Chapter Ten Generation and Innovation in the Rise of an Argentine-Jewish Community, 1960–1967

Abstract

The early 1960s marked a dramatic and trying moment for the Argentine-Jewish community. Besides shedding light on the emergence of new forms of Argentine-Jewish ethnicity, this chapter speaks to broader questions about the importance of youth, as an age-cohort, in the Jewish diaspora. The work of the Department along with the musings of the community's elite suggested an understanding of Jewishness that emphasized humanistic values and an allegiance to the Zionism, an understanding that did not propose variation in accordance with the local context. The youth behind Nueva Sion were among the first to take on the challenge of responding to the sensibilities of young, assimilating Jews in a series of editorials and letters to the editor. At times implicit, at times explicit, the innovations of the youth in the early 1960s were premised on the notion that the community the older generation had created was failing to forestall assimilation. Keywords:Argentine-Jewish community; Nueva Sion; Zionism