Mexico City mayor lays foundation stone of $5 million Jewish center
Published March 28, 2017
RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — The mayor of Mexico’s capital city laid the foundation stone of a Jewish community center slated to cost nearly $ 5.3 million.
Miguel Angel Mancera hailed the Jewish community’s decision to invest in the city as seen by its decisiom to erect the new building of the Kehila Ashkenazi, which is located in Mexico City’s Roma Norte district in the Cuauhtemoc borough. The official considers the initiative a sign of trust in the country’s growth, reported La Razon newspaper on Tuesday.
“The Jewish community is showing a substantial, permanent impulse, honoring ancestral values of their people, but living with this dialectic of Mexico, showing affection to the city and to all who live here,” he said.
Mancera pointed out that the city’s Constitution mentions the fight against anti-Semitism. In turn, the president of the Central Committee of the Jewish Community of Mexico — the country’s Jewish umbrella organization — cited the governmental support provided to carry out local projects.
“It is very important for us that you know that we value a lot the fact that every time we approach any city official to bring up a community theme, they always welcome us very well,” said Moises Romano.
Last week, Argentine Jewish watchdog Observatorio Web reported that the support expressed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in January for U.S. President Donald Trump wanting to build a wall separating the United States and Mexico has triggered an “alarming” wave of anti-Semitism online.
Comments examined in 22 online articles from the major Mexican newspapers El Universal, Excelsior and Milenio, concluded that nearly 40 percent were anti-Semitic. The most recurrent themes were the vindication of Adolf Hitler, and the representation of Jews as avaricious, greedy, usurers and guided purely by economic interest.
Some 35 percent of the comments were negative about the Israeli government but without anti-Semitic expression, according to the report.
Mexico is home to some 50,000 Jews, Latin America’s third largest Jewish community after Argentina and Brazil.
