The

history of the Jews in Latin America The history of the Jews in Latin America began with conversos who joined the Spanish and Portuguese expeditions to the continents. The Alhambra Decree of 1492 led to the mass conversion of Spain's Jews to Catholicism and the expulsion of those ...

began with seven sailors arriving in

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus * lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo * es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón * pt, Cristóvão Colombo * ca, Cristòfor (or ) * la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...

's crew. Since then, the

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

population of Latin America has risen to more than 500,000 — most of whom live in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...

, with large communities also present in Brazil. The following is a list of some prominent Argentine Jews:

Athletes

* Daniel Brailovsky, football player *

Carolina Duer Carolina Raquel Duer (born 5 August 1978) is an Argentine boxer and former world champion. She formerly held the International Boxing Federation (IBF) bantamweight title, the World Boxing Organization (WBO) bantamweight, and earlier the WBO supe ...

, boxer *

Gastón Etlis Gastón Etlis (born 4 November 1974) is a former tennis player from Argentina. The right-hander won four career titles in doubles, and reached his highest ATP rankings of World No. 114 in singles May 2000 and World No. 17 in doubles in January ...

, tennis player * Nicolas Falczuk, football player *

Fernando Fligman Fernando Leandro Fligman ( he, פרננדו פליגמן; born 1 September 1983) is an Argentine- Israeli association football player who is currently with Atlético Concepción. Playing career In 2004, Fligman signed a three-year contract w ...

, football player * Naón Isidro, football player *

Martín Jaite Martín Jaite (born 9 October 1964) is a former top-10 professional tennis player from Argentina. Jaite's career-high Association of Tennis Professionals singles ranking was world no. 10, which he achieved in the summer of 1990, and he won a t ...

, tennis player * Waldo Kantor, volleyball player * Giselle Kañevsky, field hockey player *

Valentina Kogan Valentina Kogan (born 19 March 1980) is an Argentine handball goalkeeper. She plays for Vilo and the Argentina national team and participated at the 2011 World Women's Handball Championship in Brazil. Biography Valentina Kogan is diabetic since ...

, handball player * Nora Koppel, weightlifter *

Daniela Krukower Daniela Yael Krukower ( he, דניאלה קרוקובר; born 6 January 1975 in Colegiales, Buenos Aires) is a former judoka from Argentina. Biography Krukower was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina to a Jewish family, and at an early age moved wit ...

, judoka *

Lucas Matías Licht Lucas Matías Licht (born 6 April 1981) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays for Club Atlético Villa San Carlos mainly as a left-back but also as a left winger. Club career Born in Rosario, Santa Fe, Licht grew up in the youth acad ...

, football player *

Bryan Man Bryan Man ( he, בריאן מן; born December 8, 1983) is an Argentine- Israeli professional football (soccer) player. Biography Early life Man made aliyah with his family in 1998 under the Law of Return. His parents had a difficult time ...

, football player *

Federico Mociulsky Federico Mociulsky (born 15 July 1989 in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine professional association football player contracted to Deportivo Roca. Early life Mociulsky's paternal grandfather, Leon, was part owner of the club in 1958. His uncle, Dr. ...

, football player *

José Pekerman José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacu ...

, football coach *

Sergio Roitman Sergio Andres Roitman (born 16 May 1979), nicknamed 'Motoneta' (''Shotgun'' in Spanish) is a retired professional tennis player from Argentina. He achieved a career-high rankings of world No. 62 in singles in October 2007, and world No. 45 in do ...

, tennis player *

Martín Schusterman Martin Schusterman (born 13 September 1975 in San Juan, Argentina) is a retired rugby union footballer. His last club was San Isidro Club. His usual position was at flanker. Schusterman started his career in 1997 with San Isidro Club in Argentin ...

, rugby player *

Diego Schwartzman Diego Sebastián Schwartzman (, ; born 16 August 1992) is an Argentine professional tennis player. He has won four ATP singles titles and reached his career-high singles ranking of world 8 in October 2020. As a clay court specialist, his bes ...

