Company. “We’re speaking about residents, not vacationers. The pandemic additionally accelerated sure dissatisfaction that Argentines had [in their own country] for political causes, economics, insecurity and different causes, and so they selected to maneuver right here to Punta del Este, the place we’ve an oasis in all these features.”
Elevated college choices have added to the attraction, native Jews say. There is no such thing as a Jewish day college, however Jewish college students are altering the make-up of the remainder of town’s faculties, such because the Worldwide Faculty (IC) Punta del Este — which opened in 2018 and is owned by Rolando Rozenblum, a present CIPEMU board member and former president.
The worldwide Okay-12 college had over 600 college students this yr from 28 international locations, together with the US. Rozenblum says the coed physique is about 10% Jewish. CIPEMU says it would do a demographic research this yr to acquire extra exact Jewish group numbers.
Rozenblum, a businessman and group chief, can be concerned in one other noteworthy native establishment: the primary Trump tower in South America, which after almost a decade of setbacks is ready to open in August. Rozenblum purchased an residence within the tower and helps its native builders — the Trump group solely licensed its identify to be used and isn’t concerned within the challenge’s logistics — put together for its opening.
The tower consists of 160 residences that value round $5,000 per sq. meter, and consists of an indoor tennis courtroom designed by Argentine Jewish participant Martin Jaite, a former top-10 professional. Round 60% of the consumers are Argentines, and the remainder are from Uruguay, Brazil, Europe and the US.
“The Trump identify remains to be an necessary world actual property model,” Rozenblum mentioned. “We’d like for builders to begin to construct such a high-level constructing additionally ready for the winter, not solely targeted on the facilities for the summer time. That’s the subsequent step.”
Argentines have been flocking for years to Uruguay, whose center-right president Luis Lacalle Pou, in energy since March 2020, is main a extra free and pro-market authorities. Uruguay supplied new residents a 10-year “tax vacation,” and a few vacationers merely determined to not go away when COVID first locked them in place.
“This motion is cheap and follows the migratory and funding developments in the direction of Uruguay, a rustic that we see with superb eyes for Jews to settle in,” Ariel Stofenmacher, rector of the Latin American Rabbinical Seminar, advised JTA in December 2020, in asserting the establishment’s enlargement to Uruguay.
Punta del Este now has three synagogues — two are Sephardic Orthodox and one is affiliated with the Hasidic Chabad-Lubavitch motion. For instance of how town brings collectively a mixture of Argentine, Brazilian and Uruguayan Jews, the outstanding Brazilian Safra banking household helped to construct a temple right here, which, throughout the summer time, is attended largely by Argentines.
“Now I can proudly say that in case you come from a giant Jewish metropolis like Buenos Aires to this little tiny seaside city, you may hold your Jewish flame glowing,” Rozenblum mentioned.
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