The Jewish Quarter... and Shopping
Abasto Shopping, Buenos Aires - Mon, 31 Dec 2018 - 12pm
It's our day in Argentina and we decided to... go shopping. ...Well, going shopping wasn't our first plan. Visiting Buenos Aires' Jewish quarter was, and we did that first. B.A. has a Jewish community largely descended from those who fled here to escape the holocaust. Argentina notoriously also has a population of Nazis who fled here to escape punishment after the holocaust....
We rode the Subte out to the Once neighborhood, the "center of Jewish life in Buenos Aires" and found it... mostly closed up. We walked past two temples and found them barricaded shut. Like, literally barricaded. There were attacks on Jewish temples and people in B.A. years ago and the threats- or at least the perception of threats- have not eased up.
We rejiggered our plans to walk through the neighborhood more and see what we could find. We decided we'd walk as far as the Abasto shopping center about 6-8 blocks away. It's at the edge of the Jewish quarter and contains one bit of Judaica that might actually be open- a Kosher McDonald's!
Abasto Shopping itself is an imposing, art deco building. It was originally constructed in the 1930s as the Central Supply Market, where countless fruit, vegetable, and meat suppliers sold to the city's growing population. In 1984 the central market was moved to another location and this building was abandoned. It was revitalized in the late 1990s and reopened as the shopping mall it is today.
Finding the Kosher McDonald's in the mall was challenging as there are actually three McDs there. Only one of them is Kosher. And it's reputedly the only Kosher McDonald's outside of Israel!
Kosher McDonalds was pretty much what we expected. We've seen several of them before in Israel. Interestingly this one doesn't have "cones". It was fascinating that the Kosher McDonaldses in Tel Aviv had what we'd call "ice cream cones"- underscoring the fact that McDonalds' "ice cream" contains no actual form of milk or cream.
Despite the thrill of the hunt I chose not to eat here. I was ready for a Baconator at Wendy's. 😳
It's our day in Argentina and we decided to... go shopping. ...Well, going shopping wasn't our first plan. Visiting Buenos Aires' Jewish quarter was, and we did that first. B.A. has a Jewish community largely descended from those who fled here to escape the holocaust. Argentina notoriously also has a population of Nazis who fled here to escape punishment after the holocaust....
We rode the Subte out to the Once neighborhood, the "center of Jewish life in Buenos Aires" and found it... mostly closed up. We walked past two temples and found them barricaded shut. Like, literally barricaded. There were attacks on Jewish temples and people in B.A. years ago and the threats- or at least the perception of threats- have not eased up.
We rejiggered our plans to walk through the neighborhood more and see what we could find. We decided we'd walk as far as the Abasto shopping center about 6-8 blocks away. It's at the edge of the Jewish quarter and contains one bit of Judaica that might actually be open- a Kosher McDonald's!
Abasto Shopping itself is an imposing, art deco building. It was originally constructed in the 1930s as the Central Supply Market, where countless fruit, vegetable, and meat suppliers sold to the city's growing population. In 1984 the central market was moved to another location and this building was abandoned. It was revitalized in the late 1990s and reopened as the shopping mall it is today.
Finding the Kosher McDonald's in the mall was challenging as there are actually three McDs there. Only one of them is Kosher. And it's reputedly the only Kosher McDonald's outside of Israel!
Kosher McDonalds was pretty much what we expected. We've seen several of them before in Israel. Interestingly this one doesn't have "cones". It was fascinating that the Kosher McDonaldses in Tel Aviv had what we'd call "ice cream cones"- underscoring the fact that McDonalds' "ice cream" contains no actual form of milk or cream.
Despite the thrill of the hunt I chose not to eat here. I was ready for a Baconator at Wendy's. 😳