B´nai B´rith commemorated this week the Nazi Pogrom of November 1938, also known as Kristallnacht/Pogromnacht or the Night of Broken Glass, in several Latin American countries, in public events attended by dignitaries, Jewish community members and special guests, after two years of restricted events during the pandemic.

In Costa Rica, the Shoah was remembered through a presentation about the music made during the Holocaust, attended by more than 300 people.

In Chile, there were two events—One in the Jewish college for teachers, pupils and families and another co-hosted by B’nai B’rith Chile and the Christian Jewish Confraternity of Chile.

On Nov. 15 B’nai B’rith Panama will present the film “The Rescue,” about the life of Col. Jose Arturo Castellanos, a Salvadoran consul in Geneva during World War II who saved 40,000 Jews by providing them documents from El Salvador.

B’nai B’rith Argentina held an event in a Christian church together with the Jewish Christian Confraternity of Argentina.

B’nai B’rith Brazil held an event featuring a lecture by Maria Luiza Tucci, a professor of history at Sao Paulo University, and the testimony of a Shoah survivor who lives in Brazil.

In Peru, B’nai B’rith held a conference; in Venezuela, the community held an event with the EU Ambassador to Venezuela Rafael Dochao as keynote speaker; and in Mexico, B’nai B’rith, together with the ambassadors of Bulgaria, Germany and Israel, will host a presentation by prestigious Israeli historian and Holocaust expert Mario Sinay.

In Uruguay 500 people filled the hall where B’nai B’rith held an event attended by Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle, ministers, members of congress, ambassadors, and Catholic and Christian leaders. The keynote speaker was Vice Minister of Education Ana Ribeiro, a very prestigious professor of history. Ribeiro said, “Remembrance is a strong way of resistance, and the Jewish people has learned to have a strong memory and to face with courage and resilience the heinous attacks suffered in its history, the worst of all of them, the Shoah.”