YIVO Institute for Jewish Research

On July 18, 1994, the AMIA building, the Jewish cultural center of Argentinian Jewry in Buenos Aires, was targeted by a terrorist bomb. Nearly 100 people were killed, many of them employees of the Jewish organizations that shared headquarters in the building. Among the organizations devastated by the attack was the Buenos Aires branch of YIVO (known in Spanish as "IWO").

Now, several years later, IWO is still struggling to recover from the attack, but has resumed its active program of research, publishing, and public programs. Its library and archives—an unparalleled resource for the study of Latin American Jewry—lost many rare items in the bombing, but have been reconstituted in new quarters.

The institution maintains a small exhibition commemorating the bombing. As YIVO's former Chief Librarian Zachary Baker reported in 1996 after a visit:

"Included in the display are Yiddish typewriters that were crushed by the impact of the explosion, a catalog drawer—cards also included—that has been distorted all out of shape, and a clock whose hands are stopped at 10:00. On the floor is a slab of black marble containing a portion of the letter 'A'—for AMIA—salvaged from the building's facade."
—"The Buenos Aires Bombing: Two Years Later," Yedies/YIVO News, No. 183, (Fall 1996).

To find out more about IWO's activities, contact:

Dr. Saul Drajer
President IWO—Instituto Judio de Investigaciones
Ayacucho 483 (1026)
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Phone: 953-0293
Fax: 953-9614
alicht1@einstein.com.ar