Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Uruguay
Uruguay, home to South America's third-largest Jewish community: its Zionist institutions, the frozen innovation office in Jerusalem, and Ehud Barak's visits
Uruguay has a Jewish community of about 16,500, the third-largest in South America after those of Argentina and Brazil.[1] Its representative body, the Comité Central Israelita del Uruguay, also represents the country's Zionist institutions.[1] In 2025 the government of Yamandú Orsi froze an agreement, signed under his predecessor Luis Lacalle Pou, to open an innovation office in Jerusalem.[2]
Jewish community and religious life
History
The World Jewish Congress (WJC) dates the present community to 1880. There were 150 Jews in Montevideo in 1909 and about 1,700 in Uruguay by 1918, 75% of them Sephardim. About 2,200 Jews, mostly from Germany, entered in 1939 and 373 in 1940. The community is thought to have reached about 50,000 in the 1960s, before emigration during the dictatorship of the 1970s and the economic crises of 1982 and 2002. The WJC also describes "a wave of antisemitism" in mid-2014, including the murder of a Jewish community leader in Paysandú.[1]
The community today
The WJC gives about 16,500 Jews (2020); it also cites Sergio DellaPergola's estimate of about 15,000 (2016). Most live in Montevideo, with organised communities in Paysandú and Maldonado.[1]
- Comité Central Israelita del Uruguay (CCIU): according to the WJC, the representative body "of Uruguayan Jews and Jewish Zionist institutions" since 1940, which "actively contributed to the task that made possible the establishment of the State of Israel".[1] In August 2025 it called for the conditions to be created "rápidamente" ("quickly") to restore the agreement with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and demanded the return of the hostages held in Gaza.[3]
- How far is it Zionist? Strongly. It represents the Zionist institutions by its own description, and lobbies the government on ties with "Israel".
- Organización Sionista del Uruguay: in 2022 it gave Lacalle Pou its Jerusalem Prize. On receiving it, he promised that an innovation office would open in Jerusalem before the end of his term.[2]
- How far is it Zionist? Fully, by definition.
- Zionist Youth Federation: the WJC says seven Jewish youth movements "bring together young Zionists" and transmit "Jewish Zionist values" to children from four to 18; the federation is their central body.[1]
- How far is it Zionist? Fully.
- Communities: the Comunidad Israelita del Uruguay (1916), the Comunidad Israelita Sefaradí (1932), the Nueva Congregación Israelita (1940) and the Hungarian community (1932). There are also schools (Escuela Integral, Instituto Ariel, Instituto Yavne) and Universidad ORT Uruguay.[1]
How far is it Zionist? The community's representative body describes itself as representing Zionist institutions, and its youth movements are explicitly Zionist.
Chabad
- Main article: Chabad-Lubavitch movement
Powerbase does not yet have a page on Chabad in Uruguay. The WJC says the Chabad Center runs the Rambam School.[1]
Israeli state and commercial ties
Diplomacy
- The Israeli foreign ministry dates Uruguay's recognition to May 1948.[4]
- The WJC says relations improved after Tabaré Vázquez took office again in 2015, that Uruguay was "a consistent defender of Israel" at the UN during his presidency, and that Lacalle Pou visited "Israel" as a senator.[1]
- Late in Lacalle Pou's term, the National Agency for Research and Innovation (ANII) signed a memorandum with the Hebrew University to open an Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Jerusalem, and transferred $129,688 for it.[5] In August 2025 the Orsi government paused the agreement. The foreign minister, Mario Lubetkin, spoke of "un momento de impasse en la firma del acuerdo por la situación que se está dando en Medio Oriente" ("an impasse in the signing of the agreement because of the situation in the Middle East"),[2] and Orsi called it a political signal, saying it was "no es el mejor momento" ("not the best time").[6] In September 2026 a government official told the Senate that the agreement had looked more like a contract for services than a research agreement.[5]
Arms
