AJC Joins Argentinian Jewish Community in Remembering AMIA Bombing 30 Years Later

An American Jewish Committee (AJC) leadership delegation traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina this week to mark 30 years since the terror attack on the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) Jewish community center, which killed 85 people and injured 300 others when a suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden truck into the six-story building. The 1994 bombing was carried out by Hezbollah terrorists linked to the Iranian regime.

AJC has been on the ground, working with AMIA and the broader Argentine Jewish community, since the days following the bombing - the deadliest antisemitic attack outside Israel since the Holocaust.

AJC leadership, including CEO Ted Deutch; Director of AJC's Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Institute for Latino and Latin American Affairs (BILLA) Dina Siegel Vann; President Michael Tichnor; BILLA Co-Chairs Anthony E. Meyer and Mario Fleck; BILLA Deputy Director Daniela Greene; and Chief of Staff Casey Kustin, represented AJC at a memorial service on July 18 honoring the victims of the 1994 bombing. The annual commemoration outside the new AMIA building brought together 10,000 people this year to remember the victims, support the survivors, and raise awareness of the prevailing impunity for the terrorists.

"For 30 years, victims' families and survivors have awaited justice - for the Hezbollah terrorists linked to the Iranian regime to face accountability. We cannot let them wait another day," said AJC CEO Ted Deutch. "The attack on AMIA struck at the heart of Argentina and its Jewish community - the sixth largest in the world and the largest in Latin America. AJC is honored to commemorate this somber occasion and remains steadfast in its commitment to work with Argentina's government and its Jewish community to ensure all those responsible are brought to justice, as we have been from day one."

For more than two decades, AJC and AMIA have worked together to strengthen ties between U.S. and Argentine Jews, support the Argentine Jewish community, and pursue justice for the victims of the 1994 bombing. AJC and AMIA formalized their partnership in 2001.

"Despite the passage of time, and the lack of answers, continuing to demand justice in the AMIA case is a moral imperative that we will not renounce. We cannot allow impunity to prevail or for the relatives of the fatal victims to continue crying without finding solace," said Amos Linetzky, President of AMIA. "Many thanks to the American Jewish Committee for the permanent allyship in our fight throughout this time. We greatly value AJC's unconditional support."

"Rather than the swift justice Argentines deserve, they have seen murky decades of corruption, cover-ups, neglect, and outright malfeasance. Just as the Iranian regime acts through its proxy Hamas in Gaza, it acted through Hezbollah in Buenos Aires 30 years ago to murder Jews and to endanger democracy and coexistence," said BILLA Director Dina Siegel Vann. "Our work with AMIA and the Argentine government to see justice served will not end until the Iranian regime and all of its proxies are held accountable for this heinous, hate-filled attack."

The AJC leadership delegation also met with Victoria Villarruel, Vice President of Argentina; Diana Mondino, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Argentina; Patricia Bullrich, Minister of Security of Argentina; Martin Menem, President of the Chamber of Deputies of Argentina; and Marc Stanley, U.S. Ambassador to Argentina; among other government and civil society leaders.

AJC's Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Institute for Latino and Latin American Affairs (BILLA) is a unique initiative that strengthens the Jewish community's bonds of friendship with growing U.S. Latino communities and the countries of Latin America, Spain, and Portugal. BILLA partners with local Jewish communities and other sectors of civil society to promote relations among their countries, the U.S., and Israel. BILLA is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with additional staff in Miami and a representative in São Paulo.

AJC is the global advocacy organization for the Jewish people. With headquarters in New York, 25 regional offices across the United States, 15 overseas posts, as well as partnerships with 38 Jewish community organizations worldwide, AJC's mission is to enhance the well-being of the Jewish people and Israel and to advance human rights and democratic values in the United States and around the world. For more, please visit www.ajc.org.

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