Jewish Prostitution and Community Exclusion: Fissures and Undulations through Testament Writing

Malka Abraham, a well-known Jewish prostitute who lived in San Miguel de Tucumán, the capital city of the northwest Argentine province of the same name, was murdered on October 21, 1957.¹ The case received immediate attention in the local press and newspapers devoted several pages to it, likely due to its relationship to immigration, crime, cultural differences, socioeconomic problems, and prostitution. As newspaper coverage of the case conveys, the implications and consequences of Malka's murder were complex, extending far beyond the topic of Jewish prostitution in Argentina. While some scholars have studied Malka's life, most have concentrated on Jewish prostitution in Argentina.² Such studies have focused primarily on the federal decrees and laws that regulated and allowed for the existence of the practice, the Jewish community's opposition to the presence of such activity, and the migratory process behind the practice of this trade. The lives of some Jewish prostitutes are known, having been pieced together by researchers using community records, ordinances, cashbooks, and iconographical material.³ In spite of such efforts, however, their voices and words are usually lost.⁴ As historian Sandra McGee-Deutsch aptly states, "We know little about the women themselves who sold their bodies....Who exactly were some of these individuals?"⁵

Such is the topic of this paper. Malka Abraham left a testament at her death, and reading her last will offers us a more private and intimate discourse than other records do, and a chance to hear her voice. Behind the formulaic structure of such a document, we discover a marginalized subject who attempted—through the donation of her fortune to the Jewish school—to reconnect with her roots, requesting, even, to be buried in the city's Jewish cemetery. Malka used the testament to claim her belonging to the Jewish community, regardless of how the community viewed her.

The purpose of a last will and testament is to allow the testator to declare her final wishes and indicate the distribution of her material goods. Even though testaments were originally based on a need to comply with religious precepts, the value of this document increased in the modern era, as it allowed for the possibility of overcoming one's own death and determining the lives of survivors.⁶ A written testament can ensure "that the wishes of an already deceased individual be respected by others still living, that from his enunciation roles are exchanged and those who remain, like zombies, dance to its rhythm."⁷

Where does the power of a testament lie? Perhaps it lies in its attempt to continue controlling daily life even when one is no longer part of it, and to obligate others not only to listen to the testator's word, but also, to even behave against one's own will in exchange for economic gain. The communication between the testator and the inheritors, however, is not always direct. There is an intermediary who functions as the scribe or notary, vouching for the speaker's intentions. This is a difficult position for the testator, especially when she is illiterate, as authorship of the written word must be relinquished so as not to assume greater risks. Therefore, the most ample parameter of honesty is sought in order to provide certainty of the intermediary's authority in understanding the instructions at hand.⁸

Both laconic and forceful, a testament thus becomes a written document which does not easily permit reading between the lines. In this sense, the testament fulfills a double function: on the one hand, like epistolary correspondence, it expresses the inner self and the most intimate sincerity of the speaker; on the other, it goes from being a private document to a public document, moving through the court system and subject to legal changes and adaptations, such as clauses and counter-amendments.

Jews and Prostitution in Argentina

At the beginning of the twentieth century in Eastern Europe, Jews endured terrible pogroms and extreme poverty. The Russo-Japanese War and World War I forced the worst and most destitute conditions upon thousands of Jewish...