The Jewish Diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean

The Jewish Diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean is an excellent and sorely needed introduction to Jewish life in Latin America and, at the same time, to the field Latin American Jewish studies. The editor Kristin Ruggiero sought to build on earlier work and show a broad sweep of current research. She has succeeded on both counts. The chapters (most written for this volume but some previously published) represent the work of leading scholars in this growing field. The book is directed to students curious about Latin American Jews and specialists in other areas who wish to keep abreast of work outside their own field. From a variety of angles, Ruggiero’s collection demonstrates the maturity of Latin American Jewish studies as a field. Methodology varies from chapter to chapter, including traditional historical approaches with the author hidden behind the reconstruction of events, and those in which the researcher is a protagonist in the story being told. Nevertheless, each approach is appropriate to the writer’s field. Throughout the volume, the writing is clear and free from jargon. The notes following every chapter are exhaustive.The excellent studies by Robert M. Levine on Cuban Jewry and by Jeffrey Lesser on the Brazilian Jewish community add insights to areas that will be familiar to many researchers. Raquel Partnoy and Alicia Partnoy’s penetrating work on the relationship between art, poetry, and the personal experience of terror in Argentina is groundbreaking. The collection as a whole adds a great deal to our understanding of the ways Jews relate to the countries in which they were born or to which they immigrated. Authors describe how Jews have fared in tenuous situations like Cuba, where some felt comfortable and others decided they had to leave the country, only to establish enclaves of Cuban culture in the United States. Others relate the experience of Jews in countries such as Brazil that were intensely ambivalent about them. In Argentina, Jews prospered but were also periodically persecuted; later, many experienced torture and assassination at the hands of the military junta. After the bombings at the Israeli Embassy and the AMIA building that housed Jewish community offices, they continued to face lies and manipulation from successive governments.The articles are organized into four sections. The section on relocation in the Nazi years contains chapters by Ruth Schwertfeger on Mexico, Rosalie Sitman on Argentina, and Jeffrey Lesser on Brazil. A section entitled “Constructing Memory” presents work by Raanan Rein, David Sheinin, and Beatriz Gurevich on Argentina, while in the section entitled “Identity and Hybridity” Robert M. Levine and Ruth Behar discuss Cuba, William F. S. Miles writes on Martinique, and Ilan Stavans on Mexico. The section on literature and painting contains moving poetry by Marjorie Agosín, while Raquel Partnoy and her daughter Alicia Partnoy examine the use of art as a tool for dealing with trauma. Each of the chapters contain a succinct and focused study of the crucial issues that faced Jews who found themselves in Latin America — identity, immigration, exile, anti-Semitism, and Jewish life under regimes of terror. The volume is strengthened by chapters that venture into little-explored areas. William F. S. Miles provides a window into the history and current situation of the Jews of Martinique, who live on the island but have never seen themselves as being part of its culture.No anthology can cover everything, even one as broad as this one. There could have been more discussion of what Jews have accomplished in spite of the difficulties they encountered: the accomplishments of Jewish communities themselves, the communal service provided by Jewish charities and social welfare organizations, the Zionist groups, the history of Jewish journalism in Spanish, Portuguese, Yiddish, and Ladino, as well as German, and the vast production of Latin American Jewish poets, novelists, and artists. That said, this edited volume will provide its readers with multilayered understanding of the history of the Jews of Latin American and an appreciation of Latin American Jewish studies, a field that has come of age

Archaeology · Art · Diaspora · Genealogy · Judaism · Latin Americans · Literature · Political science · Sociology · Variety (cybernetics) · Borges, Kipling, and Jewish Identity · Classics · Computer Science · Gender Studies · History · Law

• Tambú

  Open Access•Nanette De Jong•Transforming Anthropology•2008

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• El espacio y la periferia

  Open Access•Santiago Slabodsky•EIAL - Estudios Interdisciplinarios…•2012

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