, tennis player *

Juan Pablo Sorín Juan Pablo Sorín (born 5 May 1976) is an Argentine former footballer and current sports broadcaster, who played as a left-back or left midfielder. He had a successful club career in his native Argentina with River Plate, in Brazil with Cruzei ...

, football player *

Eial Strahman Eial Strahman (Born 21 June 1989 in Córdoba), is an Argentine-Israeli footballer who plays for Maccabi Herzliya, as a forward. Strahman was considered one of River Plate's best talents to come through the youth system and is nicknamed "The Mo ...

, football player *

Ezra Sued Ezra Sued (7 June 1923 – 21 August 2011) was an Argentine international football striker. Career Born in Once, Buenos Aires, Sued began playing club football for local side Racing Club de Avellaneda. He spent his entire professional ca ...

, football player *

Pablo Tabachnik Pablo Ariel Tabachnik (born November 20, 1977, in San Juan, Argentina) is an Argentinian table tennis player. He competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), ...

, table tennis player *

Nicolás Tauber Nicolás Tauber ( he, ניקולאס טאובר; born August 20, 1980) is an Argentine-Israeli footballer currently playing for Villa San Carlos. He was born in La Plata, Argentina. Playing career During 2003 the former Maccabi Netanya manage ...

, football player *

Jonathan Tennenbaum Jonathan "Jonny" Tennenbaum ( he, יונתן "ג'וני" טננבאום; born 1 September 1979) is an Argentine-Israeli professional association football player currently contracted to Hapoel F.C. Sandala Gilboa. Playing career Tennenbaum arr ...

, football player *

Nicolas Valansi Nicolas or Nicolás may refer to: People Given name * Nicolas (given name) Mononym * Nicolas (footballer, born 1999), Brazilian footballer * Nicolas (footballer, born 2000), Brazilian footballer Surname Nicolas * Dafydd Nicolas (c.1705–1774), ...

, football player * Alexis Weisheim, football player *

Fernando Zylberberg Fernando Zylberberg (born June 30, 1977) is a retired field hockey player from Argentina. Biography Zylberberg was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. With the National team, he made his debut in 1997 and competed for his native country at the 20 ...

, field hockey player

Entertainers

Héctor Babenco Héctor Eduardo Babenco (February 7, 1946July 13, 2016) was an Argentine-Brazilian film director, screenwriter, producer and actor who worked in several countries including Brazil, Argentina, and the United States. He was one of the first Braz ...

, film director *

Tato Bores Mauricio Borensztein (27 April 1927 – 11 January 1996), known by the stage name ''Tato Bores'', was an Argentine film, theatre and television comedian, who specialized in political humor. His ironic TV monologues, delivered at a fast pace, b ...

, humorist *

Daniel Burman Daniel Burman (born 29 August 1973, in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine film director, screenplay writer, and producer. According to film critic Joel Poblete, who writes for ''Mabuse'', a cinema magazine, Daniel Burman is one of the members of the ...

, filmmaker *

Julio Chávez Julio Hirsch (born 14 July 1956), known professionally as Julio Chávez, is an Argentine film and television actor. He was born in Buenos Aires, and received his first film role in 1973. Since 1976, he has had leading roles in Argentine cinema ...

, actor * Jorge Guinzburg, journalist, theatrical producer, humorist and TV and radio host *

Gerardo Sofovich Gerardo Andrés Sofovich (March 18, 1937 – March 8, 2015) was an Argentine businessman, dramaturge, television host and presenter, comedian, scriptwriter, and director. He was the producer of '' Polémica en el bar'' and ''La noche del Domin ...

, TV producer, humorist *

Hugo Sofovich Hugo Alberto Sofovich (December 18, 1939 – January 12, 2003) was an Argentine film director and screenwriter. Although predominantly a screenwriter, Sofovich directed 15 films and script write over 20 films during his career, directed and w ...

, TV producer and humorist *

Max Berliner Max Berliner ( yi, מאקס בערלינער, born Mordcha Berliner; Warsaw, 23 October 1919 - Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capita ...

, Polish-Argentine actor, author, film director and theater director *

Norman Briski Norman Briski (born January 2, 1938) is an Argentine theatre actor, director and playwright, as well as a cinema and television actor. Life and work Naum Normando Briski was born in Santa Fe, Argentina, in 1938. His Jewish Argentine family reloca ...

