Fútbol, Jews, and the Making of Argentina by Raanan Rein (review)

This monograph makes a vital contribution to the study of both sport and ethnicity in Latin America by examining the longstanding and critical association of Argentina’s Jewish community with the Club Atlanta of the Villa Crespo neighborhood in Buenos Aires. Although the club was not solely run nor patronized by Jews, the prominence of Jewish players and administrators–most vitally the presidency of León Kolbowski–and Villa Crespo’s role as a center of Jewish life in Argentina helped to transform the club and its fans into a metonym for the wider Jewish community from the middle of the twentieth century on.

As such, the club became a source of pride for immigrants and their children and grandchildren. Although the title of the book promises a wider history of Jewish footballers and fans in Argentina, Fútbol, Jews, and the Making of Argentina is primarily an institutional history of the Club Atlanta and its relationship to the immediate neighborhood rather than a wide-ranging study of Jewish identity and the national game. This emphasis can be viewed as both a strength and a weakness. By focusing so intently on one club, Rein is able to paint a detailed picture of the process by which some Argentinian Jews were transformed “from gringos to criollos” through the adoption of the national sport (15). The downside of this approach is that one is left to extrapolate how this process affected the Jewish population beyond Villa Crespo and the Club Atlanta fan base.

To be clear, this is much more than just a traditional “club history”; rather, this book is a true social and cultural history of one club. This is an important distinction. The book attentively explores the ways in which a mixed neighborhood and its associated athletic club came to be predominantly associated with the Jewish community and consequently began to attract the allegiance of fans from beyond the immediate locality. Rein does an excellent job of integrating the development of the club with the wider political history of Argentina. The chapter on the club during the Peron years is especially illuminating and thought-provoking for the manner in which it shows the centrality of sports in legitimating political power.

The narrow focus of the book does not preclude the reader from drawing wider insight. Of course, it is patently true that the game of soccer has played and continues to play a defining role in shaping Argentinian society, not just in terms of fandom but on the field itself thanks to the development of a so-called criollo style of play which focused on creativity and fluidity in contrast to the supposed mechanical nature of European play. This style of play has frequently been held to be emblematic of an essential Argentinian spirit. However, this nationalist interpretation has frequently ignored smaller ethnic groups, including Jews. Rein’s in-depth study of the Club Atlanta remedies that oversight.

Grenzeback’s translation of Rein is well-written and enjoyable, but the book’s title promises more than it delivers. It is nonetheless a rigorously-researched and well-contextualized piece of scholarship. This often marginalized club that was frequently in doubt of its ability to continue existing comes to life, and its importance in the broader Argentine context is convincingly demonstrated. However, a more ambitious project that included a further discussion and analysis of the many Argentine Jews who played for other clubs, the national team, or served as administrators beyond Club Atlanta would have been welcome. For example, Juan Pablo Sorín and Leopoldo Bard merit only brief mentions, while Daniel Brailovsky and Walter Samuel are not discussed at all. In particular, an exploration of the Argentine-born and raised Brailovsky’s decision to play for Israel would have possibly shed some light on the double consciousness of Argentinian Jews.

In conclusion, Rein’s book takes many important steps toward shedding light on the integrative and nation-building...