Avi Weiss on the AMIA Bombing 30 Years Later (Rebroadcast)

·49 min·4 clips

A 2024 Argentinian court finally confirmed Iran and Hezbollah bombed a Jewish center in 1994, but justice remains elusive.

The episode begins with host Jonathan Silver noting a 2024 Argentinian court ruling that officially acknowledged Iran and Hezbollah directed the 1994 AMIA bombing, alongside President Javier Milei's announcement to prosecute Iranian leaders. Silver introduces a rebroadcast of his 2019 interview with Rabbi Avi Weiss, who wrote a Mosaic essay on the bombing's cover-up. Weiss describes learning of the attack on July 18, 1994, and feeling compelled to travel to Buenos Aires to comfort bereaved families. Upon arrival, he connected with a local Chabad rabbi and witnessed the devastation at the AMIA site. A mysterious figure, Baruch Tenenbaum, arranged a meeting with President Carlos Menem, whom Weiss distrusted due to prior knowledge of Menem's ties to neo-Nazis and Middle Eastern elements. In their meeting, Weiss confronted Menem about the lack of progress on the earlier Israeli embassy bombing and suggested investigating neo-Nazi groups like the Painted Faces. Menem then invited Weiss to a full cabinet meeting, which Weiss attended after securing conditions including Sabbath timing and the presence of Jewish community leader Ruben Bracha. Weiss felt the cabinet presentation was canned and insincere. He later protested Menem's honor at a New York gala, leading to his arrest. Over subsequent years, Weiss returned to Argentina for anniversaries, faced detention by prosecutor Gadeano, and demonstrated porous borders with a tape recorder stunt. The discussion covers prosecutor Alberto Nisman's identification of Iranian and Hezbollah perpetrators, his death before accusing President Cristina Kirchner of cover-up, and the immunity of former presidents. Weiss reflects on his falling out with Bracha, who acknowledged being paralyzed by dual roles as bank head and Jewish leader. The episode concludes with Weiss sharing emotional stories of survivors like Damian Goldenberg, emphasizing love and justice as responses to hate, and contrasting the successful Soviet Jewry movement with the AMIA failure.

As heard by us

Rabbi Avi Weiss links the AMIA bombing's political failures to survivors who carried on through family and Jewish life.

The Tikvah Podcast returns to the 1994 AMIA bombing through Rabbi Avi Weiss's account of Argentina's long struggle to reckon with the attack. Jonathan Silver frames the conversation against later developments: a 2024 Argentine court ruling that said Iran directed the bombing and…

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Why you'd press play

You get a firsthand account of confronting power after the AMIA bombing, with the case still active in Argentina in 2024.

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