History of the Jews in Uruguay

The history of the Jews in Uruguay (judeouruguayos) dates back to the colonial empire. The most important influx of Jewish population occurred during the end of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, mainly during the World War II.

With an estimated 16,600 Jews, according to the American Jewish Year Book 2019, Uruguay is home to the fifth-largest Jewish community in Latin America, and the second-largest as a proportion of the total population after Argentina. The country's community is mainly composed of Ashkenazim.

History
The arrival of Jews to the Banda Oriental goes back to the 16th century, when conversos began settling there. The Spanish Inquisition was not a significant force in the territory, and the first recorded Jewish settlement there was in the 1770s. When the Inquisition ended in 1813, it paved the way for Jews being more accepted in Uruguay throughout the 19th century.

Significant Jewish immigration began in the late 19th century, when Jews from neighboring Brazil and Argentina emigrated to Uruguay. Most of them were Sephardim, followed by Ashkenazim, Mizrahim, and Italkim. The largest Jewish population was in Montevideo, which had 150 Jews in 1909 and the first recorded minyan happened in 1912. The Villa Muñoz neighbourhood received a large amount of the Jewish immigration that came to Uruguay, which led it to become the Jewish quarter of the capital. Jewish schools and the first synagogue were established there in 1917 by a small Ashkenazi community.

In 1915, 30 Jewish families from Belarus and Bessarabia settled in the rural area of the Paysandú Department and established an agricultural settlement, Colonia 19 de Abril. The majority of Jewish immigration to Uruguay took place in the 1920s and 1930s. A large percentage of Jewish immigrants during this period were German Jews and Italian Jews.

In 1940, with the union of the Israelite Community, the Hungarian Israelite Community and the Sephardic Israelite Community and the Nueva Congregación Israelita, the Central Israelite Committee of Uruguay (CCIU) was formed, as a central and representative organization of the entire community.

Uruguayan Jews initially made a living in small retail trade and peddling, with some becoming craftsmen and artisans. In time, they moved up the economic scale, and many became the owners of large stores or medium-sized businesses. Following World War II, Jews increased their representation in the professional world and became primarily middle-class, particularly as many Uruguayan Jews were by then second or third-generation Uruguayans. Their economic advancement was aided by the creation of Jewish loan and assistance funds, which evolved into Jewish banks.

During the establishment of Israel in 1948 and the subsequent 1948 Arab-Israeli War, which involved the mass exodus of Jews from Arab and Muslim countries, primarily to Israel, more than 18,000 Jews immigrated to Uruguay, including a number of Russian Jews and Hungarian Jews.

Uruguay, which had supported the creation of a Jewish homeland during the 1920 San Remo conference, was one of the first nations to recognize Israel, and the first Latin American country to do so. It was the first Latin American country and fourth country overall in which Israel established a diplomatic mission. It was also one of the few nations to support Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and oppose internationalization of the city. Its diplomatic mission in Jerusalem was upgraded to the status of an embassy in 1958, but subsequently moved to Tel Aviv after Israel formally annexed East Jerusalem.

In 1952 the American Jewish Year Book estimated that Uruguay had about 40,000 Jews. However, in 1960 it was estimated at 50,000, the time in history when there were more Jews in the country. The community experienced a serious decline in the 1970s and 1980s as a result of emigration. By the mid-1990s, there were no Jews in the upper echelons or military, and little Jewish representation in the legislature.

Currently, 20,000-25,000 Jews live in Uruguay, with 95% residing in Montevideo. Throughout the country, there are prominent organized communities in Punta del Este and Paysandú. As of 2003, there were 20 synagogues, but only six of them held weekly Shabbat services, and one functioned every day.

In 2017, a Holocaust memorial in Montevideo was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti, with phrases such as "The Holocaust of the Jewish people is the biggest lie in history" and “Gas chambers were a fraud.”  This act of vandalism followed a renovation of the memorial which attempted to clean up the monument from previous acts of antisemitic vandalization.

Notable Uruguayan Jews

 * Past
 * Zoma Baitler (1908-1994), artist and diplomat
 * Monsieur Chouchani (died 1968), mysterious scholar
 * Chil Rajchman (1914-2004), Holocaust survivor and entrepreneur
 * José Gurvich (1927-1974), painter
 * Carlos Sherman (1934-2005), writer
 * Itsik Vaynshenker (1914–1978), writer and journalist
 * Present
 * Mauricio Rosencof (born 1933), former guerrilla fighter, playwright, poet and journalist
 * George Davidsohn (born 1936), businessman, founder of Davidsohn Global Technologies
 * Luis Camnitzer (born 1937), artist, art critic and writer
 * Benjamín Nahum (born 1937), historian and academic
 * Alberto Couriel (born 1935), public accountant and politician
 * Teresa Porzecanski (born 1945), anthropologist and writer
 * Hugo Fernández Faingold (born 1947), academic and politician, Vicepresident of the Republic (1998-2000)
 * Ricardo Ehrlich (born 1948), engineer, Intendant of Montevideo (2005-2010)
 * Gisele Ben-Dor (born 1955), conductor
 * Roberto Kreimerman (born 1958), engineer and politician
 * Sergio Gorzy (born 1958), sports journalist
 * Isaac Alfie (born 1962), economist, Minister of Economy and Finance (2003-2005)
 * Jorge Drexler (born 1964), singer/songwriter, Academy Award for Best Original Song 2004
 * Alejandro Stock (born 1965), artist
 * Suzie Navot, constitutional law scholar
 * Freddy Nieuchowicz, aka Orlando Petinatti (born 1968), radio host
 * Daniel Hendler (born 1976), actor
 * Álvaro Brechner (born 1976), film director, writer and producer
 * Marcelo Lipatín (born 1977), football player
 * Gabe Saporta (born 1979), singer/songwriter/bassist
 * Andy Ram (born 1980), retired professional tennis player
 * Marcel Felder (born 1984), tennis player, gold medal at the 2013 Maccabiah Games
 * Ariel Behar (born 1989), tennis player
 * Camila Rajchman (born 1994), singer and television personality.