The Jews of Latin America (review)

The Jews of Latin America. Rev. ed. By Judith Laikin Elkin. New York: Holmes and Meier, 1998. Photographs. Illustrations. Map. Tables. Notes. Bibliography. Index. xvii, 339 pp. Cloth, $45.00. Paper, $19.50.

Judith Laikin Elkin's book is still the only synthesis on Jewish life in the region, covering events from the 1400s to the present. In the first edition (1980), she explored the background of discrimination in Iberia and the American colonies, waves of immigration, economic and cultural activities, community formation, reception by the host societies, demographic factors, and differing Jewish experiences in the United States and Latin America. Her purposes were to sketch a history of Latin American Jews, indicate how they fit in the various countries, and describe the collective identities they forged.

Partly stimulated by Elkin, after 1980 new works on literature, economic and demographic patterns, state immigration policies, women, and other topics enriched the growing field of Latin American Jewish studies. Novels and memoirs written by Jews from the nations under study also multiplied. At the same time, events in the region and in the Middle East complicated the lives of Latin American Jewry. In the new edition of her book, Elkin incorporates the recent publications and takes the complexities into account. She also has added two chapters, one on the relationship between Israel and Latin American Jews, and another on the relationship between Jews and their non-Jewish neighbors.

Ties with Israel have not been uniformly helpful for Latin American Jews. Alienated from the prevailing religious orthodoxy and seeking security in links to a homeland, communities united around the Zionist cause. They became dependent on Israel, and many of their members have moved there in recent years. In an interesting section on the Argentine military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983, Elkin demonstrates that Israel managed to protect Zionist and community organizations from persecution and rescued about 500 Jews from probable death. Nevertheless, Jews still accounted for about ten percent of the disappeared. Its desire to get along with the government, as well as the local Jewish leadership's opposition to (and fear of) outside interference, limited Israeli actions. Israel's policies against the Palestinians, arms trade with repressive regimes, and alliance with the U.S. in Central America in the 1980s, however, stimulated anti-Zionism and even some anti-Semitism among Latin American progressives. Thus Israeli interests do not necessarily coincide with those of local Jewish communities.

In some places, Jews suffer continued hostility from elements within the military and the Catholic church. Members of the local security forces, for example, probably were involved in the bombing of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994. Yet, Christian Latin Americans generally have become more tolerant of Jews. Jews have assimilated into the culture, public life, and even the larger population, through intermarriage, although this is a double-edged sword.

I believe the growing acceptance of Jews may fit within a larger trend: a revival of ethnicity, at least in Argentina. As in other parts of the world, perhaps the downfall of other loyalties accounts for this development. The disastrous Malvinas War and the disclosure of the military's crimes diminished nationalist sentiment in Argentina, as has globalization. Political events within and outside Latin America have weakened ideological allegiances in some places, and postmodern-style decentering may have undermined such sweeping notions as the crisol de razas. Whatever the reasons for the resurgence of ethnic identities, I would say that Jews are but one of the groups that partake in and benefit from it.

Not all scholars will agree with Elkin's conclusions. For example, while she argues compellingly that Iberian anti-Semitism of the precolonial and colonial years continued to influence Latin America after independence, this seems too essentialistic a notion to account for contemporary anti-Jewish feelings. The contrast she tends to draw between a rigidly Catholic, corporatist, and traditional Latin America, and a modern pluralistic United States, open to new...