REMEMBERING THE BOMBING OF THE AMIA JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTRE IN BUENOS AIRES

WINNIPEG- Saturday, July 18^th, 2015 marks the 21st anniversary of the AMIA Bombing - a terrorist attack of the headquarters of the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association in Buenos Aires.

Cruel, deliberate, and indiscriminate, the bombing was by far the worst terrorist act in the history of Argentina and the largest Jewish death toll from antisemitic terrorism outside Israel since World War II. A powerful bomb was driven through the front gates of the AMIA building in downtown Buenos Aires. The large, seven-story building was the headquarters of Argentina's Jewish community. At 9:53 a.m. the bomber detonated the bomb, leveling the building and reducing it to rubble. It destroyed adjacent buildings and damaged apartments, shops, and houses around the block.

The toll: 85 murdered; over 300 wounded and the area around the building, the heart of the traditional Jewish neighborhood, resembled a war-torn city.  Services were cut, transit rerouted, buildings propped up with beams to avoid collapse. The irony: Jews and non-Jews alike suffered from this cruel act of antisemitic terrorism.

It is widely accepted that Hezbollah masterminded and perpetrated the act of terrorism, as it had, 2 years before, when the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires had been bombed. The investigations into the AMIA atrocity, however, have been mired in controversy and corruption. To add to the horror, Alberto Nisman, the prosecutor who had amassed research and information was found dead hours before he was to make his presentation this past January.

To date, no one has been brought to justice.

The Argentinean Manitoban Association in conjunction with Jewish Federation of Winnipeg, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, B’nai Brith Canada and Congregation Shaarey Zedek will remember the victims of the AMIA terrorist bombing at a special Community-Wide Commemoration Service on Sunday, July 19^th at 6:00 p.m. in the Berney Theatre, Asper Jewish Community Campus, 123 Doncaster Street. All three levels of government will be represented. 

Everyone is welcome.