Kugel and Frijoles: Latino Jews in the United States by Laura Limonic

Abstract

Reviewed by: Kugel and Frijoles: Latino Jews in the United States by Laura Limonic Adriana Brodsky Laura Limonic, Kugel and Frijoles: Latino Jews in the United States. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2019. 256 pp. Printed paper case $82.99, paperback $34.99, eBook. ISBN: 9780814345757, 9780814345764, 9780814345771 This is a timely book. Sociologist Laura Limonic reminds readers about the ways in which different socioeconomic, racial, and cultural contexts shape a wide range of experiences that nonetheless are grouped together in the label "Latino," making us wonder what we mean when we utilize it. The [End Page 254] book also speaks about the assimilation of one ethno-religious group in the United States, suggesting that Latino Jews' achievement of upward mobility results partly from the fact that they "approximate the white mainstream" (23). In particular, Limonic outlines the challenges experienced by Latino Jews as they arrive in the United States seeking to make a new life. Never fully fitting in among Latino groups or among Jewish groups, Limonic paints a picture of a group that identifies both these components (their latinidad as well as their Jewishness) as central to their identities. In their search for a "home" in the United States, a home that can be both Jewish and Latino, they create organizations and seek spaces that allow them to keep both these elements alive. The chapters outline the path followed by these Jews. After an introduction in which Limonic lays the theoretical groundwork, Chapter 2 broadly discusses the lives of Jews in Latin America prior to their move to the United States. In Chapter 3, Limonic shows how Latino Jews are able to strategically cultivate links to Jewish networks and thereby benefit from the economic and social positions this group holds within the United States. Chapter 4 outlines the benefits that exist for Latino Jews to claim and utilize their Latino identity; among them is access to college education through affirmative action, as well as their ability to get jobs in which their latinidad—in particular, their language skills—is an asset to the companies they work for. But Limonic rightly points out that Latino is not an identity that the subjects of the study ascribe to naturally; they all more openly and freely identify as Jews, and as nationals (Venezuelan, Mexican, Argentine, etc.), but Latino—a panethnic identity—is "a new secondary, or even tertiary identity" (129). Chapter 5 centers on the "ambivalent reception" (154) afforded to many Latino Jews by both Jewish and Latino groups. There is a difference, however, as Limonic notes, in that, while Latino Jews feel discriminated against or uncomfortable among US Jews (many note differences in religious practices and in the type of organizations that bring together Jews in the United States), Latino Jews perceive themselves as different from other Latinos with whom they do not share the same socioeconomic, racial, or religious backgrounds. Limonic's analysis of the ways in which race and class complicate the identification of Latino Jews with other Latinos is important. In Chapter 6, Limonic describes the efforts of Latino Jews to create spaces, groups, and organizations that combine Jewishness and latinidad (rather than identification along national lines or the erasure of Latino culture). The analysis of the various geographical enclaves that Limonic explores is rich with details about the strategies these immigrants develop. In South Florida, for example, the high number of Latino Jews from different Latin American countries living in close proximity (in Aventura City, for example) gave birth to a diverse panethnic community that brings together Jews from many Latin American nations. In San Diego, on the other hand, Latino Jews tended to congregate along national lines (mostly Mexican Jews). Latino Jewish organizations' success, according to Limonic, depended on various variables, like education, social class, and degree of religiosity, underscoring the varied population that inhabits this label. [End Page 255] The qualitative and quantitative sources used in this book are eightyfive interviews with Latino Jews (from South Florida, the New York metro area, the Boston metro area, and California) and data from the Pew Research Center. In my view, the overall tone of Chapter 2 requires a cautionary note. Limonic describes the lives of Jews...