Sephardic Jews fleeing persecution immigrated with explorers and colonists to settle in what is now Argentina,[5] in spite of being forbidden from travelling to the American colonies.

By mid-century, Jews from France and other parts of Western Europe, fleeing the social and economic disruptions of revolutions, began to settle in Argentina.

[5] A minyan was organized for High Holiday services a few years later, leading to the establishment of the Congregación Israelita de la República.

Under President Julio Argentino Roca, a policy of mass immigration was encouraged; it provided relief to refugees fleeing the violent pogroms in the Russian Empire from 1881 onwards.

Eastern European and German Jewish women had many responsibilities on the farm, with mothers and daughters working together to complete tasks in the field.

They shared the physically demanding burden of farm life, preparing the fields for harvest and helping in the eventual yield of crops.

[11] Argentina kept its doors open to Jewish immigration until 1938, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in Germany began to take more actions against Jews, and tensions rose across Europe in preparation for war.

Perón introduced Catholic religious instruction in Argentine public schools; he allowed Nazis fleeing prosecution in Germany to immigrate to the country.

[17] Among the most notable Nazis who immigrated to Argentina was Adolf Eichmann, a high-ranking official who had supervised the death camps; he lived near Buenos Aires from after World War II until 1960.

Some sections of the military government believed in the "Andinia Plan", a fictional Israeli conspiracy to take over part of the Patagonia region and establish a second Jewish state there.

Some Jewish prisoners were even interrogated over their knowledge of Andinia Plan and were even asked to provide details of Israeli military preparations for an invasion of southern Argentina.

[19] During the period of military rule, people who opposed the government were arrested, imprisoned, and often "disappeared", being subjected to torture and execution, and Jewish victims were singled out for especially harsh treatment.

When Carlos Saul Menem, who was of Syrian descent, was elected president in 1989, his Arab background and previous support of Perón worried the Jews, but he proved to be a more tolerant leader.

Menem appointed many Jews to his government, visited Israel a number of times, and offered to help mediate the Israeli-Arab peace process.

President Menem also ordered the release of files relating to Argentina's role in serving as a haven for Nazi war criminals.

In 2006, Argentine Justice indicted seven high-ranking former Iranian officials and one senior Hezbollah member, charged with participating in the planning and execution of the AMIA bombing.

Williamson, who headed a seminary near Buenos Aires, was ordered to leave for 'concealing true activity' (he had entered the country as an employee of a non-governmental group, not a priest).

[38][39] A 2011 poll conducted by the Gino Germani Research Institute of the University of Buenos Aires on behalf of the Anti-Defamation League and Delegación de Asociaciones Israelitas Argentinas showed that a majority of Argentines held antisemitic sentiments or prejudices.

Another incident took place in Mendoza on 6 September 2012 when during a basketball game the father of the player Andres Berman was physically assaulted after he criticized antisemitic statements by fans of an opposing team.

On 17 April 2013 a Nazi hate symbol and the message "I sell soap made of Jews" were found painted on a house in San Juan.

On 1 August a freshman student in the English college Colegio San Bartolomé was castigated for writing on the board in the classroom "Fewer Jews, more soap" (Menos judíos, más jabones).

[44] In July 2014 there were at least two cases of antisemitic graffiti: In Mendoza, where Nazi symbols had been painted on the front of the local Jewish Cultural Center,[45] and in Buenos Aires during a pro-Palestinian rally.

One of the graffiti was "Be a patriot, kill a Jew",[51] and another had a Nazi symbol sprayed on the passage leading to the house of the Córdoba rabbi.

[59] Towards the end of the year, a young Jewish man was violently attacked by a student in the private University of San Andrés who also shouted "long live the Holocaust".

[5] In January 1919 in Buenos Aires, during a general strike, the police fomented pogroms that targeted Jews and destroyed their property.

[5] In the strike's aftermath, civilian vigilante gangs (the Argentine Patriotic League) went after so-called agitators (agitadores), and killed or wounded "scores of victims", including "numerous Russian Jews who were falsely accused of masterminding a Communist conspiracy".

[62] European Jews continued to immigrate to Argentina, including during the Great Depression of the 1930s and to escape increasing Nazi persecution.

"In 1939 half the owners and workers of small manufacturing plants were foreigners, many of them newly arrived Jewish refugees from Central Europe".

The Zwi Migdal organization established in the 1860s in Buenos Aires operated an international network of pimps exploiting Jewish girls from Eastern Europe.