The AMIA Bombing in an Alternate British Argentina

This year, on July 18, it is the 30th anniversary of the AMIA community centre bombing in Buenos Aires, which claimed 85 lives and injured over 300. I would like to take this opportunity to share my thoughts about how Argentina, and its Jews, could have easily taken a very different course in its history starting from early on — more specifically, starting from near the end of the Spanish colonial era in the early 1800s. In that case, the 1994 bombing — and the 1992 Israeli embassy bombing — could have ended with many fewer casualties and a vastly quicker and more orderly resolution.

General Background on the Alternate British Argentina

To preface: In 1806 plus in 1807, the British invaded the River Plate area, with the aim of capturing Buenos Aires for the sake of trading opportunities in South America. The British were defeated both times at the hands of the local militias, rather than at the hands of the then-governing Spanish Empire as such.

If it had been the other way around, that region – and ultimately just about all of what are now Argentina and Uruguay – could have been incorporated into the British Empire as colonies and later as a dominion along with the likes of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

To start with, the British would have granted Buenos Aires independence under their suzerainty and would have focused their direct control on Montevideo in particular and coastal Uruguay in general. Soon thereafter, the British also would have taken over the Uruguayan interior plus what are now Entre Ríos, Corrientes, and Santa Fe provinces to the west.

The British also would have taken control of scattered points along the Patagonian coast that had hitherto belonged to Spain, as well as the Falkland Islands and, eventually, the Strait of Magellan. Following the disintegration of the Spanish Empire, various Spanish-speaking republics would have formed in the interior, such as Córdoba, Cuyo, Tucumán, and Salta.

Gradually, the British would have taken over various other places in that region, including Buenos Aires in the 1840s, the various parts of the interior starting a bit later and in stages, and most of these areas would have become part of a federal Dominion of Argentina starting in 1875, with the exceptions of Paraguay (which would have remained independent, as in real life) and real-life Misiones province (which would have become a part of Paraguay).

A British Argentina – which would include Uruguay, all of Tierra del Fuego and the Strait of Magellan (much of which are in Chile in real life), and (since 1949) the Falkland Islands – would have 70-75 million people, as opposed to up to 50 million people in real life due to the extra immigration. That Argentina would be thoroughly bilingual in English and Spanish, kind of like English and French in Canada or like English and Afrikaans among South African whites.

Spanish-speakers (known as Hispanos) would be outnumbering English-speakers (known as Anglos) 6 to 4. There would have been massive Italian and Spanish immigration in any event for various reasons, just like in real life, and most of those migrants – with the major exceptions of most of the Basques of north-central Spain plus the Friulians of northeastern Italy – would have been integrated into the Hispano sector.

Despite official bilingualism as in my own Canada, in a British Argentina there would be no separatism and language policies akin to those in my own Quebec because of the overall more amicable nature of the relationship between old-stock Hispano-Argentines and the British than has been the case in Quebec since 1759.

There would be a more equitable, homestead-style land distribution system as a result of British laws (amid a mixed legal system, with some elements from English law and others from Napoleonic/Spanish law). Due to that, along with an advantageous geography, Argentina would be far better off than in our world, remaining a highly developed country with more rule of law and a more functional judicial system.

In that version of Argentina, such grave crises as the Dirty War, the Falklands War, hyperinflation, and the 2001-02 collapse that have hit real-life Argentina for decades would absolutely not have occurred nor would be occurring down to the present. British Argentina, however, would have had numerous economic downturns and political crises, albeit not really any worse than in Canada, Australia, and so forth.

It would be even more attractive for immigration to this day, not much different from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. It would be a member of the G8 of the most powerful advanced economies alongside Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan, with a per capita income of just over US$50,000.

The Jews of British Argentina

While there were a few conversos in Argentina prior to 1807, there would have been a substantial influx of Jews from Western and Central Europe only starting in the late 1840s and the 1850s. Unlike real-life Argentina and like the other British dominions, British Argentina would have had a significant and religiously influential Anglo-Jewish element.

Jewish immigration to British Argentina would have accelerated after the Russian pogroms of 1881, mainly from Eastern Europe. These Ashkenazim, in fact, make up the vast majority of all the Jews in both British and real-life Argentina. As in real life, from 1889 onwards Baron de Hirsch and others would have developed Jewish agricultural colonies in Argentina – chiefly in Córdoba, Cuyo, and Buenos Aires provinces. (In real life, most of those colonies were in Santa Fe, Entre Ríos, and Buenos Aires provinces.) Sephardim would have migrated to British Argentina from Syria, Turkey, Greece, the Balkans, and Morocco – as in real life.

The Jewish population would have increased from 31,000 in 1900 to 218,000 in 1920, and then to 385,000 in 1939, thanks to the above immigration waves but also to immigration from Poland in the 1920s and – despite ever-tighter immigration restrictions – from Germany in the 1930s just like in real life.

While there still would have been a serious general strike in 1919, the antisemitic element (complete with pogroms) would have been quite a bit less intense than in real life, due to better rule of law. By the 1920s, genteel antisemitism would have become rather serious, from both Anglo and Hispano gentiles. At that point, just like elsewhere, the majority of Jews would have been in working-class occupations. Like in Canada or the United States, they would have largely – though not entirely – been blocked from prestigious universities and the professions.

