Colonial era and 19th century The arrival of Jews to the
Banda Oriental goes back to the 16th century, when
conversos began settling there. The
Spanish Inquisition was not a significant force in the territory, and the first recorded Jewish settlement there was in the 1770s. When the Inquisition ended in 1813, it paved the way for Jews being more accepted in Uruguay throughout the 19th century.
20th century Significant Jewish immigration to Uruguay began in the late 19th century, with the arrival of Jews from
Brazil and Argentina. At the beginning of the 20th century, Uruguay became an attractive destination for Jews due to the secularism and prosperity following the reforms carried out during the
Batlle era. The largest Jewish population was in
Montevideo, whose
Villa Muñoz neighbourhood received a large amount of the European Jewish immigration that came to Uruguay, which led it to become the
Jewish quarter of the capital. Jewish schools and the first synagogue were established there in 1917 by a small
Ashkenazi community. The first recorded
minyan happened in 1912. Despite the majority of Ashkenazi immigration, a significant number of
Sephardim from the
Ottoman Empire settled in the country. Most of them were poor and working-class, so upon their arrival they lived in
tenements located in neighborhoods such as
Ciudad Vieja,
Palermo and
Barrio Sur. In 1915, 30 Jewish families from
Belarus and
Bessarabia settled in the rural area of the
Paysandú Department and established an agricultural settlement, Colonia 19 de Abril. Around that time, a
Jewish cemetery was also established in the city of
La Paz, 20 kilometers from
Montevideo. In the early years of the century, as the Jewish community in Uruguay grew, different institutions were founded to bring it together and help the newcomers settle and adapt. After
World War I, the number of Ashkenazim in Uruguay increased significantly, with the arrival of Jews from
Latvia,
Lithuania,
Poland,
Romania and
Czechoslovakia escaping antisemitism. The majority of Jewish immigration to Uruguay took place in the 1920s and 1930s. A large percentage of Jewish immigrants during this period were
German Jews and
Italian Jews. Uruguayan Jews initially made a living in small retail trade and peddling, with some becoming craftsmen and artisans. In time, they moved up the economic scale, and many became the owners of large stores or medium-sized businesses. They became primarily middle-class, particularly as many of them were by then second or third-generation Uruguayans. Their economic advancement was aided by the creation of Jewish loan and assistance funds, which evolved into Jewish banks. greeting card in
Yiddish. The Uruguayan government's open immigration policy waned during
Gabriel Terra's rule in the 1930s. During the
Terra dictatorship (1933–38), immigration restrictions were imposed with the passing of laws establishing several reasons for refusing entry into the country. However, despite the fact that some refugee ships were refused entry to
Montevideo "for failure to meet requirements", the arrival of Jews to Uruguay continued during the 1930s. In 1936 the Uruguayan division of
B'nai B'rith was established. Once settled in Uruguay, Jews were grouped based on their origin, however in 1940, with the union of the
Israelite Community, the
Sephardic Israelite Community, the
Nueva Congregación Israelita, and the Hungarian Israelite Community, the
Central Israelite Committee of Uruguay (CCIU) was formed, as a central and representative organization of the entire community. Further, in 1945 was established the
Casa de Cultura Mordejai Anilevich. With the rise of
Nazism in Europe and the subsequent outbreak of
World War II, the arrival of Jews from
Central and
Eastern Europe to Uruguay increased. The
German Jews were mostly middle class, including bank employees, skilled workers, cattle breeders, researchers, lawyers and physicians. Since by the end of the war in 1945, Uruguayan law did not allow the entry into the country of people who could not prove that they had the economic resources to live on their own, in January 1945 the government stipulated that people who had relatives already residing in Uruguay would be exempt from this obligation. Thus, from January to September 1946, approximately 1,578
Jewish survivors of the Holocaust settled in the country, most of whom were from Poland, Germany and Hungary. During the establishment of
Israel in 1948 and the subsequent
1948 Arab-Israeli War, which involved the
mass exodus of Jews from
Arab and Muslim countries, primarily to Israel, more than 18,000 Jews immigrated to Uruguay, including a number of
Russian Jews and
Hungarian Jews. Uruguay, which had supported the creation of a Jewish homeland during the 1920
San Remo conference, was one of the first nations to
recognize Israel, and the first
Latin American country to do so. It was the first Latin American country and fourth country overall in which Israel established a diplomatic mission. It was also one of the few nations to support
Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and oppose internationalization of the city. Its diplomatic mission in Jerusalem was upgraded to the status of an embassy in 1958, but subsequently moved to
Tel Aviv after the enactment of the
Jerusalem Law. In 1952 the
American Jewish Year Book estimated that Uruguay had about 40,000 Jews. However, in 1960 it was estimated at 50,000, the time in history when there were more Jews in the country. The community experienced a serious decline in the 1970s and 1980s as a result of emigration. By the mid-1990s, there was little Jewish representation in the higher echelons of the military and in Parliament. In 1994, a
Holocaust memorial was opened on the
Rambla in the
Punta Carretas neighborhood.
21st century in
Punta del Este. As of 2009, 20,000-25,000 Jews lived in Uruguay, with 95% residing in
Montevideo. Throughout the country, there are prominent organized communities in
Punta del Este and
Paysandú. As of 2003, there were 20 synagogues, but only six of them held weekly
Shabbat services, and one functioned every day. In 2017, a
Holocaust memorial in Montevideo was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti, with phrases such as "The Holocaust of the Jewish people is the biggest lie in history" and “Gas chambers were a fraud.” This act of vandalism followed a renovation of the memorial which attempted to clean up the monument from previous acts of antisemitic vandalization. ==Notable Uruguayan Jews==