, well known theater actor, director and playwright

Musicians

Martha Argerich Martha Argerich (; Eastern Catalan: �ɾʒəˈɾik born 5 June 1941) is an Argentine classical concert pianist. She is widely considered to be one of the greatest pianists of all time. Early life and education Argerich was born in Buenos A ...

, concert pianist *

Daniel Barenboim Daniel Barenboim (; in he, דניאל בארנבוים, born 15 November 1942) is an Argentine-born classical pianist and conductor based in Berlin. He has been since 1992 General Music Director of the Berlin State Opera and "Staatskapellmeist ...

, conductor and pianist * Mario Davidovsky, composer *

Giora Feidman Giora Feidman ( he, גיורא פיידמן; born 25 March 1936) is an Argentine-born Israeli clarinetist who specializes in klezmer music. Biography Giora Feidman was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where his Bessarabian Jewish parents immigra ...

, klezmer musician * Max Glücksmann, pioneer of the Argentine music and film industries *

Osvaldo Golijov Osvaldo Noé Golijov (; born December 5, 1960) is an Argentine composer of classical music and music professor, known for his vocal and orchestral work. Biography Osvaldo Golijov was born in and grew up in La Plata, Argentina, in a Jewish family ...

, classical composer *

Alejandro Lerner Alejandro Federico Lerner (born June 8, 1957) is an Argentine musician and singer-songwriter. He has written and sung countless songs including several hits, and his fame and recognition spread all over South America. Through his career, Lerner ...

, singer-songwriter *

Lalo Schifrin Boris Claudio "Lalo" Schifrin (born June 21, 1932) is an Argentine-American pianist, composer, arranger and conductor. He is best known for his large body of film and TV scores since the 1950s, incorporating jazz and Latin American musical eleme ...

, composer *

Oscar Strasnoy Oscar Strasnoy (born November 12, 1970) is a French-Argentine composer, conductor and pianist. Although primarily known for his stage works, the first of which ''Midea (2)'' premiered in Spoleto in 2000, his principal compositions also include ...

, composer and conductor *

Andrés Calamaro Andrés Calamaro (Andrés Calamaro Massel, August 22, 1961) is an Argentine musician, composer and Latin Grammy winner. He is considered one of the greatest and most influential rock artists in Spanish. He is also one of the most complete artist ...

, singer-songwriter

Politicians

José Alperovich José Jorge Alperovich (born 13 April 1955) is an Argentine politician and who has served as governor of Tucumán Province from 2003 to 2015. He was elected in 2003, and reelected in 2007 and 2011. He is married to Beatriz Rojkés de Alperovich ...

, former governor of Tucumán Province * Tania Bíder, revolutionary fighter *

Myriam Bregman Myriam Bregman (born 25 February 1972) is an Argentine lawyer, activist and politician. While studying a degree in law at the University of Buenos Aires in the 90s, Bregman joined the Socialist Workers' Party (PTS), a Trotskyist Argentine party ...

, congresswoman * Beatriz Rojkés de Alperovich, former provisional president of the Senate * Daniel Filmus, government minister and former senator *

Itai Hagman Itai Hagman (born 13 February 1983) is an Argentine economist and politician who has been a National Deputy elected in the City of Buenos Aires since 2019. A member of the Patria Grande Front, Hagman was elected in the Frente de Todos list in 20 ...

, student leader and congressman * Carlos Heller, banker and congressman * César Jaroslavsky, former national congressman *

Axel Kicillof Axel Kicillof (, born 25 September 1971) is an Argentine Peronist economist and politician who has been Governor of Buenos Aires since 2019. Kicillof completed an ideological turn, from teaching Marxist economics to the doctrine of Perón, jo ...

, governor of Buenos Aires Province *

Héctor Timerman Héctor Marcos Timerman (16 December 1953 – 30 December 2018) was an Argentine journalist, politician, human rights activist and diplomat. He served as his country's Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2010 to 2015, during the presidency of Cristi ...

