Uruguay is home to the third largest Jewish community in South America after Argentina and Brazil. Records show that as of 2020, there were about 16,500 Jews residing in Uruguay. The Jewish community is integrated to the civil society of the country, exercising its Jewish identity and adding positively in the economic and social development of the Republic. The Central Israeli Committee of Uruguay (C.C.I.U) is the representative entity of the Jewish community of the country.
Uruguay
WJC Affiliate
Comité Central Israelita del Uruguay
Executive Director: Gabriela Fridmanas
Canelones 1084, 3º
Telephone: 598-2903-2943
Email: gfridmanas@cciu.org.uy
Website: www.cciu.org.uy
Social Media:
Facebook: Comite Central Israelita del Uruguay
Instagram: @cciuruguay
X: @CCIUruguay
Executive Director: Gabriela Fridmanas
Canelones 1084, 3º
Telephone: 598-2903-2943
Email: gfridmanas@cciu.org.uy
Website: www.cciu.org.uy
Social Media:
Facebook: Comite Central Israelita del Uruguay
Instagram: @cciuruguay
X: @CCIUruguay
President: Gerardo Stuczynski
History
The history of the Jewish community in Uruguay parallels that of the country, which has been a geographical intermediary between Brazil and Argentina. Uruguay did not have an active inquisition, and there are some traces of converts that lived in the 16th century. The present Jewish community has its origins in the year 1880. In 1909, there were 150 Jews living in Montevideo.
In 1916, a substantial amount of Ashkenazi Jews formed a chevra kadisha (group of Jewish men and women who oversee Jewish burial services); a year later, they opened the first synagogue. In 1918 there were some 1,700 Jews in Uruguay, 75% of whom were Sephardim from the Balkans, Syria, Cyprus, Morocco, Egypt, Greece, Turkey, France, and the rest of Eastern Europe, including all of Russia, Poland, and Lithuania. Uruguay was a country that had opened its doors to immigrants from all backgrounds and where the Church was separated from the state.
In the city of Paysandú, there were already dispersed Jews before 1916, and in that same year a large group of families arrived from Brazil and founded a colony. The Israelite Society of Paysandú was formally created in 1929 with people who continued arriving from Montevideo and Argentina. Between the years 1925 and 1928 as well as 1933, many Jews went to Argentina.
These immigrants came in the vast majority of modest homes, and when they arrived in Uruguay, they worked in the most diverse industries: refrigeration, the tram, street vending, commerce, and in small workshops of confection and carpentry. Likewise, those who settled in the interior of the country formed some agricultural cooperatives.
The economic possibilities offered by the country helped to a social ascent. With a clear sense of identity, the Jews gradually integrated themselves into society intergenerationally.
A wave of antisemitism in Uruguay was fired in mid-2014, which was reflected in the expressions of some members of government and the murder of a merchant and leader of the Jewish community in the city of Paysandú.
Years of the Holocaust
At the beginning of World War II, Uruguay imposed limitations on immigration. However, in 1939, some 2,200 Jews, coming mostly from Germany, managed to enter; in 1940, another 373 Jews arrived. After the war, Jews from Hungary and the Middle East also sought refuge in Uruguay.
Demography
The World Jewish Population, 2016 (DellaPergola) estimated that in the country there are about 15,000 Jews. 30% are secular Jews, and another 20% have little contact with their Judaism. Although there is no official data to fully confirm, it is estimated that by the 1960s, there were about 50,000 Jews in Uruguay.
There were three large migratory waves of Jews: one during the 1970s, at the beginning of the dictatorship; another during the economic crisis of 1982; and the last in the wake of the financial crisis of 2002.
The vast majority of Jews in Uruguay live in Montevideo, but there are also organized communities in Paysandú and Maldonado. Some 75% of the country's Jews are of Eastern European origin, of which 14% come from Western Europe and 11% are Sephardim.
Community Life
Since 1940, the Comité Central Israelita del Uruguay has played an important role in these difficult years and, to this day, is the representative body of Uruguayan Jews and Jewish Zionist institutions. The Committee also actively contributed to the task that made possible the establishment of the State of Israel.