SIPRI records one Israeli arms transfer to Uruguay: 15 second-hand Ti-67S tanks in 1997.[7]
Ehud Barak's emails
The following items come from the two leaked mailboxes of the former Israeli prime minister and defence minister Ehud Barak (ehbarak1@gmail.com and ehud.barak@hyperion-eb.com, 2007–2016). They were hacked and leaked by Handala, a group that Distributed Denial of Secrets describes as "believed to have ties to Iranian intelligence", and were published by Distributed Denial of Secrets in August 2025. The emails carry no cryptographic signatures, and Distributed Denial of Secrets warns that material from such hack-and-leak operations may have been altered.[8]
- Julius Baer speaking tours. The Swiss private bank Julius Baer, through its head for Latin America, Gustavo Raitzin, organised events with clients for Barak. A July 2013 plan from the bank set out dinners and lunches in Santiago de Chile (7–11 August), Montevideo (11–12 August) and São Paulo (from 12 August).[9]
- Montevideo, August 2013. The bank's guest list for the Montevideo events listed eight clients for dinner on 11 August and six for lunch the next day, with Julius Baer financial advisers "looking forward to learn and be inspired by Ehud's wisdom and insights" at a visit to the bank's premises.[10] The list, which a Julius Baer staff member sent to Raitzin as "the final list we received", names the clients invited; the descriptions are the bank's own, unverified, accounts of its clients. For the dinner on Sunday 11 August the bank listed Isaac Sverner, whom it described as the founder of CCE, "the largest producer of electronic equipment and electronic appliances in Brazil", aged 75, who had delegated most day-to-day duties to his sons; Gabriel and Sergio Jawerbaum, whose family it said owns Abaco, a manufacturer of supplies for construction and industry founded in Buenos Aires in 1928 by Julio Jawerbaum as a small brush factory; Elias and Felicia Saps, owners of the Uruguayan bedding importer Via Confort, with forestry investments in Uruguay, Brazil and Paraguay, who "both speak Hebrew"; Emilio Noseda, who the bank said started buying land in the 1980s, had recently sold land in the Pehuajó district of Argentina for USD 11.5 million, and had about 11,000 hectares in Paysandú, his main source of income, "estimated in 3MM per annum", besides working as a broker since the 1990s; Daniel Weiss, an architect and director of WSW, "one of the largest bureau of architects and building companies in Uruguay"; and Ariel Pfeffer, with details "to follow". For the lunch on Monday 12 August it listed Mario Soifer, who it said opened a bazaar with his father and brother about 40 years earlier, was among "the very first importers of Chinese products", and had real estate business in the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Spain "as well as large accounts in various financial institutions"; Gabriel Anmuth, "an engineer that made his wealth through real estate investments", a graduate of the Haim Greenberg College in Jerusalem, who teaches Hebrew history in Bahía Blanca and presides over the Raoul Wallenberg Center; and Javier Madanes, owner of Aluar, "a very large aluminium company", with Martin Levinas, described as his main adviser, Francis Verstraeten, who "used to be ML's largest international broker and retired in 2011", and Michelle Cohen.[10] Earlier messages in the same thread mention last-minute cancellations and changes, so the list records invitations, not confirmed attendance.[10]
- Punta del Este, 2015. In July 2015 Raitzin wrote: "Please remind EB I need the contacts in Uruguay for security services for the Punta del Este Conference." The emails do not show whether Barak supplied them.[11]
Trade
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics lists Uruguay separately. In 2025 "Israel" imported goods worth $313.9 million from Uruguay (2024: $224.1 million) and exported goods worth $42.8 million to it (2024: $32.5 million).[12]
Migration and aliyah
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics counts immigrants born in Uruguay as follows:
- 66 in 1948–51;
- 425 in 1952–60;
- 1,844 in 1961–71;
- 2,199 in 1972–79;
- 2,014 in 1980s;
- 724 in 1990s;
- 2,459 in 2000–2020;
- 50 in 2021;
- 70 in 2022;
- 37 in 2023.[13]
Political interference
UN voting
