Montevideo

Or is it Monte's Video? Never can seem to get that one right!

The bus ride from Punta to Montevideo is very scenic. It's very green, idyllic at parts, plenty of trees, and featuring nice views of the coast at times (at points, it reminds me of the coastal ride in Israel and parts of Northern California). There are several farms and small villages to see along the way. One sees both nice homes and poverty.

We arrived in Montevideo at about 1:00. From the bus terminal, we took a cab to Independence Plaza located in the city's center. We went inside the Radisson (where my father-in-law Murray stayed) and stayed for a short time. Then we sojourned outside and spent a few minutes in the Plaza, took pictures of the buildings (i.e. the impressive tall Palacio Salvo), and the statue monument of a man on a horse. Nearby is the Teatro Solis which is the main cultural center of the city.

Prior to this day trip, Diana and I looked up some information on the web about Montevideo's Jewish community. We obtained a list of synagogues to visit. One of them was nearby the city's center. We walked to Canelones St. in a not-so-nice area of the city. At 828 Canelones is the Vaad Hair synagogue. It's easy to miss if one is not specifically looking for it. Diana spoke on the intercom and a man came down to meet us. His name is Shlomo Lerner, a very friendly person who showed us around the synagogue. He is the Shamas of the temple and has lived there with his wife for 25 years. The Shamas is the caretaker of the Temple, traditionally attending to the upkeep of the synagogue, it's sanctuary, even Torah and prayer books. You don't see too many left who live in the Temple's premises and are Jewish. It was a treat to meet him.

The Temple is 60 years old, Orthodox, and Ashkenazi (it's founding members were from Russia). Like the Sephardic temple we saw in Buenos Aires, the Bimah is located in the middle of the sanctuary. It's a beautiful sanctuary. Shlomo explained it used to be a Jewish area.

Would you believe he drove us to the Lubavich site several miles away, in the Posido district?! That's a good example of the hospitality we received in this city.

At the Lubavich center (Beit Chabad), we were given a tour of the premises by a woman who worked there. She showed us the Study area, kitchen (oh did it smell good there), the Mikveh (the ritual baths), and the school for the yeladeem (children). We met the Rabino, Rabbi Shem Tov. He's originally from the French Hill section in Jerusalem. It was good practicing my Hebrew again ("Shachachtee kol ha Ivreet Sheli" for those of you who understand Hebrew).

Nearby is Yavneh. We walked the few blocks to get there. After a short security check (similar to entry in Buenos Aires synagogues where we were required to show our passports), we were allowed inside. Yavneh is actually an Ashkenazi Beit Knesset (synagogue) and school. It isn't orthodox, but more of an amalgem of Conservative (Masorti) and liberal Orthodox. The synagogue is small and more modern. It features a library and study area in the back.

As we were walking out, a man asked us if we "had any questions about the place". He must have seen we were tourists. We struck up a conversation with him, and that formed the basis of the rest of our stay in Montevideo. His name is Ricardo and is the owner of Vitrilan, a heating, insulation and materials company. He was picking up his boy at the school. He offered to drive us to the Sephardic Temple (which he said was the nicest looking temple in the city), but he essentially became our tour guide for the remainder of the afternoon. We dropped his son off at his home which is located in a nice area of the city.

Ricardo is a very interesting person who speaks good English (he explained that's not too common in Uruguay). He drove us along the Ocean boulevard. First, we saw the old lighthouse at Punta Carretas (which means "Wagon Point"). It's in a restricted Navy area so we couldn't go inside, but there are nice views from there. Then we drove by an old jail that was converted into a pedestrian mall. Pretty unusual. As we were driving around, Diana noticed that there are no lanes on the streets. Good catch, honey!

We continued driving along the waterfront, which for me is the nicest part of the city. Along the way, we stopped at the Holocaust memorial. It's not visually impressive, but we were touched the city had allotted space for this memorial.

We finally made it to the Israeli Sephardim temple in the Old Downtown area. We went inside, and while it's not as old as some of the other synagogues we've seen on this trip, it's true it has a beautiful sanctuary. It has a large balcony, nice stained glass, a huppa, and chandeliers with Menorahs anchored with a Magen David (star of David) on the bottoms.

Ricardo mentioned there is one Reform synagogue in the city at NCI.

After the temple visit, Ricardo drove us around parts of the city. We saw a couple of plazas, some government buildings, the old Metropolitan and Anglican churches, and some other sites. Then we went to the Mercado del Puerto. I invited him to join us for dinner. We had a sumptious dinner there. Afterwards, he drove us to the bus terminal. Thank you Ricardo for being our guide and friend for most of the afternoon. It was the high moment of hospitality on our trip.

Overall, we found the Jewish community of Montevideo to be very friendly and pretty well adjusted to life there. There isn't too much anti-Semitism and they practice their Judaism openly.

The city of Montevideo has several poor, run-down sections. The tourist should see these as well as the popular sites. It gives him-her a truer perspective of life in the city. And parts of it are conjested and noisy. However, from what we saw, Montevideo has some buildings with interesting architecture from the Colonial period. We didn't get a chance to see any of the museums -- that might have given us a different "view". But we certainly had an unusual time.

Some of the towns between Montevideo & Punta del Este: Solymar, El Pinar, Pando (off the main route), Pinamar, Salinas, and Atlantica. Well, I fell asleep for most of the ride, so I didn't track the other cities. Oh well. More later.