Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

Jews Put Spotlight on 1994 Terror Bombing at Iran-Argentina World Cup Match

For many Jews, the World Cup match on June 21 between Argentina and Iran is far more than a soccer game.

It’s an opportunity to remind the world of a crime that, 20 years on, remains unresolved.

Eighty-five people died in the 1994 terror bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina, or AMIA, the main Jewish center in Buenos Aires.

Prosecutors have accused Iran of carrying out the attack through its proxy Hezbollah, but Argentinian authorities and police officials have delayed investigations and have failed to bring anyone to account.

The Tehran connection underlines the symbolism of the soccer match between the two nations.

Argentinian Maxi Klein’s cousin, 20-year-old Emiliano Gastón Brikman, was among the AMIA victims.

Klein will take a banner quoting Deuteronomy’s “Tzedek tzedek tirdof” (“Justice, justice you shall pursue”) to the Mineirão stadium in Belo Horizonte, where Argentina faces Iran in the second match for both teams.

“It’s important that the world sees that we’re asking for justice,” Klein said.

Since Brikman was also a huge soccer fan, Klein reckoned it would be the perfect time and place to pay homage to his cousin’s memory.

“And it means even more to me, personally,” Klein added.

“Watching the game can’t help but bring back painful memories for many of us,” Claudio Epelman, executive director of the Latin American Jewish Congress, told Time magazine.

On June 2, the Latin American chapter of the World Jewish Congress sent a letter to Sepp Blatter, president of FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, urging the organization to keep one minute’s silence to remember the victims of the AMIA attack before the Argentina vs. Iran match. FIFA has not yet responded.

Iran-watchers warn Jewish groups not to expect any shift in stance from the Islamic republic, especially at a time when it is focused on nuclear talks with the West and the sectarian bloodshed in neighboring Iraq.

“There’s no reason to expect an overt response from the government now,” Abbas Milani, director of Iranian Studies at Stanford, told Time.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.