Newspaper Page Text
National Council of Jewish Women Report:
1 Comen of South Si,
m eri ca
by MRS. JOSEPH WILLEN
When the author proposed to women of the sharply divided
Jewish communities of South America that they should unite
to work together, they found the idea “enchanting.” Mrs.
Willen, who is both president of the International Council
of Jewish Women and second vice president of the NCJW
of the United States, toured eight countries in South Ameri
ca. whose total Jewish population is next in size to those of
the United States and Israel.
‘‘It is much harder for us South
American women to have outside
activities because we have to man
age our servants,” one woman told
me. “You North American women
have more spare time because you
do all your housework!”
This amusing idea is not typical
of South American Jewish women,
but it points up an interesting fact
of their lives. The average Jew
ish family is in the middle class,
which means it has at least one
servant.
The woman’s day is arranged dif
ferently than in North America.
Her husband, as well as her child
ren, come home for the big mid
day meal which, with the siesta,
lasts until 3 p.m. Since she spends
her morning at household activities
and arranging for this meal, her day
does not really begin until late
afternoon. It is quite common for
her meetings to last until 7:30 or
8 in the evening.
She has, on the whole, at least
as much time as the American wo
man. She pays more attention to
clothes than we do. Since she has
to have them made, she spends a
lot of time studying patterns in
all the world’s magazines, shop
ping for textiles, visiting her dress
maker, or doing her own sewing.
The only partial exceptions are in
Buenos Aires and in Mexico City,
where she can buy ready-made
clothing, especially beautiful skirts
and blouses, in many small shops.
Her child studies either at a
Jewish day school—“a yeshiva”—
or, in Argentina and Uruguay,
which have strongly established
public school systems, at a Jewish
afternoon school. The school, like
t!:e synagogue, is orthodox. In
spite of her formal affiliation, she
does not necessarily keep a kosher
home.
I went to South America on a
kind of missionary expedition, to
stimulate the growth of Jewish
women’s organizations. Like most
North Americans, I used to think
of South America (if at all as a
place of romance and dictator
ships. (Actually, there are vast
differences between countries).
What made me decide to go there
Mrs. Joseph Willen
was the realization that, on this
continent which is so close, and to
which we pay so little attention,
there is a Jewish population of
700,000—next in size to those of
the United States and Israel.
Almost every country has the
classic separation of Jewish groups
along lines of origin: Sephardim,
East Europeans, Germans and, in
some countries, many additional
sub-groups. Each has its own or
ganizations, taking care of its own
aging, its own needy children, its
general relief cases. The only ex
ceptions to separateness are in the
small International Council of Jew
ish Women affiliates in Mexico,
Uruguay and Argentina; in the af
filiates of the Women’s Interna
tional Zionist Organization; and in
the recently - organized federa
tions and welfare councils in some
cities.
I delivered a simple message to
the Jewish women leaders of each
country. I told them about the In
ternational Council of Jewish Wo
men and its goal that Jewish wo
men of every country should unite,
regardless of their national origins,
to give service to their communi
ties both as Jews and citizens.
In a letter I received after my
return, a Jewish woman of San
tiago, Chile, writes: “I have spoken
with the director of my institu
tion and with the German ladies,
who were enchanted with the fol-
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