Community Magazine February 2003

12 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE s ” xc people in Paris going from being middle class, or even wealthy, to being the ‘sud- den poor’ living below the poverty line with food, shelter, medicine, and other basic necessities being difficult to afford, or even totally out of reach? So the contrast of what I saw initially versus what I saw over time has an expla- nation that still resonates with me. The reason that I saw well dressed people strolling the streets of Argentina is that a year ago most of these people were rela- tively well off and shopped in the same types of places that we do. Today while they still have beautiful clothes in their closet they struggle to afford basic neces- sities. Many have attractive homes or apartments but can’t pay their mortgages or rent and have no other place to go. Many have time on their hands and can be seen on the streets and in the parks, but they don’t have what they really want – jobs and economic opportunity. I will never forget walking out of a restaurant, soon after I arrived in Buenos Aires, to see a horde of relatively well- dressed people following behind what looked like a brand new garbage truck. They were walking with the truck along its route and picking out garbage to survive as the garbage collectors threw it into the truck. These people didn’t look like bums. What fazed me the most was that the peo- ple looked like you and me. Now I don’t know that these people were part of the Jewish community, but I do know that this is reflective of an extreme economic crisis. The more time I spent in Argentina, the clearer the circumstances became. I met people in the community whose stories were devastating, and the sad thing is that many of the stories I heard were from the people that were not the worst off. I spent time with Marco, a friend of a friend, who had originally had eight toy stores when the economy was good. You can guess how the story goes – today he doesn’t have any stores. He can no longer afford to pay for his children’s yeshiva tuition. The story goes on — his house is in jeopardy, his marriage is breaking up… these are incredibly tough times. And yet, when I looked across the table at the restaurant, I saw a man that looked a lot like my friends and I do. This was not someone who comes from the third world; this easily could have been any one of us. When Marco spoke to me, he talked about the economy in general and how tough things are. He didn’t complain about his own situation. It was only from other sources that I found out how difficult things really were for him. And after we finished eating, when the bill came, we had to fight with Marco to let us pay his share, in spite of his own difficult situa- tion. This is not a man who is looking for a handout, but someone who wants to work and wants economic opportunity. Regrettably, he doesn’t have it at the moment and doesn’t see much hope. Unfortunately, on a relative basis, in spite of his newfound economic difficulties, Marco is much better off than most. It was striking how proud he was, and how proud the people in Argentina in gen- eral are. I heard stories of people going many miles from their homes to get food from soup kitchens. They go many miles in the hope that outside their immediate communities they won’t see their friends and neighbors. They are humiliated to have to receive assistance from the very communities they were once pillars of and which they supported not very long ago. I spent time with Aaron who works in one of the social service agencies helping the community. Aaron is about 30 and has more than one advanced degree from an international university. He was well dressed and talked about coming to New York two years ago to ‘load up’ on cloth- ing by Armani and Tommy Hilfiger, because it used to be cheap (before the cur- rency devaluation). While he is employed, the social service agency that he works for is being stressed by the situation and his compensation has come down to a fraction of what it previously was a year ago. Aaron has a nice apartment that he can’t The author, Jon Gold, right with David Kahn, a real estate investor from Aventura, Florida and Arturo Arditti, a prominent architect from Mexico City at the AMIA Memorial “I will never forget seeing a horde of relatively well-dressed people following behind what looked like a brand new garbage truck.”