Sephardi, Jewish, Argentine

Adriana M. Brodsky

Description

At the turn of the 20th century, Jews from North Africa and the Middle East were called Turcos ("Turks"), and they were seen as distinct from Ashkenazim, not even identified as Jews. Adriana M. Brodsky follows the history of Sephardim as they arrived in Argentina, created immigrant organizations, founded synagogues and cemeteries, and built strong ties with coreligionists around the country. She theorizes that fragmentation based on areas of origin gave way to the gradual construction of a single Sephardi identity, predicated both on Zionist identification (with the State of Israel) and "national" feelings (for Argentina), and that Sephardi Jews assumed leadership roles in national Jewish organizations once they integrated into the much larger Askenazi community. Rather than assume that Sephardi identity was fixed and unchanging, Brodsky highlights the strategic nature of this identity, constructed both from within the various Sephardi groups and from the outside, and reveals that Jewish identity must be understood as part of the process of becoming Argentine.

Note about Translation and Transliteration
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Burying the Dead: Cemeteries, Walls and Jewish Identity in Early-Twentieth-Century Argentina
2. Helping the Living: Philanthropy and the Boundaries of Sephardi Communities in Argentina
3. The Limits of Community: Unsuccessful Attempts at Creating Single Sephardi Organizations
4. Working for the Homeland: Zionism and the Creation of an "Argentine" Sephardi Community after 1920
5. Becoming Argentine, Becoming Jewish, Becoming and Remaining Sephardi: Jewish Women and Identity in Twentieth-Century Argentina
6. Marriages and Schools: Living within Multiple Borders
Postscript
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Jewish Studies
• Jewish
• HISTORY
• Histoire
• América del Sur
• Jews
• South America
• Latin America
• History of the Americas

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 31 octobre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253023193
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

SEPHARDI, JEWISH, ARGENTINE
INDIANA SERIES IN SEPHARDI AND MIZRAHI STUDIES
Harvey E. Goldberg and Matthias Lehmann, editors
SEPHARDI, JEWISH, ARGENTINE
Creating Community and National Identity, 1880-1960

