ECAJ representatives in Argentina
Argentina's President Javier Milei told the World Jewish Congress gathering that he would intensify anti-terrorism efforts.
Representatives from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) joined Jewish community leaders from around the world in Buenos Aires last week to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the city’s Jewish community centre and to discuss the global scourge of rising antisemitism.
Eighty-five people were killed and more than 300 wounded in the bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) on the morning of July 18, 1994. To date, no one has been convicted for the attack which was carried out by a Hezbollah operative at the direction of Iran. The death of prosecutor Alberto Nisman on the day before he was due to present evidence of a government cover-up and collusion with the Iranian regime has heightened the community’s sense of loss and betrayal.
Argentina’s President Javier Milei told the World Jewish Congress gathering that he would intensify anti-terrorism efforts. Days earlier, Milei officially designated Hamas to be a terrorist organisation.
The Australian Jewish community was represented at the commemorations by ECAJ deputy president Robert Goot and ECAJ chief operating officer Carly Shamgar. Immediate past president Jillian Segal also attended in her new role as Australia’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism.
Several high-level meetings were arranged in addition to the commemoration ceremony to discuss the challenges facing the world’s Jewish communities since the Hamas-led October 7 massacre in southern Israel last year.
Segal, whose appointment as Australia’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism was announced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese earlier this month, met with her counterparts from around the world, including Deborah Lipstadt of the United States.
Also as part of the calendar of events, the Anti-Defamation League’s J7 Task Force Against Antisemitism – comprising representatives from the US, UK, France, Germany, Canada, Argentina and Australia – held a media conference to warn of surging antisemitism.
In a signal of honour to the Australian Jewish community and Goot’s leadership in the struggle against antisemitism, as chair of the Policy Council of the WJC, Goot was invited to give a speech on behalf of all Jewish organisations and communities to the Plenary Session of the International Meetings of the Special Envoys to Combat Antisemitism and the International Council of Jewish Parliamentarians.
There were more than 1000 guests in the audience including the Presidents of Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, Head of Government of Buenos Aires and ambassadors, ministers, parliamentarians, special envoys and Jewish leaders from 47 countries.
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