By Erin Levi
Argentina is home to Latin America’s largest Jewish community, with approximately 180,000 – 220,000 Jews comprising a vibrant mosaic of traditions from across the diaspora. Among them are the Bukharian Jews, whose unique Silk Road cultural heritage has found fertile ground in Buenos Aires.
Pablo Penchaszadeh embodies this rich convergence of identities. Born in Buenos Aires to a Sephardic family originally from Bukhara, Uzbekistan—with ancestral threads extending from Tetouan, Morocco to Kiev, Ukraine—Penchaszadeh has spent decades translating his heritage into visual language.
Trained under Spanish sculptor José María Lanús and Argentine painter Pablo Bobbio, Penchaszadeh developed a distinctive technique using sands and baked clays with acrylic bases. His artistic journey led him to Spain and Morocco, where he mastered traditional Andalusian tile-making and pigment selection techniques from Fez and Essaouira. These methods, rooted in centuries-old Sephardic and Moorish traditions, became the foundation for his exploration of cultural memory.
His collection «Huellas de Sefarad» (Footprints of Sepharad) represents over three decades of work, with paintings dating from 1987 to 2021. Through textured canvases depicting everything from the domes of Samarkand to the medinas of Morocco, Penchaszadeh captures the inextricable connections between Jewish, Spanish, Arab, and Berber cultures that define the Sephardic experience.
Now preparing to visit New Jersey for a family wedding this month, Penchaszadeh seeks to share his complete «Sephardic Footprints» gallery with the Bukharian community in North America. His work serves as a bridge—connecting the ancient Silk Road heritage of Bukharian Jews with the Iberian Sephardic tradition, all filtered through the lens of contemporary Argentine artistry.
For a community that has maintained its distinct identity across continents and centuries, Penchaszadeh’s paintings offer something precious: visual testimony to the enduring beauty of cultural synthesis and the persistent echoes of home.
Contact him for more information: pablopench@gmail.com.