The World Jewish Congress (WJC) was founded in Geneva, Switzerland in August 1936 as an international federation of Jewish communities and organizations. According to its mission statement, the World Jewish Congress's main purpose is to act as "the diplomatic arm of the Jewish people". Membership in the WJC is open to all representative Jewish groups or communities, irrespective of the social, political or economic ideology of the community's host country. The World Jewish Congress headquarters are in New York City, and the organization maintains international offices in Brussels, Belgium; Jerusalem; Paris, France; Moscow, Russia; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Geneva, Switzerland. The WJC has special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
Edgar Miles Bronfman was a Canadian-American businessman. He worked for his family's distilled beverage firm, Seagram, eventually becoming president, treasurer and CEO. As president of the World Jewish Congress, Bronfman is especially remembered for initiating diplomacy with the Soviet Union, which resulted in legitimizing the Hebrew language in the USSR, and contributed to Soviet Jews being legally able to practice their religion, as well as immigrate to Israel.
The history of the Jews in Latin America began with conversos who joined the Spanish and Portuguese expeditions to the continents. The Alhambra Decree of 1492 led to the mass conversion of Spain's Jews to Catholicism and the expulsion of those who refused to do so. However, the vast majority of conversos never made it to the New World and remained in Spain slowly assimilating to the dominant Catholic culture. This was due to the requirement by Spain's Blood Statutes to provide written documentation of Old Christian lineage to travel to the New World. However, the first Jews came with the first expedition of Christopher Columbus, including Rodrigo de Triana and Luis De Torres.
Shlomo Moshe Amar is the former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel. He served in the position of Rishon LeZion from 2003 to 2013; his Ashkenazi counterpart during his tenure was Yona Metzger. In 2014 he became the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem.
The history of the Jews in Argentina goes back to the early sixteenth century, following the expulsion of Jews from Spain. Sephardic Jews fleeing persecution immigrated with explorers and colonists to settle in what is now Argentina, in spite of being forbidden from travelling to the American colonies. 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 1816. 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. Argentines of both Ashkenazi and Sephardic heritage have left their mark on all aspects of Argentine culture, including in areas such as cuisine.
Judaism is a minority religion in Australia. 99,956 Australians identified as Jewish in the 2021 census, which accounts for about 0.4% of the population. This is a 9.8% increase in numbers from the 2016 census.
The history of the Jews in Honduras begins in the colonial period, during the proceedings of the Inquisition with the arrival of sephardic Jews to Honduran soil. As of April 2020, in Honduras there are 390 self identified Jews who have gained the Honduran residence. Honduran Jews are able to practice Judaism peacefully and are included in Honduran politics and culture. The Jewish community is primarily concentrated in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, where there are synagogues. Honduras was one of the first countries to recognize the State of Israel, in 1948, and the Jewish community in Honduras has benefited greatly from Israeli aid.
Chile–Israel relations refers to the bilateral and diplomatic ties between Chile and Israel. Chile recognized Israel's independence in February 1949. Both countries established diplomatic relation on 16 May 1950, with Israel sending their first ambassador on that date and Chile sending their first ambassador on 16 June 1952. Chile has an embassy in Tel Aviv. Israel has an embassy in Santiago.
The history of the Jews in Uruguay 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.
Pardo is a very old surname of Sephardic Jewish origin and judaite tribe that derives from the Greek and Latin name Pardus which means leopard, to later change to Spanish Pardo meaning and referring to the color of the feline, in Latin "Panthera pardus" (leopard). Israel was conquered by the Greeks and Romans, and many Jews began to adopt Greeks and Latin names. This surname belongs to the Jewish people who settled in the Iberian Peninsula, specifically in Sagunto (Murviedro), Valencia, being at that time the ancient Roman province of Hispania, which later with the arrival of Christianity, some Jews would convert to have a better social status, this being long before being forced to convert to Christianity by the Catholic Monarchs or their subsequent expulsion. Today it is also found in countries including Israel, Spain, Colombia, Greece, Turkey, the United States, Curaçao, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Venezuela, Chile and Italy. Members of the Pardo family have distinguished themselves mainly in the Levante region of the Mediterranean.
Ana Vásquez-Bronfman was a Chilean Jewish sociologist and writer. Exiled from the country during the military dictatorship in 1973, she relocated to Paris, where she worked as a professor and researcher at the National Center for Scientific Research. Much of her literary work centered on the cultural heritage of Jews in predominantly Catholic Latin America, the effects of military dictatorship on human rights and racial prejudices and exile. Her research evaluated the psycho-sociology of children and women's sexuality. She won a National Book prize in Chile for her fiction and a bronze medal from the French National Center for Scientific Research for her scholarship.
Sergio Raúl Melnick Israel was a Chilean politician, economist, businessman, and writer. He was the minister of planning under president Augusto Pinochet from 1987 to 1989, and a councilmember for Las Condes from 2020 to 2024.
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