Introduction

Annette H. Levine and Natasha Zaretsky

Eighty-five people were killed when a car bomb tore into the core of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (amia), the Argentine Jewish Mutual Aid Association, in Buenos Aires on July 18, 1994. That event marked Argentina, with its history of military dictatorships and the still recent 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, once again as fertile ground for terrorism and injustice.1 Indeed, the 1994 amia bombing was the most destructive ter- rorist attack in the history of Argentina (and Latin America more broadly) and one of the worst attacks on a Jewish community since World War ii. The very nature of the bombing and the lack of justice in its wake have further cemented this moment as a key turning point for Jewish life in Argentina, as witnessed in its impact on the community’s political activism, literary and musical production, and the rhythms of everyday life—most notably, the new security measures seen in Argentina and throughout Latin American Jewish communities. While the epicenter of the 1994 bombing was seemingly beyond repair and the sense of citizenship and belonging for Jewish Argentines had been literally rattled, the nation witnessed an immediate response and an unprecedented level of mass repudiation. This set the stage for an even greater struggle for Jewish belonging within the Argentine national fabric. Three days after the bombing, on a rainy Thursday, July 21, 1994, Buenos Aires was inundated with approximately 150,000 concerned citizens who marched in silence to the Plaza de los dos Congresos with their umbrellas. This expression of unity and indig- nation, known as la tarde de los paraguas (the Afternoon of the Umbrellas), embodied a groundswell of solidarity where banners read “De pie frente al terror. La auténtica solidaridad es la justicia” (Stand up to terror. True solidarity is justice), and “Todos somos judíos” (We are all Jews), a phrase originally penned by Mario Diament in response to the 1992 Israeli Embassy bombing.2

1 This is in reference to Argentina’s history of dictatorship and specifically the period of military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983, deemed by the military regime as El Proceso de Reorganización Nacional, the Process of National Reorganization, which led to approximately 30,000 disappeared—those who were detained, tortured, and killed by the military dictatorship. 2 Mario Diament first published this piece in El Cronista the day after the 1992 Israeli Embassy bombing. The continued use of this phrase during the Tarde de los paraguas in 1994 empha- sized a critique of the marginalization of the Jewish community in Argentina.

2 levine and zaretsky

In the two decades since the amia bombing, the social movements that took shape have become fixtures in the tapestry of human rights activism in Argentina. Since 1994, ongoing struggles over memory, belonging, and justice continue to frame the Jewish experience in Argentina in significant ways. Ethnographers and scholars have paid careful attention to the sustained movements devoted to memory and the pursuit of justice in the aftermath of the attack, as well as the range of cultural expressions (including literature, art, film, and music) that emerged. The first groups to form in the weeks after the amia bombing were family members of the victims and their supporters united in pursuit of information and later justice. Spearheaded by Familiares y Amigos de las Víctimas (Family and Friends of the Victims), Memoria Activa (Active Memory), and later APEMIA, Agrupación por el Esclarecimiento de la Masacre Impune de la amia (Association for the Clarification of the Unpunished amia Massacre), as well as a more recent group, 18 J, we see an emergence of new forms of political activism and engagement of the public sphere. Their activism firmly places Jewish Argentines within the public register of citizenship and the struggle against impunity in a way some would argue is integral to the contemporary Argentine national imaginary. The political dynamics of the Argentine state have transformed dramati- cally since 1994. When the amia bombing took place, Carlos Menem presided over a nation fully immersed in rising neoliberalism, while the crimes of the military dictatorship (1976–1983) remained in rampant impunity. Twenty years later, in 2014, President Cristina Kirchner prioritized human rights as part of her political agenda, supporting public memorial projects (such as the trans- formation of the torture center at the ESMA, or Escuela Mecánica de la Armada—the Navy School of Mechanics—into a Space for Memory and Human Rights) and the prosecution of the perpetrators of the crimes commit- ted during the dictatorship.3 Additionally, as a result of the activism of Memoria Activa before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, in 2005, Argentina accepted its failure in providing justice for the amia case. Yet despite these significant political changes, two decades later the amia bombing remains in a state of impunity. Recent developments include the sudden January 2015 death of the lead prosecutor in the investigation, Alberto Nisman, who had made strong allegations against President Cristina Kirchner’s government (that her government denied), also putting into question

3 In 1989, President Carlos Menem granted pardons to military officials tied to abductions, disappearances, and murders during the dictatorship period, effectively putting an end to pending trials.