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University Mahon Enriches Students and Local Jewish Community in Argentina
Ever since Jessica began living at the Jewish residence for university students in the town of Bahía Blanca, Argentina, four years ago, her world has opened up. "I have become involved in outside projects with the community, such as recreational activities and the Hebrew School," shares the 20-something, who moved from the small town of Bernasconi to study Pharmacology at the Universidad del Sur. "I learned from a friend that the Mahón was open to receiving new students and I knew that it was the ideal way for my parents not to worry about me and for me to live among good company."
These factors along with the practicalities of comfort and the prime location of the house make the Mahón the best housing option for Jessica. The University Mahón, sponsored by JDC in partnership with the local entities and the Jewish community of Argentina, is a residence for Jewish students who wish to continue their higher education in locales in the interior of the country, where the trend has increasingly been for young people to abandon these areas in favor of larger cities that offer greater educational and professional opportunity. As university groups weaken and the generation that was training to take on responsibility within the Jewish communities of Argentina’s interior immigrate to major cities, the future leadership is being lost and these communities’ futures jeopardized. The Community of Bahía Blanca, located in the southern part of the Province of Buenos Aires, has also been facing this reality. Yet because the city is home to several institutions of higher education that are drawing interest from areas in central and southern Argentina, the local Jewish community decided to take action to buck this trend. The answer was the creation of the University Mahón. By offering students like Jessica a place to live and ‘a home away from home’ where they can share their college experience with other Jewish youth from different localities, The University Mahón Project is drawing dozens of youngsters into the Jewish communities into which they are moving during a pivotal and impressionable time in their lives. Initiated in 2004 by the local community in consultation with JDC, the residence has already been renovated and upgraded to accommodate a new influx of students. At the same time, once virtually defunct due to a lack of eligible students, the "University Jewish Group of Bahía Blanca" is experiencing great success and enriching both the students and the local Jewish community. "Thanks to the relationship the Mahón has with local Jewish community activities, I have become involved in many projects," shares Jessica. "These activities have allowed me to widen my group of friends and have introduced me to people and life outside the university." Jessica has developed friendships with people who are pursuing careers very different from her own, living at the Mahón, or are from Bahía and participate in Jewish community affairs. The Mahón residents hold regular meetings with the local youngsters that are beneficiaries of JDC’s NET university scholarship program, which is helping integrate the ‘out-of-towners’ into the local community. Also furthering this connection, a "Godparents" program has been incorporated so that members of the Jewish community of Bahía Blanca who have children of similar ages to the students can "adopt" young residents of the Mahón and make them feel like a true part of their family. The University Mahón Project in Bahía Blanca is one among a number of innovative efforts by Argentina’s more remote Jewish communities, in consultation with JDC, to help ensure their Jewish continuity. "In recent years my bond with the community has been much closer than that which I used to have when I lived in Bernasconi," Jessica notes. Indeed, that is the ultimate aim. May 2007 |
