Half Day Buenos Aires Jewish Tour

Booking Your Tour

Your Buenos Aires Jewish tour begins when you, our guest, contact us to ask about our service.

Are we available on the date you need? What time does the tour start and end? Where does it begin and where does it end? How much does it cost? How do you pay?

Once we reach an agreement, we’ll send you a confirmation email with all the details of your tour.

Before picking you up at your hotel or apartment, we ask permission from the institutions we’ll be visiting so we can bring in a group of strangers.

Yes — you are a stranger to them, someone they don’t know, but they’ll let you in because you’re with us.

Pickup Day

At last, the day of the tour arrives. We’ll pick you up at your hotel, and before we set off, we’ll make sure everyone has their passport — without it, security won’t let you in anywhere.

And believe me, you won’t be the first guest to leave a passport behind in the hotel room.

Once we’ve said hello, we’ll set off to discover Jewish Buenos Aires.

Since we run private Jewish city tours every day of the week, including Shabbat, no two days look exactly alike. Here’s a typical weekday itinerary.

Meet Salito

Once we’re settled in the vehicle, I’ll introduce myself: my name is Salito, and I’m a Jew born and raised in Buenos Aires.

Being Jewish carries a special meaning. What is it? Jewish people are always asking questions — of ourselves and of each other. What kind of questions? Why. Why what? Why everything! We’re curious people by nature.

A Family Story

Growing up and going to school, I learned that my grandparents had come to Argentina from Ukraine.

So the first question I asked them was: why did you leave Ukraine? What happened? And the second was: why did you come to Argentina? Why not Israel? Or the US? Or Canada? Why Argentina?

They began telling me their story and answering my questions, and I was hooked.

At public school I learned Argentine history. At Jewish school I learned Jewish history. But that wasn’t enough for me, so I started digging deeper on my own.

While I tell you the rest of this story, we’ll be arriving at the first stop of our tour.

A Quick Note on Timing

The order of the stops below may change depending on the visiting hours each institution allows us on the day of your tour, and it’s possible we won’t manage to fit every single stop into the four hours. That said, we always do our best to complete the full tour as planned.

Stop 1: The Israeli Embassy Memorial

In 1992, a bomb destroyed the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires. Our first stop is the plaza built in memory of the site where the embassy once stood.

There, I’ll tell you about the attack, the meaning of Embassy of Israel Plaza, where the new embassy is located today, how many people were killed and wounded by the terrorism — and my own personal connection to the attack and to the memorial.

Once: Buenos Aires’ Jewish Neighborhood

Back in the vehicle, we’ll head to Once, Buenos Aires’ historic Jewish neighborhood.

As with immigrants anywhere, newcomers tend to settle close to one another in a new city — same language, same religion, same food, same culture. That’s how ethnic neighborhoods form all over the world: Spanish, Italian, Jewish, any nationality tends to cluster together.

Once is Buenos Aires’ Ashkenazi Jewish neighborhood. The first and second generations lived there; as later generations grew more established financially and socially, many professionals moved on to other, more residential neighborhoods of Buenos Aires.

Stop 2: AMIA

There we’ll make our second stop, at AMIA, the country’s most important Jewish cultural center — and the site of a second terrorist attack, in 1994.

We’ll visit the new AMIA building, if it’s available that day, with a guided tour to see the new AMIA and learn what goes on inside.

From the sidewalk across the street, I’ll tell you about the memorial built to honor the victims of that cruel attack.

Back in the vehicle, we’ll drive through the Jewish neighborhood, pass by the kosher district, and arrive at our third stop.

Stop 3: The Ashkenazi Synagogue

A beautiful Ashkenazi synagogue, built in 1924. There, I’ll share the history of the institution — and my own personal connection to it (I’ll let that be a surprise!).