MENDOZA

MENDOZA, province in Argentina and capital city of the province. -The Province According to data of Vaad Hakehilot as of 2005 there were some 550 families in the capital city of Mendoza and some 30–40 families in San Rafael, out of a total population in the province of about 1,579,651 (2001). Jews had settled in the province as agriculturists and plantation owners by the end of the 1880s. In 1904–05 Jews from Yekaterinoslav attempted to settle in Palmira, but after a short time found they could not meet the difficult terms of their settlement contract and were compelled to leave. A similar attempt to settle there in 1913 likewise failed. In 1943 there were Jews in 24 out of the 123 towns and villages in the province. In 1964 only San Martín,   San Rafael, and the capital city of the province, Mendoza, had organized Jewish communities affiliated with the Va'ad ha-Kehillot (see argentina ). The province is well known for its grapevines and since 1952 there has been industrial production of strictly kosher wine. -The City In 1909 there were some 600 Jews in the city – approximately 500 from Eastern Europe and the remainder from France and Sephardim. The first community organization, Sociedad Israelita de Beneficencia, was established in 1910, and continues to function. Its membership in 1968 was 577 families. The Sociedad, which comprises the Ashkenazim of Mendoza, owns a large community building, a synagogue, and a cemetery, and plays an important role in the operation of all Jewish institutions in the city. In 1918 a Sephardi community – the Sociedad Israelita de Socorros Mutuos – was established. In 1943 it comprised about 60 families and has come to maintain its own synagogue and cemetery. The Sephardi and Ashkenazi organizations, however, cooperate in running the school, the Maccabi Social Club, and the country club (purchased in 1954). Various welfare institutions were established in the city but they became superfluous and no longer exist. The financial institution Asociación Israelita de Crédito Mutual has become the Jewish bank Crédito de Cuyo with branches in other provinces. The bank and the Ashkenazi community cooperated in financing the erection of the Max Nordau Jewish School, which in 1968 had an enrollment of 277 students in kindergarten, elementary school, and high school. Local committees of the Jewish National Fund and of the United Jewish Appeal are active in Mendoza as well as the local committee of daia , the umbrella organization of Argentinean Jewry. There formerly existed in Mendoza a pro-Communist group whose number was estimated in 1966 at 80 families; it maintained its own committee and a school, "I.L. Peretz." The majority of Jews in Mendoza are engaged in business and some own vineyards and fruit plantations. Jewish participation in the liberal professions and in the local university has been increasing. (Daniel Benito Rubinstein Novick)