Seventy-eight such families with a total population of more than 200 lived here as of last week, Faye Rosenberg-Cohen, the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg/Combined Jewish Appeal's planning director, said July 16, 2003.
That compared with only 26 Argentine Jewish families in Winnipeg around this time the year before.
"We can expect 30 to 40 new applications in the next six months," Rosenberg-Cohen added, emphasizing that that was just a rough estimate.
She offered those numbers after reporting to Federation/CJA's board of directors June 23 about her latest trip to Argentina.
She was there in May with Evelyn Hecht, community immigration officer, and Leslie Wilder, a member of Federation/CJA's executive and national president of Jewish Immigrant Aid Service. Anita Neville, a Jewish Member of Parliament from Winnipeg, accompanied them for part of their trip.
Federation/CJA officials have been travelling to Argentina every few years since the mid-1990s during a steady worsening of that country's economy, to inform wouldbe Jewish immigrants about living conditions and job prospects here. Winnipeg's Argentine Jewish population has increased after each such visit, from almost none before they started.
Rosenberg-Cohen, Hecht and Wilder started this latest trip in Montevideo, Uruguay - their first visit there.
Montevideo's Jewish community has fallen from about 40,000 to about 20,000, for the "most incredibly wonderful reason", Rosenberg-Cohen said. "They are the most Zionistic community in the world."
"Their rate of aliyah over the last 20 or 25 years has been the highest rate of aliyah in the world."
As a result of that exodus of everyone from "teachers" to "parents" to "students", many of those remaining have had to rethink their futures.
The three Winnipeggers met with about 50 Montevideo Jews in a "group", discussing opportunities here.
In Buenos Aires, a ferry-ride south, from Montevideo, poverty is visible everywhere. Sidewalks are broken, elevators in their hotel didn't work, and people crowd in from outlying "shantytowns" every night, to "scavenge" through the city's latest garbage collection.
"The Jewish community has risen to the challenge - they're providing assistance, as best they can, to the Jewish community."
Synagogues offer "wonderful" new afterschool programs, including food, Hebrew language instruction and other services. Jewish schools are closing, because parents can't afford to pay tuition.
"They're a little bit in shock, at having to deal with the vast change in the community."
The Winnipeggers met with dozens of Argentine Jews interested in moving here with their families.
Among other activities, Neville met with staff at the Canadian Embassy, discussing how wouldbe Argentine immigrants are dealt with, and prospects for them in Manitoba.
The time the embassy takes to issue visas to such Argentines has also been shortened - from "up to two years" the last time Rosenberg-Cohen was in Argentina, to a "maximum of 10 months" today.
Argentine Jews are now arriving here at a "fantastic pace," Rosenberg-Cohen said.
"People take time to get settled. And then they start looking for work."
Many have gained acceptance relatively quickly through Manitoba's "nominee program", which favors newcomers from other countries that best meet the province's labor needs.
Those needs have changed from last year, when people in "information technology (computer-related fields), accountants and engineers" were in "high demand".
Finding jobs has since become "more difficult" in the first two fields, Rosenberg-Cohen acknowledged.
She said she didn't have unemployment figures for Argentine Jews living in Winnipeg. Asked how many such Jewish newcomers from Argentina have left since they started arriving here in the mid-1990s, Rosenberg-Cohen said she knows of only "three to four" such families.
Federation/CJA's encouragement of preliminary "exploratory" visits by one or more family members before the family decides to make the big move has helped.
Visitors make inquiries about job prospects and other conditions during those trips.
"I think it really makes a difference," Rosenberg-Cohen said. "They come with their children and get settled. They're less likely to move on if they're working and comfortable."
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