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Reviewed by:
  • Rethinking Jewish-Latin Americans
  • Ilan Stavans
Rethinking Jewish-Latin Americans. Edited by Jeffrey Lesser and Raanan Rein. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2008. Pp. x, 294. Illustrations. Tables. Notes. Index. $27.95 paper.

Although this volume seeks to broaden the field of Jewish-Latin American studies, its content feels rather narrow. The editors collect 12 chapters of various quality, three of which [End Page 284] they have written themselves. The vast majority of these chapters are devoted to Argentina and Brazil, the two countries with the largest concentration of Jews: 185,000 and 96,700 respectively. This narrowness defeats the inclusive dream announced in the title. Indeed, aside from passing references, usually isolated in the endnotes, there is nothing on Mexico, Cuba, Chile, Peru, and other significant sites where Jewish life has thrived for centuries. Mexico, for instance, has 39,800 Jews, whereas Peru has 2,300. The focus, too, is almost exclusively on the twentieth century, disregarding the colonial period and the age of independence. There is more on the Sephardim than in previous collections on the topic, although nothing substantial.

Behind the editorial enterprise the reader senses a redemptive zeal. Almost every piece claims to be innovative. The editors talk of a “new language” required to expand the academic horizons of the partnership between Jewish and Latin American studies. They suggest that the term “Latin American Jewry” is outmoded and ought to be reversed. “Jewish- Latin America,” they argue, emphasizes identity while stressing the diasporic component of that identity. The rethinking the editors seek is an attempt to look at the Jewish experience in Latin America from the prism of a “new ethnic approach.” How is this minority perceived by others and by itself? Is it a full and integral part of the nation as conceived by the majority? What are the advantages of affirming its diasporic nature?

The result is a mixed bag. The best pieces, such as Edna Aizenberg’s reflection on the Memorial del Holocausto del Pueblo Judío in Uruguay, offer an insight into the dilemma of addressing Jewish memory in a Latin American context, and follow the work of James Young on honoring the European tragedy in a non-European space. Donna J. Guy, in a study of Jewish orphanages in Buenos Aires between 1918 and 1955, explores the way upper-class Jewish women used their child-focused charities as well as the way Peronism and the creation of the state of Israel changed the status of Jewish orphans in Argentina. There are interesting, if underdeveloped, sidelines on Zionism in the region, but there is little on post-Zionism. Other contributions, like Erin Graff Zivin’s examination of Jewishness, money, and prostitution; José C. Moya’s discussion of Jewish anarchists in Argentina; and Roney Cytrynowicz’s analysis of Jewish immigration to Brazil during World War II, are predictable. And the disquisition by Judah M. Cohen that serves as the last chapter is needlessly obtuse. It frankly has a parochial taste.

The overall content of the volume does not open the new vistas promised by the editors, among other reasons because their objective is less adventurous than rhetorical. Their intent, it seems to me, is lost in the need to semantically reinterpret a set of categories, rather than the intellectual traction that culminates in new horizons for researchers. I agree that Jewish-Latin American studies needs a shakeup. But the medicine is to be found elsewhere, including the effort to reach beyond standard geographical zones, the employment of interdisciplinary tools, and the use of a dynamic, engaging writing style. The Sephardim, acknowledged by the editors to be an interest, is one instance where further investigation is desperately needed. In what sense are the Sephardim of Latin America unique? Is this rubric truly accurate to describe a broad spectrum of people, from crypto-Jews to immigrants from the Ottoman Empire, some of whom did not nurture any ties with Spain? [End Page 285] What ties are there between the various Sephardic communities? And with the Ashkenazim? Are the Sephardim in Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina alike? What role does Ladino play in their identity?

Other instances where research ought to move are phrased...

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