It’s increasingly fashionable to use artificial intelligence to do research, but I still prefer to rely on the actual intelligence of the Andrew Harper Travel Office. I asked my advisor to come up with a few creative ideas for guided tours in Buenos Aires for my companion and me, keeping in mind that this wasn’t my first time to the city. Four of the diverse suggestions caught my attention, and each experience proved to be both illuminating and a pleasure.

Jewish Culture

Although Argentina became notorious for sheltering Nazis during the administration of Juan Perón in the mid- to late 1940s, prior to that period, the country welcomed numerous Jewish immigrants. To this day, Buenos Aires is home to South America’s largest Jewish community, and we spent a fascinating few hours learning more about it.

Our tour with the engaging Paola started, counterintuitively, at the cathedral on Plaza de Mayo. In one of the chapels is a memorial called the Mural, a collage of sacred papers from places where Jews have suffered atrocities. We later visited one of them, the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina, where a 1994 bombing killed 85 people and wounded more than 300. Undaunted, the organization carries on its work.