Fútbol, Jews, and the Making of Argentina by Raanan Rein

Abstract

Reviewed by: Fútbol, Jews, and the Making of Argentina by Raanan Rein Sandra McGee Deutsch Fútbol, Jews, and the Making of Argentina By Raanan Rein. Translated by Martha Grenzeback. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2015. 226 pp. Jewish Latin American history is moving in exciting new directions. Historians once concentrated on studying Jews affiliated with religious or communal institutions. Now, however, they are likely to research unaffiliated Jews, who constitute the majority of Jewish Latin Americans. Instead of focusing solely on men, their gaze includes women. Specialists are exploring Jewish engagement with the larger Latin American society, rather than Jewish membership in [End Page 101] what were seen as isolated and closed communities. Antisemitism is no longer a major focus, although when scholars find it, they interrogate it carefully. The formation of Latin American as well as Jewish identities is an important topic, as is the comparative study of different subsets of Jews, and of Jewish and non-Jewish Arabs. Raanan Rein has been a leading contributor to this innovative scholarship. The first major work on Jewish Latin Americans and football (soccer), his new book embodies all these currents. Rein focuses on the Atlanta Athletic Club, situated in Villa Crespo, a neighborhood in Buenos Aires, and its intersections with Jews. This characteristically porteño (of Buenos Aires) working- and lower-middle-class neighborhood inspired many tangos and sainete plays, and it was known for its lively social and cultural scene and its devotion to football. It was a center of the textile industry and textile unions, and the owners, workers, and union militants were largely Jewish during the interwar period. People of diverse national and ethnic origins, including Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews, lived in Villa Crespo. While they formed only a minority of its population, Villa Crespo became the barrio with the most sizable number of Jews in the city. Jewish food stores, cafes, and communal organizations established themselves here, and eventually Atlanta did as well. Founded in 1904, this football organization moved from one barrio to another before it found a permanent home in Villa Crespo in the 1920s. The author argues that the team became identified as Jewish by the 1940s or 1950s. The Jewish presence in Villa Crespo promoted this identification, as did the Jewish president who reigned over the club from 1959 to 1969 and the significant numbers of Jews on its board by the late 1950s. Atlanta’s long search for a site and playing field, like that of a gypsy or “wandering Jew,” also may have strengthened this image. So too, perhaps, did the team’s marginality and many ups-and-downs. Its frequently precarious financial status, location in a neighborhood with a strong Jewish Communist contingent, and several Communist directors gave it a leftist—and Jewish leftist—tinge. Further tightening the association, Atlanta has played in Israel and has attracted fans there. Curiously, while the Club Atlético River Plate has had more Jewish players and fans than Atlanta, it lacks any such Jewish connotation. In turn, Jews—Ashkenazi and Sephardi, Zionist and non-Zionist—became Argentines in part by rooting for Atlanta, thus joining the Argentine imagined community through their shared passion for the national sport. Becoming fans united Jews of diverse backgrounds and helped maintain Jewish identities and family traditions. [End Page 102] The Atlanta Athletic Club not only appealed to men or promoted football. It created a variety of activities for its members over the years, and Jewish and non-Jewish women engaged with many of them. They participated in basketball, dances, musical events, and a host of celebrations at the club. Jewish women listened to Atlanta football on the radio, attended matches in the Atlanta stadium, and became dedicated fans. At least one teacher practiced Yiddish with her students by discussing Atlanta games. The team’s custom of throwing flowers at the stands heightened its popularity among women. Several sections of the book are particularly revealing of Jewish Argentines. In the first two chapters, which insert Jews into the larger social history of Buenos Aires and Villa Crespo, vivid quotations of observers make Jewish experiences in these places come alive. Chapter 7 discusses how...