, journalist, human rights activist and diplomat, former foreign minister * Hugo Yasky, trade unionist and congressman

Religion

* Sergio Bergman, rabbi, politician, pharmacist, writer and social activist * Abraham Skorka, rabbi and biophysicist *

Isaac Sacca Rabbi Isaac Antebi Sacca ( he, יצחק ענתבי סקה (born 1964) is the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Buenos Aires, as well as the founder and president of Menora, an organization for Jewish youth. Biography Early life and education Rabbi Sacca ...

, rabbi

Scientists

* Laszlo Biro, inventor of the

ballpoint pen A ballpoint pen, also known as a biro (British English), ball pen (Hong Kong, Indian and Philippine English), or dot pen (Nepali) is a pen that dispenses ink (usually in paste form) over a metal ball at its point, i.e. over a "ball point". ...

César Milstein César Milstein, CH, FRS (8 October 1927 – 24 March 2002) was an Argentine biochemist in the field of antibody research. Milstein shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1984 with Niels Kaj Jerne and Georges J. F. Köhler for d ...

, immunologist,

Nobel Prize in Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, according ...

winner

Mathematicians

Gregory Chaitin Gregory John Chaitin ( ; born 25 June 1947) is an Argentine-American mathematician and computer scientist. Beginning in the late 1960s, Chaitin made contributions to algorithmic information theory and metamathematics, in particular a computer-t ...

, mathematician *

Beppo Levi Beppo Levi (14 May 1875 – 28 August 1961) was an Italian mathematician. He published high-level academic articles and books, not only on mathematics, but also on physics, history, philosophy, and pedagogy. Levi was a member of the Bologna Aca ...

, mathematician * Cora Sadosky, mathematician *

Manuel Sadosky Manuel Sadosky (April 13, 1914 – June 18, 2005) was an Argentine mathematician, civil servant and author who was born in Buenos Aires to Jewish Russian immigrants who had fled the pogroms in Europe.Jacovkis, Pablo (2015). "MANUEL SADOSKY Y SU IM ...

, mathematician

Writers

Marcos Aguinis Marcos Aguinis (born 13 January 1935) is an Argentine writer. Trained in medical studies, music and psychoanalysis, his work and his thoughts are focused on the notions of independence, democracy and rejection of authoritarianism. He is a propone ...

, journalist, writer *

Marcelo Birmajer Marcelo Birmajer (born November 29, 1966 in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine Jewish author. The grandson of Romanian, Polish, Lithuanian and Syrian immigrants. Best known for writing the script for the 2004 film El abrazo partido. Birmajer's wo ...

, writer *

Isidoro Blaisten Isidoro Blaisten (January 12, 1933 – August 28, 2004) was an Argentine writer. Son of David Blaisten and Dora Gliclij, Blaisten was born in Concordia, Argentina. His family was among the many Argentine Jews who populated rural areas in Entre ...

, writer *

Sergio Chejfec Sergio Chejfec (28 November 1956 – 2 April 2022) was an Argentine Jewish writer. He was born in Buenos Aires in 1956. Chejfec published eighteen books, including novels, essays, short stories, and a poetry collection. From 1990 to 2005 he lived ...

, writer * León Dujovne, writer, philosopher, journalist, essayist * Samuel Eichelbaum, writer *

Juan Gelman Juan Gelman (3 May 1930 – 14 January 2014) was an Argentine poet. He published more than twenty books of poetry between 1956 and his death in early 2014. He was a naturalized citizen of Mexico, country where he arrived as a political exile of th ...

, poet *

Alberto Gerchunoff Alberto Gerchunoff (January 1, 1883 – March 2, 1950), was an Argentine writer born in the Russian Empire, in the city of Proskuriv, now Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine. Biography His family emigrated in 1889 to the Argentinian Jewish agricultural colon ...

, writer *

Noé Jitrik Noé Jitrik (23 January 1928 – 6 October 2022) was an Argentine literary critic. Jitrik was born in Argentina on 23 January 1928. He was director of the ''Instituto de literatura hispanoamericana'' at the University of Buenos Aires, and was ...

