Arabic numerals were neither invented by nor used by the Arabs. They were developed in India by the Hindus c. 600 A.D. These numbers were written backwards, thus one hundred twenty three was written 321.
Around 750 AD, this system of decimal arithmetic was brought to Persia when several important Hindu works were translated into Arabic. In the cultural diffusion of the numeral system to Europe, the method of writing numbers became reversed to the present method.
Now, Arabs are rather smart; but in this case, our Western numeral system was invented by Hindus. The Arabs were between Europe and India, so the knowledge of the numeral system was diffused through the Arab world. Hence, it was misnamed the Arabic Numeral System.
The name “algebra” does come from Arabic. However, it may have been invented by Babylonians, Greeks, and Persians (the Persians were Muslim by that time).
This is a short but very good video, if one ignores the bias. However, it takes a few seconds to load.
@themujerista The history of Palestinian migration to Latin America 🇵🇸 🌍🌎🌏 Palestinian migration to Latin American occurred in four significant waves with Chile now being home to the largest Palestinian diaspora outside of the Middle East. #palestine#chile♬ original sound – The Mujerista
Of course, this lady seems to have a bias against Israel, but the history is good.
What is again worth repeating is that almost all of the Palestinians who moved to Chile were Christians, either Roman Catholic or Eastern Christian (Orthodox). They assimilated well, and have risen to become elites in the country.
Such is the political power of the Palestinian-Chileans – called Chilestinos – that they have distorted Chile’s foreign policy against Israel. Otherwise, Chile would be a quite typical Western democracy.
This pro-Palestinian slant has caused concern among Jewish groups around the world, as can be seen in the video, from the World Jewish Congress, below.
Posted on YouTube: July 9, 2020
The Palestinian Community in Chile does not mince words.
Israel ha estado bombardeando Palestina (Gaza y Cisjordania), Líbano, Yemen y Siria, pero aún así, se siguen creyendo víctimas.
El primer ministro israelí, Benjamín Netanyahu, dijo la semana pasada en la ONU que ellos se estaban defendiendo contra sus “asesinos”, pero ¿si nos… pic.twitter.com/Zab06Q4jZG
What the picture says is: Imagine bombing 4 countries at the same time and continuing to believe yourself to be the victim.
However, the Jews are a very small population in Chile, and can do little to resist the pro-Palestinian slant.
This is not to say the government is antisemitic. It is NOT! Chile is quite democratic, but the government is swayed by a Chilestino population that outnumbers the Jews about 30 to 1.
It is with good reason that the Jews of the world keep an eye on Chile.
This is one of their documentaries on the “Naqba.”
You can get English an translation by playing with the settings gear.
One may hold the very erroneous idea that the Arabs in Latin America have a unified culture and presence.
Dispense with that idiocy right now.
The most outstanding group in this mix are the Maronites of Lebanon.
The Maronites of Lebanon are a group of Christian Arabs who are members of the Maronite Church – which is affiliated with Roman Catholicism – though the Maronite Church allows married men to become priests. The Maronites do not even consider themselves to be Arab.
As the Canadian-American scholar, T.B. Irving, noted:
[T]he Christian Lebanese immigrants to South America… owe much to their over‑all Arab heritage, even though many of them try to call themselves “Phoenicians”.
They Maronites feel this way, even though the Maronites in Lebanon speak Arabic, and live in an Arab culture. This attitude is a product of centuries of persecution at the hands of Muslims. Sadly, the Maronites were nearly genocided in the 19th century at the hands or rampaging Muslims, and many Maronites have a distrust of Islam.
Rather, the Maronites of Lebanon consider themselves to be the descendants of ancient Phoenicians, and will identity themselves as such.
If you know your history, the ancient Phoenicians sailed west and planted colonies in Sicily, Spain, North Africa, Corsica, Sardinia, and and possibly the British Isles.
In simple terms, the Phoenicians always looked westward, and the Maronites, likewise, looked to Europe for their inspiration, not the Arab world. The other Arabs considered the Maronites as a fifth column in their ranks. The Maronites may have seen themselves as Western-looking Phoenicians, but the Muslims in Lebanon saw themselves as Arab. This became a point of hostility between the two groups.
Today, the vast majority of Lebanese Maronites live in the Western Hemisphere. They affiliate with (Western) Roman Catholicism, not the Eastern Orthodox nor the Syrian Christian faiths.
