Memories that Lie a Little: Jewish Experiences During the Argentine Dictatorship by Emmanuel Nicolás Kahan

Abstract

Reviewed by: Memories that Lie a Little: Jewish Experiences During the Argentine Dictatorship by Emmanuel Nicolás Kahan Annette H. Levine (bio) Memories that Lie a Little: Jewish Experiences During the Argentine Dictatorship. By Emmanuel Nicolás Kahan. Leiden: Brill, 2019. 260 pp When considering the experiences of Jews in Argentina during the 1976–83 military dictatorship, several key questions arise: Was the military regime antisemitic? Were Jews specifically targeted for detention and disappearance? Did Jewish community institutional leadership do enough to protect and advocate for detained and disappeared individuals of Jewish origin? Much of the literature, testimony, and historiography on the topic has condemned community leadership, questioned efforts by international Jewish organizations, and heralded the resistance efforts of a few community activists. While inconvenient to question the narratives that have thus far been constructed, Emmanuel Nicolás Kahan carefully assesses these claims, reviewing how they came about and providing documentary evidence suggesting that the reader consider suspending preconceived beliefs. Memories that Lie a Little, translated from Spanish by David William Foster, is organized into three parts: 1) conduct and attitudes of various key players in the Argentine Jewish community institutions in the years prior to the military coup of March 24, 1976; 2) social attitudes and the development of Argentine Jewish institutional life during the period of the dictatorship of 1976–83; 3) constructs of memories pertaining to the behaviors of the most representative actors within the Jewish community during the dictatorial period. Throughout the book, Kahan offers a multifaceted perspective that broadens the reader's awareness and understanding. [End Page 464] Kahan's book is carefully and exhaustively researched, providing a nuanced account of driving questions surrounding the Jewish experience during the Argentine dictatorship. He guides the reader through documentary evidence that allows for consideration of diverse perspectives regarding the actions of key figures in Jewish leadership—namely the president of the Delegation of Israelite Associations of Argentina (DAIA), Nehemías Resnizky—when faced with manifestations of public and clandestine acts of antisemitism. Kahan elucidates the leadership's success in quashing the proliferation of antisemitic publications and thwarting the National Ministry of Education's attempt to roll out religious-based educational reform that was perceived to be discriminatory. Nevertheless, institutions such as DAIA were perceived to be passive in the case of the detention of journalist Jacobo Timerman and indifferent to pleas from family members of the detained/disappeared when they appealed to DAIA for advocacy on behalf of their children. Kahan similarly considers the role of Herman Schiller and his impact as journalist and editor-in-chief of the Jewish weekly Nueva Presencia, one of the few examples of media that dared criticize the regime regarding its human rights violations. Based on a comprehensive indexing of all of the issues dating from its conception in 1977 to the inauguration of Raúl Alfonsín as president on December 10, 1983, Kahan skillfully reconstructs the reader's understanding of the perceived heroism of the periodical and situates the weekly newspaper's acts of resistance historically. The publication of Kahan's book is timely. He is able to trace a historical arc that encompasses forty years of data and documentation surrounding Jewish leadership and Jewish media outlets during the dictatorial period. He exposes the efforts to document DAIA's conduct in the mid-1990s, when debates surrounding Argentina's recent dictatorial past could be revived, and reveals the suppression of information gathered in a newer report on the subject. Nevertheless, Kahan is careful not to follow the already beaten path of condemning Resnizky and the DAIA's role during the dictatorship. Rather, he analyzes the available documentation and considers the tensions of the period within a national and international sociopolitical context. On a local level, he reveals the ways in which the Argentine Jewish community could be perceived as "flourishing" in the midst of the dictatorship. He sheds light on how the repressive forces within Argentina allowed, perhaps inadvertently, Jewish communal social and cultural spaces to transform into havens not otherwise available within Argentine national institutions. Kahan addresses the presence of antisemitism in Argentina where Jews were considered to have displayed "ambiguous conduct" regarding their [End Page 465] loyalty...