, essayist, literary critic *

Alberto Manguel Alberto Manguel (born March 13, 1948, in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine-Canadian anthologist, translator, essayist, novelist, editor, and a former Director of the National Library of Argentina. He is the author of numerous non-fiction books such ...

, novelist and essayist *

Alejandra Pizarnik Flora Alejandra Pizarnik (29 April 1936 – 25 September 1972) was an Argentine poet. Her idiosyncratic and thematically introspective poetry has been considered "one of the most unusual bodies of work in Latin American literature", and has been ...

, poet * Andrés Rivera, born Marcos Ribak, novelist *

Alejandro Rozitchner Alejandro Rozitchner (born 1960 in Buenos Aires) is an Argentina, Argentine writer. "Artist of the ideas" or "intellectual nutritionist" are some of the names with which he describes his work. He is characterized by his affirmative thinking, hi ...

, essayist *

Ana María Shua Ana María Shua (born 1951) is an Argentine writer. She is particularly well known for her work in microfiction. Shua has published over eighty books in numerous genres including novels, short stories, microfiction, poetry, drama, children's lit ...

, writer *

César Tiempo César Tiempo, born Israel Zeitlin (March 3, 1906 in Dnipropetrovsk (Yekaterinoslav), Russian Empire – October 24, 1980) was a Russian Empire-born screenwriter of Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in ...

, born Israel Zeitlin, writer and screenwriter *

Jacobo Timerman Jacobo Timerman (6 January 1923 – 11 November 1999), was a Soviet-born Argentine publisher, journalist, and author, who is most noted for his confronting and reporting the atrocities of the Argentine military regime's Dirty War during a perio ...

, political commentator, journalist *

Bernardo Verbitsky Bernardo Verbitsky (22 November 1907 – 15 March 1979) was an Argentine writer and journalist. Biography Verbitsky was born of Ukrainian-Jewish immigrant parents (his surname Verbitsky means willow in Ukrainian). He was a screenwriter, a jour ...

, novelist *

Horacio Verbitsky Horacio Verbitsky (born February 11, 1942) is an Argentine investigative journalist and author with a history as a leftist guerrilla in the Montoneros. In the early 1990s, he reported on a series corruption scandals in the administration of Presi ...

, journalist *

Federico Andahazi Federico Andahazi (born June 6, 1963) is an Argentine writer and psychologist. Biography Federico Andahazi was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, at Congreso, a very central neighborhood of the city. He is the son of Bela Andahazi, an aristocratic ...

, writer

Others

Mario Blejer Mario J. Blejer (born June 11, 1948) is an Argentine economist and a former president of the Central Bank of Argentina. Life and times Blejer was born in Córdoba, Argentina, in 1948. He enrolled at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and gradua ...

, economist *

Miguel Najdorf Miguel Najdorf (born Mojsze Mendel Najdorf) (15 April 1910 – 4 July 1997) was a Polish–Argentinian chess grandmaster. Originally from Poland, he was in Argentina when World War II began in 1939, and he stayed and settled there. He was ...

, Polish-Argentine chess grandmaster * Raquel Partnoy, painter * Naomi Preizler, fashion model and artist * Natalio Alberto Nisman, a lawyer who worked as a federal prosecutor, noted for being the chief investigator of the 1994 car bombing of the Jewish center in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

, which killed 85 people, the worst terrorist attack in Argentina's history *

Alejandro Romay Alejandro Romay (born Alejandro Argentino Saúl, January 20, 1927 – June 25, 2015) was an Argentine businessman and media mogul. He worked for many years at Canal 9 (known under his management as Canal 9 Libertad), and became known as the "''Cz ...

, businessman *

Damián Szifron Damián Szifron (Argentine ; born 9 July 1975) is an Argentine film and television director and screenwriter, best known as the creator of the TV series ''Los Simuladores'' (2002), the most successful TV series in the history of Argentina, and w ...

, film and television director and screenwriter

Footnotes

{{Lists of Jews by country, noredlinks=yes +

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, ...

Jews,Argentine

Athletes

Entertainers

Musicians

Politicians

Religion

Scientists

Mathematicians

Writers

Others

See also

Footnotes