By COLlive reporter
A Buenos Aires synagogue, recently recovered after 20 years of being overrun by squatters, held its first prayer services in many years on Tisha B’Av.
The Shul, inaugurated in 1907 and one of the first in Argentina, is located in the La Boca area, the city’s original port, where the first Jewish immigrants from Europe originally settled.
After the death of the rabbi that cared for the building, the property was taken over by a group who turned the building into an underground club. Antisemitic epithets and Nazi symbols were found painted on its walls.
Rabbi Shneor Mizrahi, Chabad Shliach of Boca and Barracas in Argentina, was instrumental in recovering the Shul through negotiation with the squatters and with the assistance of the city Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of Justice and Security.
On Sunday, Tisha B’Av, Rabbi Mizrahi led a Minyan for Mincha in the synagogue, surrounded by the destroyed Aron Kodesh and broken walls still covered in graffiti, with congregants joining for davening and the Torah reading. They ended with an emotional singing of “Ani Maamin” in unison.