In September 2025 Uruguay voted for the General Assembly's endorsement of the New York Declaration on a two-state solution.[14]
Jeffrey Epstein
- On 28 December 2016 Ehud Barak wrote to Epstein that he would be in New York, "Then Punta del Este. And back to NY", and that a criminal investigation had been ordered that night against "BB" (Benjamin Netanyahu), who was "somewhat panicked". Epstein replied with his New York dates, and Barak proposed meeting on 9–10 January.[15] Social media reports that Epstein himself had visited Punta del Este were false; the trip was Barak's.[16]
- In 2006 Epstein's account sent at least three transfers of $500 each to an account of the Argentine hairdresser and businessman Roberto Giordano at a bank in Punta del Este. The files do not show the purpose of the payments.[17]
- Former presidents José Mujica and Tabaré Vázquez are mentioned only in passing, in emails sent to Epstein by Noam Chomsky and by Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem. EFE Verifica found no evidence that either had met Epstein.[18]
See also
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Argentina
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Brazil
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 World Jewish Congress, Community in Uruguay worldjewishcongress.org, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 El gobierno pausó el acuerdo entre la ANII y la Universidad Hebrea para instalar una oficina de innovación en Jerusalén la diaria, 15 August 2025.
- ↑ Comité Central Israelita espera que se restablezcan las "condiciones políticas" para la instalación de la oficina de la ANII en Israel la diaria, 17 August 2025.
- ↑ Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic Missions Abroad: Status of relations mfa.gov.il, archived 5 August 2011.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Más que un convenio parecía una contratación de servicios": gobierno defendió decisión de suspender acuerdo de la ANII con Israel la diaria, 8 September 2026.
- ↑ Orsi reconoció que suspensión de acuerdo de la ANII con Israel es una señal política: "No es el mejor momento" El Observador, 19 August 2025.
- ↑ Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database SIPRI, trade register for Israel as supplier, 1950–2025, data generated 20 October 2026.
- ↑ Distributed Denial of Secrets, Ehud Barak emails, 27 August 2025, with download at data.ddosecrets.org, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Email from Jane Schoch (Julius Baer) to Nili Priell Barak, forwarded by Ehud Barak, "Fwd: south america@JB #LatinAmerica", 8 July 2013 (forwarded 16 July 2013), file
ehbarak1@gmail.com/Sent!15/1 (497).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 21 October 2026. - ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Email from Gustavo Raitzin (Julius Baer) to Nili Priell Barak, "Fw: guest list Montevideo", 10 August 2013, forwarded by Ehud Barak on 16 August 2013, file
ehbarak1@gmail.com/Sent!15/1 (103).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 21 October 2026. - ↑ Email from Gustavo Raitzin (Julius Baer) to Nili Priell Barak, "RE: mexico", 7 July 2015, file
ehbarak1@gmail.com/Inbox!13/1 (155).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 21 October 2026. - ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports CBS, December 2025 issue (library copy).
- ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Statistical Abstract of Israel 2024, Table 2.55: Immigrants, by period of immigration, country of birth and last country of residence CBS, 2024.
- ↑ United Nations General Assembly, Recorded vote on A/80/L.1/Rev.1: Endorsement of the New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, 12 September 2025 (copy hosted by Al-Quds Al-Arabi).
- ↑ Email exchange between Ehud Barak and Jeffrey Epstein, "Re: Touch Base JE", 28–29 December 2016, EFTA02665000, US Department of Justice, Epstein Files release, Data Set 11, justice.gov, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Es falsa la versión que afirma que Jeffrey Epstein visitó Punta del Este la diaria, 7 February 2026.
- ↑ Uruguay en los archivos de Epstein la diaria, 4 February 2026.
- ↑ Mujica y Vázquez no aparecen en los archivos de Epstein por haberse reunido con él EFE Verifica, 13 February 2026.