Given that Roman Catholicism is a Western denomination, and that many Maronites have a degree of European (Roman, Greek, etc.) ancestry, the Maronites could pass for Latin whites, and could blend in almost seamlessly in South America.
This article (Click Here) vastly underestimates their numbers, but even so, they are clearly a large demographic everywhere.
The Maronites who remained in Lebanon were never really anti-Israel. In fact, some Lebanese Maronite leaders favored Zionism, as they thought it might be an ally against Islam. For those who know the bible, King Hiram of Tyre (in modern day Lebanon) was a friend of David.
Today, if Lebanon and Israel always seem on the verge of war, it is because the demographic of Muslims soon overtook the Christians. The Maronites were not happy with that development.
A subsequent civil war in Lebanon caused many more Maronites to flee.
And almost everywhere, many of the Maronites prefer to label themselves as Phoenician, and will often distance themselves from Arab causes.
This can play havoc with demographers. With lots of Maronites refusing to consider themselves Arabs, millions of Latin-Arabs are not counted.
Where the Maronites are the majority subset of Arabs in Latin America countries – or even roughly half – they tend to moderate anti-Zionist extremism among the Arab ethnics.
Brazil and Argentina have large Maronite populations, and they tend to be friendly to Israel. Do not let the present president of Brazil, Lula, fool you. He does NOT reflect the opinion of most Brazilians regarding Israel. Most Brazilians are pro-Israel.
How could it be otherwise? Brazil is one-third Evangelical Christian, who tend to have Christian Zionist viewpoints.
Where the Palestinians are the majority subset of Arabs, they can skew the foreign policy of Latin nations. Chile is an example. The very prosperous Palestinians have turned Chile’s government policies to a status that is cold toward to Israel. Below is an example.
Recalling ambassador, Chile’s president accuses Israel of ‘unacceptable’ rights violations in Gaza
Chile announces its recalling its ambassador to Israel for consultations, accusing the Jewish state of “unacceptable” human rights violations in the war against the Gaza-ruling Hamas terror group.
The only antidote to anti-Zionism among the Latin Arabs is either a large demographic of Maronites, or a growing Evangelical demographic in the host nation.
Guatemala is noted for this. It has a noticeable Palestinian population (1% of the nation); however, 40% of the general population is Evangelical.
Posted on YouTube: February 18, 2022
What is clear is that the Arabs do not present a unified face in Latin America. And it is foolish to think so.
The Maronites barely consider themselves Arab.
And Evangelicalism can overrule even hostile tendencies in other Arab groups.
This whole site is dedicated to a discussion of the Arabs and Arab culture in Latin America. They are an amazing people.
But there is one group which is an outlier in South America: The Jews.
Now, every country in Latin America has some Jews, but Argentina has LOTS OF JEWS.
And it is Argentine Jews in particular which just fascinate me no end. The have survived and prevailed in a part of the world where one would not even expect them to be.
At roughly 180,000, Argentina has the seventh largest concentration of Jews in the world, and the largest concentration in the Latin World.
At one point, the percentage of Jews in Argentina’s population rivaled that of the United States.
Posted on YouTube: December 24, 2023
By TRT (a normally anti-Israel, Turkish news agency),
but this snippet of history is basically true.
Theodore Herzl even considered purchasing a province in Argentina as a homeland for the Jews. A province! mind you. Not the whole country.
Source: The Jewish State [Der Judenstaat] (1896)
Theodore Herzl, via the Jewish Virtual Library – Section II
PALESTINE OR ARGENTINE?
Shall we choose Palestine or Argentine? We shall take what is given us, and what is selected by Jewish public opinion. The Society will determine both these points.
Argentine is one of the most fertile countries in the world, extends over a vast area, has a sparse population and a mild climate. The Argentine Republic would derive considerable profit from the cession of a portion of its territory to us.
The idea of a Jewish homeland in Argentina was not as crazy as one might think, today.
A Jewish philanthropist, Baron Maurice de Hirsch, had already purchased and set up a Jewish settlement called Moisés Ville (Moses-ville) earlier, in 1889, out on the pampas, in the province of Entre Rios, north of Buenos Aires.
Argentina is a large country, about 1/3rd the size of the United States, and had only 3.4 million people living there in 1890. Large sections of the country were literally uninhabited or scarcely settled.
So the idea of buying an empty Argentine province made sense. Jewish settlement in Argentina had already started, even before Herzl wrote The Jewish State.
