It went from around 300 families to 600 since the appearance of the coronavirus in 2020
View of the city from Punta del Este
The Jewish population of Punta del Este, Uruguay, doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic: it went from around 300 families to around 600.
A report published by The Times of Israel takes note of this and indicates that, for many Jewish families, the city is changing from being a simple summer getaway to becoming a home throughout the year.
“Coming here is almost a tradition in our family”, Sofía Grosz told the aforementioned outlet., an 18-year-old from Argentina who enjoys the beaches and nightlife of the east. The newspaper notes that the young woman belongs to the famous sports and community center Hakoaj in her country and graduated from a Jewish high school last year.
The newspaper points out that Punta del Este was for a long time a refuge for tens of thousands of Jews, many of them Argentinians, who come to the city every summer. What happens is that today many decide to stay and live there.
The media highlights that the city has luxurious attractions, a relaxed atmosphere, natural beauty and a low crime rate. These factors made Latin Americans choose it for decades.
The beaches of Punta del Este have a special attraction (Marcelo Umpierrez)
“The Jewish developers, whose presence dates back to the Argentine businessman Mauricio Litman, who founded the Cantegrill Country Club in 1950, they were also heavily involved in the physical growth of the city. The Cantegrill still stands, filled with Jews playing golf or cards, and now there are things like a Jewish film festival and a local kosher pizzeria, opened in 2012 by Levi Shemtov., nephew of the well-known Washington, DC-based rabbi of the same name,” highlights the outlet.
Regarding the choice of many Jewish families to settle in Punta del Este, Fabian Schamis, executive director of the city’s Israelite Community (CIPEMU), said that “the trend will not stop soon”. For example, the Jewish influx during the summers is estimated at around 40,000.
The article describes that the majority of the new permanent residents are from Argentina, “where the pandemic has raged and where a combination of rising inflation, devaluation of the national currency and high tax rates have contributed to a recession in the recent years”, reports The Times of Israel.
“Since 2020 we have been receiving a massive influx of people, almost 100 percent of Argentina”, Schamis added to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “We are talking about residents, not tourists. The pandemic also accelerated a certain discontent that Argentines had (in their own country) due to political, economic, insecurity and other issues, and they chose to move here to Punta del Este, where we have an oasis in all these aspects” , he continued.
Playa Mansa (Marcelo Umpierrez)
Another important factor is that of school options, which, according to local Jews, has increased considerably. They maintain that it is an attraction and that, despite the fact that there is no Jewish day school, Jewish students are changing the composition of the rest of the educational establishments in the city, such as the International School (IC) Punta del Este, which opened in 2018 and is owned by Rolando Rozenblum, a member of the CIPEMU board of directors.
El Diario quoted indicates that Rozenblum is also involved in another prominent local institution: the first Trump tower in South America, which after nearly a decade of setbacks will open in August. Rozenblum bought an apartment in the tower and is helping its local developers prepare for its opening.
The The Times of Israel recalled that the tower includes 160 apartments that cost around USD 5,000 per square meter and has an indoor tennis court designed by former Argentine tennis player Martín Jaite b>, top 10 as a player and current organizer of professional tournaments such as the Buenos Aires ATP Open. About 60% of the buyers are Argentines and the rest are from Uruguay, Brazil, Europe and even the US.
“The Trump name remains an important global real estate brand,” Rozenblum commented; who added: “We need developers to start building these types of high-end buildings that are also winter-ready, not just focused on summer amenities. That’s the next step”.
Trump Tower in Punta del Este
Finally, the newspaper recalled that Argentines have flocked for years to Uruguay, whose president, Luis Lacalle Pou, in power since March 2020, is leading a freer government and pro-market. Uruguay offered new residents a 10-year tax break, and some tourists simply decided not to leave when COVID-19 first locked them down.
“This move is reasonable and follows the migratory and investment trends towards Uruguay, a country that we see very favorably for Jews to settle”, indicated Ariel Stofenmacher, rector of the Rabbinical Seminary Latin American, in December 2020, announcing the expansion of the institution to Uruguay.
Punta del Este has three synagogues: two are Sephardic Orthodox and one is affiliated with the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement . As an example of how the city brings together a mix of Argentinian, Brazilian and Uruguayan Jews, the prominent Brazilian banking family Safra helped build a temple there, which, during the summer, is attended mainly by Argentinians.
“Now I can proudly say that if you come from a big Jewish city like Buenos Aires to this small coastal town, you can keep your Jewish flame burning”, Rozenblum concluded.