The Jewish community of Uruguay is made up of about 10,000 families and is organized in four communities: the Israelite Community of Uruguay (founded in 1916), the Israelite Sephardic Community (founded in 1932), the New Israeli Congregation of Montevideo (founded in 1940), and the Hungarian Israeli Community (founded in 1932). In addition to the Committee, there are other Jewish organizations like the Kehila, the conservative movement, the Zionist organization, and the Zionist Youth Federation that groups seven tnuot (Zionist youth movements), and sports institutions.
Religious and Cultural life
Historically, the degree of religiosity throughout Uruguay's Jewish population has been an especially distinguishing feature. The various synagogues that exist in Uruguay offer Orthodox or Conservative services that cover various religious needs.
Among these immigrants were strict Orthodox believers who maintained only the most important traditions, freethinkers, and agnostics. Despite these divergences, they have built a deep sense of solidarity. Over time, synagogues, schools, libraries, and a Jewish cemetery have been built, and newspapers in Yiddish, Ladino, and Castilian began being published as well.
Jewish Education
In Uruguay, there are comprehensive schools with curricula in Spanish and Hebrew, ranging from initial to pre-university education, including Escuela Integral, Instituto Ariel, and Instituto Yavne. In addition, the Chabad Center runs the Rambam School.
Universidad ORT Uruguay, recognized by the state for offering titles equivalent to those from public universities, plays a significant role in higher education. Additionally, the Jewish community sponsors permanent seminars on Talmud and Judaism at various institutions, including the School of Law at the University of the Republic, Universidad ORT Uruguay, the Catholic University, and the University of Montevideo.
Kosher Food
Kosher food, locally produced and imported, is readily available. There are some kosher restaurants, mainly in Jewish institutions.
Youth
In Uruguay there are seven Jewish Youth Movements that bring together young Zionists, with activities that seek the educational, social and ideological development of its members. Through non-formal education, Jewish Zionist values are transmitted to boys and girls from 4 to 18 years old. The central institution that nucleates these Movements is the Zionist Youth Federation.
Jewish Media
The community publishes a magazine, "En Comunidad." Also, various institutions publish informative magazines and utilize radio and television spaces for media purposes.
Information for visitors
There are several places of Jewish interest that can be visited in Uruguay. In Montevideo are the Holocaust Memorial, Golda Meir Square, Community Center, Holocaust Museum, Modern Synagogue, Jewish Quarter, and Ancient Synagogue.
In the Maldonado area (where the famous beach city of Punta del Este is located), you can visit three synagogues: the Community Center of Punta del Este and the houses where the first families who arrived in Maldonado settled.
There is a Memorial Museum of the Holocaust, hosted at the headquarters of the Israelite Community of Uruguay. Around the city, there are monuments to Golda Meir, Albert Einstein, and Raoul Wallenberg.
The community also has its own cemetery.
Relations with Israel
Uruguay maintains full diplomatic relations with Israel.
When President Tabaré Vazquez was re-elected in 2014 and took office in 2015, positive relations with Israel resumed. He got along well with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; during a friendly phone call, Netanyahu invited Vazquez to visit Israel and discussed furthering trade and technology agreements.
During his presidency, Uruguay has been a consistent defender of Israel at numerous United Nations sessions and international summits.
Uruguay joined Israel and the United States in voting against a UN NGO Committee decision to grant observer status to a British-based NGO—the Palestinian Return Centre (PRC)—that Israel says is linked to Hamas. These were the only three countries to vote against it becoming an accredited NGO of the UN.
President Luis Lacalle Pou (elected 2020) visited Israel a year before being elected President, when he was a Senator.
Uruguay also protected Israel from Palestine’s efforts to remove them from FIFA.
Israeli Embassy:
Dr Luis Bonavita
1266, 11300 Montevideo, Uruguay
Telephone: +598 2628 8733
More Communities
See All
Sign up to receive our weekly newsletter
The latest from the Jewish world