Though at the first Zionist Congress in 1897, the possibility of Argentina was discussed, the more orthodox Jews insisted on a return to the Holy Land.
While some Jewish immigration to the Holy Land had started by that point, the area was still under Ottoman (Muslim) control, and it was not developed, and there were instances of hostility to Jewish settlement.
But Argentina was wide open.
So, from the time of the Czars to the time of Hitler, many Jews fleeing pogroms in Europe though that moving to Argentina was a wonderful idea.
And, at the time, it was. Argentina was just beginning to open up, as settlement of the American West was closing down. It was another America in the making, and the government allowed for European immigration.
So yes, there were Jewish agricultural settlements, set up in the pampas, with Jewish gauchos.
However, within one generation, most of the sons and daughters of those Jewish immigrants cum gauchos were moving to Buenos Aires, where they had a massive effect on the culture.
In the rest of South America, Jews were prosperous, but in Argentina, they were trendsetting.
Posted on YouTube, Nov 13, 2023
The Ottomans imposed restrictions on Jewish immigration to the Holy Land before 1917. The British did during the Mandate. And there was hostility from the Arabs.
Even the United States limited immigration starting in the 1920s.
However, Argentina was still welcoming.
Unfortunately, in 1938, the government changed its policy and shut down Jewish immigration because Jews were trying to escape Europe, and Argentina was one of the few open countries … and the government did not want to be flooded with refugees – which was a real possibility at that time.
Of course, there was a degree of antisemitism in the decision. After all, this was just before WWII, when antisemitism was publically acceptable. However there is more to the story. It was not just antisemitism.
In 1938, there were only 13.7 million Argentines, and a flood of a million or more Jews fleeing Europe would have massively changed the demographic profile of Argentina overnight. The Great Depression was in full force, and Argentina could not afford such a large influx.
AND THEN THERE WERE THE GERMANS IN ARGENTINA
Yes, about 8% of Argentina was German at that time, but a lot of those Germans were assimilated second- and third-generation Argentines, with newer German arrivals having fled Nazi Germany.
Many of those German-Argentines were anti-Nazi.
Though sadly, it has to be admitted, there were some Nazi sympathizers who held a rally in Buenos Aires’ Luna Park in 1938.
But, apparently, there were some anti-Nazis as well, who attacked the Nazis after the rally and won the street battles.
Source: Nazi rally in Buenos Aires through rare photographs, 1938
Rare Historical Photos
Although forbidden to do so, the Federacion Universitaria Argentina (FUA) and socialist youth groups held a counter-demonstration in nearby Plaza San Martín; the demonstration spilled over into adjacent streets; German flags were burned; German banks and the Instituto Cultural Germano-Argentino were stoned.
The Argentina government had to apologize to Germany for what was considered a diplomatic insult.
Source: Nazi rally in Buenos Aires through rare photographs, 1938
Rare Historical Photos
A few days later, Manuel Alvarado, interim chancellor of the Foreign Ministry, apologized publicly to Chargé d’Affaires, deploring a “certain press” offensive to German nationality that failed to “take into account the cordial relations between the two nations”.
Most Argentines were NOT the Nordic Aryan ideal, and everyone knew it. In fact, some of the military elites feared that Germany might try to lop off a bit of South America to start a German colony. Those officers would have resisted Nazism.
Argentina was never in danger of going Nazi.
What Argentina did have was a large influential Catholic Church which had a history of antisemitism, but while the Catholic Church influenced the culture, they could not totally control it. It also had an elite class of rich ranchers and businessmen, who were sympathetic to fascism, though not necessarily Nazism.
These elitists were sympathetic to the Axis, but the public-at-large was sympathetic to the Allies. What the elite was able to do was delay Argentina’s break with neutrality until near the end of the war.
Yes, a Nazi rally had occurred in 1938, but those Nazi sympathizers did not endanger the state.
Most Argentines were just NOT Nazis.
How could they be? Most were Spanish or Italian, about half of those Latins had a small degree of Indian blood in them. Even Perón boasted of a distant Tehuelche ancestor.
Argentine could never have been a fertile ground for Nazi supremacism.
Jewish immigration resumed to Argentina after WWII.
At that time …
THERE WERE APPROXIMATELY 400,000 JEWS IN ARGENTINA.
Close to 3% of the population, a little bit less that the percentage of Jews in America at that time.
