Cycling against the wind, the sea is bustling. I finally get to the peer. There are not many people, and most of the stores are closed as it is off season. Punta del Este is mostly a vacation town that is flooded with tourists from Argentina and Brazil who come for one month a year. Along with them join thousands of Jews who come to spend the summer in Punta. As the city comes to life there are plenty of Jewish festivals and events that take place every day. 

 

But what happens in the rest of the year? While it’s easy to assume that most of the Jews that live there during the whole year are elderly I was quite surprised to find a vibrant and young community that gathered for Kabbalat Shabbat. It’s also not something that you can take for granted. Celebrating Shabbat in the Jewish community centre is quite new, and began with the push of Fabian Scamis, the chief executive director of the Jewish community in Punta, Comunidad Israelite de Punta del Este. From around 100 people four years ago, now the community has more than 700 people who leave there during the whole year. They come to shabbat activities organised by the Jewish community organisation, that brings young madrichim all the way from Montevideo.

 

Surprisingly few people speak fluent Hebrew. I ask how, and I learn that the community is extremely Zionist. Everyone go to Habonim Dror youth movement and travel to Israel for  “Shnat Hachsharah ve’hadracha”. 

 

At Yavne school in Montevideo I meet Bruno, a student, that tells us how much he wants to do Alyia to Israel once he graduate and join the IDF. We talk to few other students, the first question they ask us is if we’ve been to Israel. 

 

Later I ask Marcelo, an Activist in the Jewish community that was involved in the establishment of Hillel there, what does he thinks about that. He tells me that he grew up with the knowing that he belongs in Israel. At 18 years old he made Alyia, and lived and studied there for 5 years. But his love of his life draw him back to Uruguay. This left him broken, because his dream he grew up on cannot ever be fulfilled. With time he became more and more involved in the local Jewish community, trying to change the attitude of Jewish organisations and individuals - that if they are there, they are there to stay, and to start and say publicly - we are going to build a community. 

 

It seems that today, strong Zionism still exists, but maybe today doing Alyia might perceived more as a personal choice. These stories makes me feel proud I belong to an organisation that supports Jewish life wherever they are.