ADRIANA M. BRODSKY
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Bloomington Indianapolis
This book is a publication of
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
2016 by Adriana M. Brodsky
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Brodsky, Adriana Mariel, 1967- author.
Title: Sephardi, Jewish, Argentine : creating community and national identity, 1880-1960 / Adriana M. Brodsky.
Description: Bloomington and Indianapolis : Indiana University Press, [2016] | Series: Indiana series in Sephardi and Mizrahi Studies | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016019128 (print) | LCCN 2016019819 (ebook) | ISBN 9780253022714 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780253023032 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780253023193 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Jews-Argentina-History-19th century. | Jews-Argentina-History-20th century. | Jews, Oriental-Argentina-History-19th century. | Jews, Oriental-Argentina-History-20th century. | Jews, Oriental-Argentina-Social life and customs. | Jews, Oriental-Cultural assimilation-Argentina. | Sephardim-Argentina-History. | Argentina-Ethnic relations.
Classification: LCC F3021.J5 B76 2016 (print) | LCC F3021.J5 (ebook) | DDC 305.800982-dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016019128
1 2 3 4 5 21 20 19 18 17 16
Contents
Note about Translation and Transliteration
Note on Previously Published Material
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Burying the Dead: Cemeteries, Walls, and Jewish Identity in Early Twentieth-Century Argentina
2 Helping the Living: Philanthropy and the Boundaries of Sephardi Communities in Argentina
3 The Limits of Community: Unsuccessful Attempts at Creating Single Sephardi Organizations
4 Working for the Homeland: Zionism and the Creation of an Argentine Sephardi Community after 1920
5 Becoming Argentine, Becoming Jewish, Becoming and Remaining Sephardi: Jewish Women and Identity in Twentieth-Century Argentina
6 Marriages and Schools: Living within Multiple Borders
Postscript
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Note on Translation and Transliteration
ALL TRANSLATIONS FROM SPANISH ARE MINE, UNLESS OTHER wise noted. I did not translate into English the Hebrew names of the organizations I discuss in the book, unless it was necessary to convey to the reader the type of work the organization engaged in. In most cases, the names chosen by the societies-most taken from biblical phrases-did not indicate the nature of the work carried out. I believe this approach preserves the language choices these Jewish Argentines made for the names of their societies. When transliterating Hebrew terms, I have generally followed the Library of Congress system, unless a different spelling was used as the legal name of an organization. In such cases, I retained the original spelling because in the early twentieth century there were no standard transliteration systems; rather, ad hoc solutions were employed, using Latin letters to attempt Hebrew pronunciation for Spanish speakers. Thus using a modern transliteration system would have meant that, in most cases, the names in this book would look very different from the ones these Argentine Jews used. Finally, I have chosen Sephardi over Sephardic , which sounded closer to the Hebrew and Spanish oral rendition of the same word.
Note on Previously Published Material
PARTS OF CHAPTER 2 PREVIOUSLY APPEARED IN SPANISH IN Re-configurando Comunidades: Jud os Sefarad es/ rabes in Argentina, 1900-1950, in Arabes y jud os en Iberoam rica: similitudes, diferencias y tensiones (Madrid: Dykinson, 2008). Sections of chapter 4 and chapter 5 appeared previously in Electing Miss Sefarad , and Queen Esther : Sephardim, Zionism, and Ethnic and National Identities in Argentina, 1933-1971, in The New Jewish Argentina: Facets of Jewish Experiences in the Southern Cone , edited by Adriana Brodsky and Raanan Rein (Leiden: Brill, 2012). Sections of chapter 6 appeared previously in Educating Argentine Jews: Sephardim and Their Schools, 1920s-1960s, in Returning to Babel: Jewish Latin American Experiences and Representations , edited by Amalia Ran and Jean Cahan (Leiden: Brill, 2011).
Acknowledgments
IT DEFINITELY DOES TAKE A VILLAGE TO PRODUCE A BOOK; IN fact, we may even say that it takes several villages. Throughout this project, I have traveled across countries and oceans, meeting friends who discussed this project with me, invited me into their homes, and continued to help me in countless ways even from afar. I am indebted to them all; any of the book s shortcomings, however, are mine alone.
Crossing oceans and borders, and finding time to write, was achieved by financial support from several institutions. A Kluge Fellowship at the Library of Congress was instrumental in providing the best writing and research atmosphere any scholar could wish for. Sharing my research with Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy, Thierry Rigogne, and Peter Wien while there was a wonderful treat that helped bring several chapters into sharper focus. The Maurice Amado Foundation also provided financial support early on. Faculty development grants from St. Mary s College of Maryland allowed me to visit archives and conduct interviews. Being able to revisit some of the archives I had spent time in while writing my doctoral dissertation proved to be invaluable in defining the book project.
The ideas in this book were shaped, in part, through conversations with colleagues in a variety of professional settings. The research conferences of the Association of Jewish Studies, the Conference on Latin American History, and the Latin American Jewish Studies Association were wonderfully fertile (and friendly) ground in which to present and discuss the ideas I offer here. In particular, the following workshops allowed me to test ideas and further develop many of the issues I explore in these chapters: Tel Aviv University in 2007 ( Arabes y Jud os en Am rica Latina: Simposio Internacional ); the Maurice Amado Program in Sephardic Studies at UCLA, and the 2011 program of their Center for Jewish Studies ( Crossing Borders: New Approaches to Modern Judeo-Spanish [Sephardic] Cultures ); the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; the Department of History at the University of Washington (Seattle); the Samuel and Althea Stroum Jewish Studies Program at the University of Washington, Seattle, in 2013 ( Sephardic Jewry and the Holocaust: The Future of the Field ); and the Center for European Studies, the Duke Center for Jewish Studies, the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at Duke University, and the Duke Islamic Studies Center in 2013 ( The Jewish and Muslim Diasporas in Latin America: New Comparative Perspectives ).
So many colleagues have contributed with their knowledge, their professional example, and their support. Argentineanists Daniel James, Mark Healey, Pablo Palomino, Sandra McGee Deutsch, Donna Guy, David Sheinin, Jos Moya, Ben Bryce, and Kristen McClearly helped me along the way with questions big and small, and just by being there. Colleagues I have known since my days at the Consortium in Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University, Jody Pavilack, Bianca Premo, Jon Beasley-Murray, John French, Ivonne Wallace-Fuentes, Jane Mangan, and David Sartorius, among others, continue to inspire me with their work and encourage my own intellectual pursuits. Sephardi and Jewish Studies scholars Sarah Abrevaya Stein, Devi Mays, Devin Naar, Ethan Katz, Julia Phillips Cohen, Paula Dacarrett, Judah Cohen, Barbara Mann, and Yaron Ayalon provided invaluable help in reading sections of the manuscript and answering questions at all hours of the night (and from all parts of the globe!). Malena Chinski and Ariel Noijovich searched archives for me, and helped me figure out the answer to important questions. Adriana X. Jacobs, David Brodsky, and Ronnie Perelis helped me with key Hebrew translations. Jeffrey Lesser, Bea Gurwitz, Alejandro Meter, Evelyn Dean-Olmstead, Ariana Huberman, Margalit Bejarano, Edna Aizenberg, Efraim Zadoff, Santiago Slabodsky, Natasha Zaretsky, Mollie Lewis, and many other Latin American Jewish Studies Association members and colleagues have followed and contributed to this project for a long time. A special thanks goes to my dear friend Raanan Rein for his intellectual guidance and mentorship and to Esti Rein for opening up her house and making me feel at home on my many visits to Givatayim.
In Argentina, Marcelo and Liliana Benveniste and Mario Cohen, loyal supporters of Sephardi culture, helped me in myriad ways. I cannot thank them enough for their work and help. Ricardo Djaen was always eager to answer my questions about hi