As in real life, there would have been a significant group of Jewish pimps, taking in Jewish prostitutes, as well as Jewish organized criminals; all of those would have been ostracized by the mainstream Jewish community. However, such white slavery would not have been as significant as in real-life Buenos Aires, and it would have ended after World War I rather than in 1930. There would, thus, have been no exact equivalent of the Zwi Migdal organization in British Argentina.

After World War II, Argentina would have received a large influx of Holocaust survivors, behind only Israel and the United States and ahead of Canada and Australia. After Israel’s independence in 1948, it would have gotten a significant influx of Sephardim from such areas as Rhodes, Egypt, Morocco, Iraq, and India. Many Hungarian Jews would have arrived following Hungary’s 1956 revolution. Thus, Argentina’s Jewish population would have grown from 444,000 in 1948 to 569,000 in 1967.

In the 1960s and 1970s, there would have been quite a bit of Jewish emigration from the Spanish-speaking parts of the interior, especially by Anglos. This would have been due to the demands for more autonomy by the Hispano provinces that would have accompanied the linguistic/constitutional crisis of that time. These emigrants, alongside their non-Jewish counterparts, would have headed especially to Buenos Aires, Montevideo, and Rosario, with the remainder of the Jewish ones going to Israel or the United States.

In the late 20^th and early 21^st centuries, Argentina’s Jewish population would continue to increase, not decline like in real life, with immigration from elsewhere in Latin America as well as places like South Africa, the former Soviet Union, and Israel. Because of this, combined with the high birthrate of Orthodox Jews, the Argentine Jewish population would have increased to 670,000 in 2001, and even higher afterwards.

The Jewish community in British Argentina today would mostly be Ashkenazic and English-speaking, but some would be Sephardic and Spanish-speaking, and the overall community would be rather traditional. Most of the synagogues in Argentina would be Orthodox in orientation, and much of the community would be nominally Orthodox but not practicing. The number and diversity of practicing Orthodox Jews – whether Modern Orthodox or yeshiva-world or Hasidic – would be far higher than in real life. There would be some Conservative/Masorti synagogues, though proportionally lower than in real life, along with a handful of Reform/Liberal and other synagogues. Therefore, the Argentine Jewish community would have evolved to become much more like that of Canada or South Africa, and much less like that of real-life Argentina/Uruguay.

The Argentine Jewish population would be just over 700,000 by now, a full 500,000 more than the real-life Jewish populations of Argentina and Uruguay. Of that figure, 409,000 (almost 60%) would be in Buenos Aires, with a further 71,000 in Montevideo, 60,000 in Rosario (the federal capital), and 35,000 in Córdoba, plus smaller numbers in many other cities. It would be the largest Jewish community by country other than Israel and the United States, and it would be by far Latin America’s biggest Jewish community by country. To put this into further perspective, the Argentine Jewish community would, these days, be about as large as the Canadian and British Jewish communities combined.

The AMIA and Israeli Embassy Bombings in British Argentina

In the context provided above, the two bombings on Jewish institutions in 1992 and 1994 would have taken place just like in reality, given that they were the consequence of both local and global factors. A key difference is that – as mentioned – there would not have been nearly as many casualties; in all probability, the 1994 bombing in Buenos Aires would have killed 9 and would have injured 35, and the 1992 bombing in Rosario would have killed 3 and would have injured 24.

Another difference from real life is that these bombings would have been investigated and resolved much more quickly than in our world, and the perpetrators would have been brought to justice most probably long since. This is because a) many fewer senior Nazi war criminals would have come there after World War II due to there being no Perón regime like in real-life Argentina, b) there would have been much less overt antisemitism due to antisemitic forces being more restricted and localized, and c) as mentioned above, there would have been much more law and order due to more effective governance and impartial justice.

Thus, for example, Albert Nissman (the chief investigator of the 1994 attack) wouldn’t have died in early 2015 under mysterious circumstances. Moreover, Argentina and Iran (blamed for the 1994 bombing jointly with Hezbollah) would not have signed a memorandum of understanding in 2013 to investigate the bombing.

Finally, the organization whose building was bombed in 1994 wouldn’t be known as AMIA (Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina) like in real life, but rather as AMJA, which would stand for Argentine Mutual Jewish Association in English and Asociación Mutual Judía Argentina in Spanish. As well, AMJA – both before the bombing and the restoration of the building afterwards – would be located in a different and wealthier section of Buenos Aires, because where the AMIA is based in real life would be a Hasidic neighbourhood in the alternate Buenos Aires.

May the memory of the 85 killed in the 1994 attack in real life, and of the 9 killed in the alternate Argentine version of that attack – as well as of those killed in the 1992 attack in real life and in the alternate world – be an everlasting blessing.

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Much of the above text is adapted from my book chapter, “Jews in a Counterfactual British Argentina,” as part of the volume Promised Lands North and South: Jewish Canada and Jewish Argentina in Conversation (edited by David S. Koffman and David M. K. Sheinin, 2024).