Jewish Argentine
| Judíos de Argentina יהדות ארגנטינה (Hebrew) אידן אין ארגענטינע (Yiddish) |
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| Total population | |
| (180,000-300,000) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Predominantly in Buenos Aires · Buenos Aires Province · Córdoba · Santa Fe · Entre Ríos · Tucumán | |
| Languages | |
| Predominantly Spanish. Some speak Hebrew, Yiddish, Judaeo-Spanish, Russian, Polish, or German. | |
| Religion | |
| Judaism · Jewish secularism |
The history of the Jews in Argentina goes back to the early sixteenth centuries, following the Jewish expulsion from Spain. Sephardi Jews fleeing persecution immigrated with explorers and colonists to settle in what is now Argentina. In addition, many of the Portuguese traders in the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata were Jewish. An organized Jewish community, however, did not develop until after Argentina gained independence from Spain in 1810. By mid-century, Jews from France and other parts of Western Europe, fleeing the social and economic disruptions of revolutions, began to settle in Argentina.
Reflecting the composition of the later immigration waves, the current Jewish population is 80% Ashkenazi; while Sephardic and Mizrahi are a minority. Argentina has the largest Jewish population of any country in Latin America, although numerous Jews left during the 1970s and 1980s to escape the repression of the military junta, emigrating to Israel, West Europe (especially Spain), and North America.
The Jewish population in Argentina is the largest in Latin America, the third on the continent and the world's seventh largest outside Israel.
During a(n) major emigration wave in the 2000s, more than 10,000 Argentine Jews settled in Israel.
Some Spanish conversos, or secret Jews, settled in Argentina during the Spanish colonial period (16th–19th century), had assimilated into the Argentinian population. After Argentina gained independence, the General Assembly of 1813 officially abolished the Inquisition. A second wave of Jewish immigration from Europe began in the mid-19th century, during revolutions and extensive social disruption. Much of the Great European immigration wave to Argentina came from Western Europe, especially France.
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Wikipedia