Juan Perón and José Ber Gelbard
Even Juan Perón had a Jewish advisor for economics, José Ber Gelbard.
Source: Wikipedia: History of the Jews in Argentina
Juan Domingo Perón’s rise to power in 1946 in Argentina after the war worried many Jews in the country.[who?] As Minister of War, he had signed Argentina’s declaration of war against the Axis Powers, but as a nationalist, he had earlier expressed sympathy for them. He was known to admire the Italian Fascist leader, Benito Mussolini. Perón introduced Catholic religious instruction in Argentine public schools; he allowed Nazis fleeing prosecution in Germany to immigrate to the country. Perón also expressed sympathy for Jewish rights and in 1949 established diplomatic relations with Israel. Perón’s government was the first in Argentina to allow Jewish citizens to hold office.
What is NOT mentioned is that Perón later ran into conflict with the Catholic Church. He did NOT grovel before the clerics. He was not a classic democrat, but neither was he a neo-nazi.
If after the war, Juan Perón invited in German war criminals, he did so for their supposed technical and scientific expertise, not their politics. Perón himself thought that the Germans were too stiff.
While there were some ugly instances of antisemitism in Argentine history, it was not that strongly embedded in their culture. Usually, whatever antisemitism that did occur was a spillover from government actions against leftists.
During the Tragic Week of 1919, the government cracked down on very violent leftist strikers who were shooting the police. Some of this spilled over to local Jews who had come over from Eastern Europe, and were seen as leftist agitators.
During the Argentine Dirty War (1974-83) leftist Jews were arrested, but for their political activities, not their religion. Unlike Christian Argentines, they were allowed to leave Argentina for Israel. So they got off easier than the Christians.
This is not to excuse government excess, but it was not usually born of religious hatred, but misapplied ideological hatred.
But that is not what the media tells us.
The media likes to portray Argentina as a post-WWII Nazi enclave, which is a gross exaggeration.
A few famous Nazis fled there, but most Argentines were NOT Nazi; and the few Nazis who arrived were allowed in for economic or technical reasons.
Argentina was not a center of German culture, though it had a noticeable (8%) German population.
However, because of unstable presidencys, followed by right wing repressive governments, bad economics, corruption, and the AMIA bombing of 1994 (an Iranian operation), many Jews have left Argentine for Israel.
However, there are still roughly 180,000 Jews in Argentina – 250,000, if you count those with a degree of Jewish ancestry, but who are not considered officially Jewish.
Argentina still has the seventh largest Jewish population in the world.
Why?
Because Argentina is not intrinsically antisemitic. It is intrinsically messed up, but not antisemitic. Many Jews still like Argentina. Governments come and go, some friendly to Jews, some not; but the people of Argentina themselves are not antisemitic.
Posted on YouTube: July 10, 2024
BUT HERE IS THE ODD PART
The Jews in Argentina have affected Argentine culture far more massively than the Germans ever did.
Source: Chabad.org — 19 Facts about the Jews of Argentina
By Eli Levy and Miriam Szokovski
Argentina has produced five Nobel prize winners, including Jewish doctor Cesar Milstein, son of a Jewish Ashkenazi family from Bahia Blanca, who (with others) developed the hybridoma technique for the production of monoclonal antibodies. He was awarded the prize in 1984.
While Argentina Christians invented Tango, a lot of Jews picked it up and wrote their own tangos.
TANGO: A HISTORY WITH JEWS – Trailer
Posted on YouTube: August 6, 2011
One of the most famous restaurants in Latin America is in Buenos Aires and is called Mishiguene (Meshugganeh) which is Hebrew for Crazy. It servers Jewish cuisine, though it is not officially kosher.
Posted on YouTube: November 27, 2011
Posted on YouTube: August 25, 2014
To be sure, there is a lot more, beyond the scope of this blog article.
And, of course, Argentina’s President Javier Millei, dabbles in Judaism.
This is not to say that Argentina does not have other subcultures, and influences; but rather that Argentina’s culture is heavily influenced by Jews. They are NOT a passing curiosity, as one might see in other Latin countries.
The Arabs in Argentina are often of Maronite Catholic or Syrian stock, intermarried for many generations, and not the fire-breathing anti-Zionist Palestinian-Chileans one might see in Chile.
This partly explains why Chile’s and Argentina’s governments take different views on the Mideast.
