Baruch Tenembaum

Baruch Tenembaum (9 July 1933 – 7 December 2025) was an Argentinian interfaith activist, and one of the founders of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation.

Early life Tenembaum was born in Argentina at Las Palmeras colony, a Santa Fe provincial settlement for Jewish immigrants escaping from the Russian pogroms of 1880. The grandson and son of Jewish gauchos, he studied in Buenos Aires and Rosario.

Early career

In 1952, Tenembaum graduated from the Higher Institute of Judaic Religious Studies. As a teacher and a professor he taught Hebrew and Yiddish language and literature, the Torah, the Prophets and Mishnah. In 1955, he was appointed Director of the Moises Ville Teacher's Seminar in the province of Santa Fe where he taught the Old Testament and philosophy. The mural, the first of its kind, was inaugurated by the Cardinal of Argentina and Archbishop of Buenos Aires Antonio Quarracino and unveiled by Tenembaum and Lech Wałęsa in April 1997. Quarracino died in February 1998, and a homage to survivors of the Holocaust was held over his grave in April that year. In 2004, the Vater-Unser Church in Berlin inaugurated a replica of the memorial.

Tenembaum was one of the founders of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, which honours righteous gentiles who saved Jews during The Holocaust. He was invited by Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations, to a meeting held on the 90th anniversary of Wallenberg's birth at the Secretary General's residence in New York. At the meeting, Tenembaum presented a Commemorative Medal specially commissioned and coined to mark the anniversary. Annan's wife Nane Annan, Wallenberg's niece, also attended the event.

In October 2003, United States Congressman Tom Lantos, who Wallenberg had saved from the Nazis, made a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives to honor Tenembaum, and had a fuller tribute inserted into the Congressional Record. Tenembaum also received the Royal Order of the Polar Star from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. Tenembaum has had an audience with the Pope.

Personal life Baruch Tenembaum and his former wife Elsa Kononowicz had three children: Mookie Tenembaum, philosopher, lawyer and conceptual artist, Yoav Tenembaum, historian and author, and Abigail Tenembaum, a strategy consultant. He also has six grandchildren and one great-grandson.