Fundación Tzedaka was born in 1991 at the initiative of a group of community leaders who sought to finance scholarships to support low-income children and young people in the framework of Jewish schooling. For this purpose, the Marc Chagall Cultural Center was created as a space for conducting artistic and intellectual dissemination activities. The Center was installed in 1992 in Ayacucho 632, and its income was allocated to the initially proposed objective.

At the end of 1996, when the first indicators of the new poverty began to emerge— which affected broad sectors of the middle class, where the bulk of the community was concentrated— Tzedaká assumed as its own the challenge of responding to the struggle against poverty. Tzedaká designed a work model that would adapt to changing contexts, always with the aim of providing assistance and developing social promotion tools for community members living in situations of poverty and vulnerability.

A group of well-known leaders of the Argentine community and from AMIA created Fundacion Tzedaká to promote and encourage the philanthropic contributions destined to provide and answer to the growing social needs.

The growth of poverty forced us to implement a new system of social assistance, based in the interaction between the work of professionals and volunteers together with the creation of alliances with different institutions of the community.

The TZEDAKA Neighbourhood was created. We joined the Network of Volunteers. We expanded our help to other provinces in the country (together with AMIA and the JDC). The Community Medicine Bank was created. An Assistance Program for Holocaust Survivors Program is implemented, (with the financial support of the Claims Conference) and projects were developed to ease the consequences of the socioeconomic crisis: women’s health, paediatric check-ups. Local fundraising increases by a 90% while at the same time international financial assistance decreases.

Social development programs are put into action in the areas of health, education and housing, which aim to strengthen the abilities of children and young adults, and to improve the living conditions of seniors, also open to beneficiaries from AMIA, Jabad Lubavitch, Sefaradíes y Joint. The Center for Job Training for Young adults is created, the High School Contention Program and the co-financing for the NET Program of College Schollarships is incorporated.

The positioning of Fundacion Tzedaká is consolidated among other national social organizations. The articulated work with other social organizations and with the government was reinforced. New educational programs are created and the distribution of medicines is multiplied through out the country.

Currently, Fundación Tzedaká assistance network includes:

9 Tzedaká Overall Assistance Centers

• Tzedaká Amijai
• Tzedaká Bialik
• Tzedaká Icuf
• Tzedaká Lamroth Hakol
• Tzedaká Macabi
• Tzedaká Scholem
• Tzedaká Sholem Buenos Aires
• Tzedaká Oeste (Tfilat Shalom)
• Tzedaká Sur (Kehilá Dr. Herzl)

2 Tzedaká Education Centers

• ABC Program – Macabi
• IDEA Program and UNI Program – Judaica

2 Job Training Centers

• Youth Action – Judaica
• Digital Classroom – Macabi

Tzedaká Shoah Survivors – Tzedaká Central Office

Community Medicine Bank – Hacoaj