Impure Migration: Jews and Sex Work in Golden Age Argentina

Abstract

Mir Yarfitz takes on the notoriously challenging topic of Jewish prostitution in early twentieth-century Argentina and ably shows the international links and consistent tropes connecting the “white slave trade” to other migratory flows and concerns about race and purity. By tackling the issue with a consciously international focus, the author is able to show the ways that the patterns and concerns in Argentina were echoed worldwide. For Yarfitz, the fight against the “impure” irrevocably shaped the Jewish community in Buenos Aires.One overarching issue facing any scholar writing about this topic is the lack of documentation. Yarfitz's use of League of Nations sources is an important new avenue for scholars, as investigators went undercover around the world to illuminate the migration and working conditions of prostitutes. The author also makes great use of contemporary newspaper sources in Argentina as well as the institutional records of both the organized underworld figures overseeing prostitution and the groups fighting against the “impure.” While we gain a greater understanding of the worldwide perceptions and forces surrounding prostitution in Argentina, the book does not offer enough specifics about the lives and conditions of those actually working in the sex trade.The book moves from the broad and general to the specifics, laying out the tropes around the prostitution networks as well as Jewish patterns and strategies before finally focusing on only Buenos Aires. While the strategy does help the reader apprehend Argentina's place as a node in this larger trade, Yarfitz's strongest and most specific work appears toward the end of the book. When Yarfitz writes about Buenos Aires and the ways that prostitution worked on the ground, readers gain a much greater understanding of the lives of those involved and how the trade worked. He paints the most comprehensive picture yet of the Varsovia Israelite Mutual Aid and Burial Society, the organization of those running the Jewish prostitution trade. There were some points in Yarfitz's argument, however, that seemed to need more exploration. At one point he discusses “the importance of shared nationality and language between pimps and prostitutes,” explaining the reasons that Jewish men chose Jewish women (p. 73). I wished that the author had expanded on this for readers and had given what he believed were the implications for Jewish identity, as well as whether the importance of such commonalities between pimps and prostitutes might have held true for other national and linguistic groups. Yarfitz also noted the “commitment to marriage or marriage-like relationships between pimps and prostitutes” among Jews, another point that could have used more expansion and analysis (p. 75).Sometimes Yarfitz raises central arguments too late in the work. He points out that Jews who achieved financial success in the prostitution trade were able to invest in property and to accumulate wealth in other ways, “blurring . . . the lines” within the Jewish community between those who made their money in respectable trades and those who were “impure” (p. 103). This point, elaborated in chapter 5, dismantles the clear narratives that played out in the antitrafficking literature and demonstrates the fluidity of those who played roles in the prostitution trade. He brings up a few examples of women who began as prostitutes but were able to save enough money to move into other work and be successful—a section that I wished had been more central to the book as a whole. Women were not simply victims and did not necessarily spend their entire lives as prostitutes. As he writes, “Absolute victimization occurred far less than constrained choice” (p. 77). Yarfitz uses two women to illustrate his points—Raquel Liberman and “Esther the Millionaire.” Both have fascinating stories that subvert the narrative that the women involved in prostitution were powerless victims. Liberman successfully used both the Varsovia Society and the police and justice system for her own ends, while Esther was a savvy businesswoman at the apex of the Varsovia Society's hierarchy who gained enormous wealth and status before her fall and prosecution. It is stories like these that complicate and illuminate the narrative of prostitution in Argentina, and I wish there had been more of these throughout the book.Yarfitz's book is a strong contribution to the growing historiography of ethnicity, gender, and prostitution in Latin America. Because of its international focus, this work, more than others, engages with the ongoing debates about the nature of sex work, victimization, and women exercising agency in their own lives. The book will be of great interest to scholars and graduate students working on topics related to Jewish Latin America and early twentieth-century Argentina, as well as to anyone interested in the worldwide prostitution networks of the era.