Jacob Kovadloff

Jacob Kovadloff is AJC's consultant on Latin American affairs and Spanish mass media. In his current position, he helps to coordinate AJC's work with Jewish communities and governments in Latin America.

Previously, Kovadloff was the director of AJC's South American office in Buenos Aires, but was forced to flee in 1977 following anti-Semitic threats to him and his family. As director of the Argentina office, Kovadloff administered a multi-faceted agenda of research, education, and community relations programs that carried over into Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, and other parts of the sub-continent. He also edited Communidades, the only Jewish yearbook published in Spanish dealing with Latin American Jewry, and coordinated a large number of research studies on issues of importance to Latin American Jewry.

Kovadloff has held many volunteer posts, including president of the Sociedad Hebraica Argentina, the countries largest Jewish community center. As a founder and first general secretary of the Hebraica School for Jewish Community Leadership Training, he helped to establish its Documentation Center. He also served as a vice president of the Delegacion de Associaciones Israelitas Argentinas, which officially represents the Jewish community.

Kovadloff helped establish many Jewish studies classes throughout South America and founded and coordinated the first course in Jewish studies at the university level at the Jesuit University "El Salvador" in Argentina. He is a founding member of LAJSA (Latin American Jewish Studies Association), and a member of the Latin American Studies Association and the Americas Society. He was co-chairman of the Latin American Seminar at Columbia University.

Kovadloff attended public, Hebrew and technical schools in Argentina, and did post-graduate work in Jewish history, sociology and political science.