Argentine Jews or Jewish Argentines? Essays on Ethnicity, Identity, and Diaspora

Abstract

In the introduction to Argentine Jews or Jewish Argentines?, Raanan Rein calls for a change in Latin American Jewish Studies away from an essentialist approach that focuses almost exclusively on the Jews of one or more Latin American countries. He proposes that Jewish Latin Americans should be studied as an ethnic group that interacts with other groups and navigates the social structures within a certain place. In this way he distances himself from Haim Avni, Judith Laikin Elkin, Judit Bokser Liwerant, Robert M. Levine, and other influential scholars of Jewish Latin America.Rein employs this ethnic methodology in many, though not all, the essays in this volume. Chapters such as “Complementary Identities: Sephardim, Zionists, and Argen-tines in the Interwar Period” and “A Pact of Oblivion: The De-Peronization of the Jewish Community” are written from an ethnic perspective. They deal with rivalries and support systems within the Jewish community and shed light on how Jews have coped in an increasingly multicultural and sometimes hostile environment. Rein explores the complex interrelations not only among Jews and non-Jews in Argentina but also among Jews of differing social class, origin, and level of affiliation with the established Jewish organizations within that country.Other chapters, like “Argentina, World War II, and the Entry of Nazi War Criminals,” “Diplomats and Journalists: The Image of Peronism in the Hebrew Press,” and “Soccer as a Double-Edged Sword: Argentine Exiles in Israel Protest against the 1978 World Cup,” go far beyond ethnicity. Rein’s interests are much broader and include the relationship of Juan Domingo Perón and Evita Perón to the organized Jewish community, the US State Department’s unrelenting opposition to Perón, the vicissitudes of the Argentine Catholic Church (particularly over the issue of religious education in the public schools), the evolving culture of Argentine Jews who have emigrated to Israel, the Israeli press’s reporting of the two Perón administrations, and, especially, Argentine-Israeli relations.Rein is quite effective in debunking long-held views about Jewish life in Argentina. In contrast to beliefs expressed by historians and accepted by the general public in many countries, Rein demonstrates convincingly that Perón was favorable to the Jewish-Argentine community and remained so even after Jews voted against him en masse in the presidential elections of 1951. Perón had Jewish advisors at the highest levels, and he maintained excellent relations with the fledgling State of Israel. Jews held key positions in the Peronist party. Also, Rein argues that only 50 German Nazi war criminals and about 130 others from Nazi-occupied territory actually settled in Argentina, out of the tens of thousands that passed through Argentina while fleeing the denazification of Europe from 1945 on.In his analysis of the influence of the State of Israel on Jewish Argentines, Rein also provides new insights. He explains how despite continuous emigration to Israel, the concept of Zionism in Argentina serves more to provide Jewish Argentines with an idealized “homeland,” like that of other immigrants, rather than an incentive to leave one’s South American “home.” Conversely, he points to Israel’s repeatedly taking actions without concern for the safety of Jewish Argentines, thus putting national interests before Jewish ones. However justified, the 1960 Israeli kidnapping of Adolf Eichmann from a Buenos Aires suburb led to two years of violent anti-Semitic backlash by the Tacuara and other armed right-wing shock troops and the subsequent creation of effective Jewish defense organizations. Rein reveals new information about the close ties between the Israeli government and the military junta that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. Leaders of both countries made reciprocal “goodwill” visits, the Israeli generals bragged of the highly profitable arms deals they made with the Argentine generals, and the Argentine generals appreciated their favored status. During the same time period, a disproportionate number of Jewish Argentines were being disappeared by military and paramilitary death squads, without protest from the Israeli government.Rein is a meticulous researcher. His argumentation is very clear and free of jargon and extraordinarily well documented. The bibliography of this book is exhaustive. The inclusion of Hebrew-language journalistic and governmental sources and new or lesser-known Argentine ones is a particularly valuable addition. This bibliography alone will provide a valuable resource for historians in many fields.Argentine Jews or Jewish Argentines? will certainly be of interest to scholars in Jewish studies and Latin American Jewish studies, Israel studies, and historians of Argentina. Professors and graduate students of Israeli foreign policy and its press will find much new material here. An Israeli historian with extensive experience in Argentina, Raanan Rein has made an exciting contribution to Latin American Jewish scholarship.