Rabbi Mordechai Marcos Edery (1928-2010), born in Tangier, Spanish Morocco, was a traditionalist Conservative movement rabbi in Argentina, Jewish educator throughout Latin America, and translator. He studied at the Maimonides Seminary in Tangier, going to Israel in the 1950s to work in teaching institutes for graduates arriving from the Diaspora. In 1956 he was invited to Buenos Aires to serve as Director of the Majon le Limudei Haiaadut of the Israelite Congregation of the Argentine Republic. In 1960 he attended Camp Ramah in Laguna de los Padres as a visiting professor. In Buenos Aires, Rabbi Edery became close with the Conservative movement rabbi Marshall Meyer, working in the Chalom Community in the Colegiales neighborhood. At the same time, he was appointed vice-rector of the Latin American Rabbinical Seminary and director of the Michlalá Hibrit in Buenos Aires, affiliated with AMIA (Association of Jewish Families). At the request of the World Council of Synagogues, Rabbi Edery translated into Spanish the Siddur and the Maḥzor for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in both Ashkenazi and Sefaradi nusḥaot, with notes and commentaries by Rabbi Meyer. In the early 1970s, he became rabbi of the Bet El Community, sharing the pulpit with Rabbi Meyer, a position he retired from more than a decade later, returning to a more traditional form of halakhic observance. As rabbi of Bet El and vice-rector of the Latin American Rabbinical Seminary, he began a translation of the Torah portions and their corresponding haftarot, for both the Ashkenazi and Sephardi rites, with his own commentaries based on the exegeses of traditional parshanim (commentators): Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Rambam, Ramban, Abarbanel, among others. The first volume, Bereshit, was published in 1982. Having completed this monumental work, he translated the book of Ḳohelet on the same basis. In 1985, he founded Congregation Tora ve Jaim, creating a new synagogue alternative in the vast Buenos Aires area.