THE JEWS OF LATIN AMERICA

Revised Edition

JUDITH LAIKIN ELKIN

HOLMES & MEIER NEW YORK / LONDON Published in the United Stutes of America 1998 b y ll olmes & Meier Publishers. Inc . 160 Broadway ew York, NY 10038

Copyr ight © 199 by Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1.nc. F'irst edition published und er th e title Jeics of the u1tl11A111erica11 lle1'11hlics copyright © 1980 The University of o rth Ca rolina Press . Chapel Hill , NC .

All rights reserved . No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any elec troni c o r mechanical means now known or to be invented, including photocopying , r co rdin g, and information storage and retrieval systems , without permission in writing from the publishers , exc·ept by a reviewe r who may quote brief passages in a review.

The auth or acknow ledges with gra titud e the court esy of the American Jewish lli stori cal Society to reprint the follo,ving articl e which is published in somewhat different form in this book: "Goo dnight , Sweet Gaucho: A Revisio nist View of the Jewis h Agricultural Experiment in Argentina, " A111eric1111j etds h Historic(I/ Q11111terly67 (March 1978 ): 208 - 23.

Most of the photographs in this boo k were includ d in the exhibit ion . "Voyages to F're dam: .500 Years of Je,vish Li~ in Latin America and the Caribbean ," and were ma de availab le throu ,I, the court esy of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith . Th e two photographs of the AMIA on pages 266 - 267 we re s uppli ed by the AMIA -Co munidad Judfa de Buenos Aires.

Typesetting by Coghill Bo oks Typese ttin g, C hester. VA. This book has been pri nted on acid-free pap e r.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Elkin, Judith Laikin, 1928 - The Jews of Latin America I Judith Laikin Elkin. - Rev. ed . p. Ctn . Rev. ed. of: Jews of the Latin American rep ublics. 1980. Includ es bibliographical refer ence· and index . ISBN 0-84 19- 1368-4 (cloth : alk. paper ). - ISBN 0-84 19- 1,'369-2 (pbk. : alk. pap r) I. J ws- Latin Americu - History. 2. Latin America - lli sto ry. I. Elkin, Judith Laikin, 1928 - Jews of the Latin American repub lics. 11. Title. Fl419 .)4E 44 1998 980' 004924 - dc2 1 97-3940.5 C IP

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Frontispi ece. The so uth rn Am ericas are home to 481,000,000 p eople, includin g some half-million Jews. CHAPTER 11

Jews and Non-Jews

..." ... "Buenos Aires, shtot mein Liebe, lch bin fadibt in dein tsebliter yugnt (Buenos Aires, beloved city, -I'mYi inddish love version with your of a flowering Carlos Gard youth I tango )

FOR LATIN Americans, the reality of Jewish life is obscured by mythol­ ogy. Only the dissipation of myth allows the reality of Jews and Judaism to MANY appear. Appar ntly, this happens more readily at the personal than at the societal I vel. The acceptability of Jews as marriage partn rs is wid spread, causing Jewish leaders to express more cone rn about assimilation than about anti-Semitism. Yet happy exogamous marriages exist sid by side with murder­ ous manifestations of race hatr d. Within Jewish spaces, b hind the symbolic walls of th kehillah, highly organized Jewish communiti s regulate the behavior of their members by excluding the intermarried, the criminal, and the politically radical. The politi­ cally correct clubs and synagogues and beneficent so ieties that result pr s nt to non-Jews the appearance of a p ople unifiedin character and goals. But th suave facade of country club life masks the abandonment of Judaism by those who do not find thnic allegiance compelling, as well as the emigration of others who desire to live a less circumscribed life as Jews. The numb r of Argentines who id ntify themselves as Jews has dropped by on -third in th past thirty years; across the continent, total numbers have decreased in this period from 550,000 to 377,000. In public spaces, Latino J wish entrepreneurs, academics, artists, and lite­ rati have experienced increasing success. As third and fourth generations accul­ turate, the social acceptability of Jews incr ases. In recent years, this has translated into wider acceptance of political participation by Jewish individuals. But acculturation has not diminish d the hostility directed at J.ews by s ctors of the military and the church, which emerges in extreme forms when these sectors attain political dominance. No wonder then that the texture of relations between Jews and non-Jews

251 252 JEWS AND THEIR WORLDS

in Latin America continues to puzzle observers. Dichotomies of attra tion and r pulsion, marginalization and integration, assimilation and particularism, anti­ Semitism and philo-Semitism animate the literature on Latin American Jewry. Conclusions that may be valid for one country may rightly be challenged if applied to another. Argentina is not Brazil is not Nicaragua. This chapter attempts to interpret the nature of the relationship betw n Jews and non­ Jews in Latin America. Because the largest Jewish population is to b found in Argentina and this community hasb en the most intensively studied, atten­ tion is first focused there. Argentina: Attraction and Repulsion

The most obdurate anti-Semitism is that which1 d rives from the conviction thatnacionalismo, Judaism ls a worldwide conspiracy aim d at d stroying Christianity and subjecting the world to domination by Jews. This b li f is c ntral to Argentine and it is practically impervious to reality-based evidence. At most, nationalists may harbor a differencepopulistas, of opinion as to whether the prop nsity to subversion isinte dilutedgralistas, by distance fromthe Jewish p ople and Judaism through intermarriage and assimilation. For assimilation r nders Jews ac­ ceptabl . For however, once a Jew, always a Jew, even if formal conversion has taken place. Both brands of nationalists reject the lib ral philoso­ phy that brought non-Catholics and non-Latins to Argentine shores, and both reject the multicultural society that is emerging from the immigration2 period. Their ideal is an organic soci ty overseen by a corporate state, and J ws, the ultimate nonconformists, are the sp cial targ t of their hostility. D spite the persistence of extreme anti-Semitic b liefs, it has b en said that Argentina as a nation never adopted an anti-Semitic policy.

It is clear that, with the xception of laws and policies cone rning immigration, there has not been a systematic legislative effort to dis­ criminate against Jews in Argentina. But it is also worth noting that there was often room in the interstices of legislation for the administrative expression of anti-Semitism. For much of the period discussed [1930-83] Jews wer effectively excluded from certain ar as of official life. For example, there was not a single Jew in th middle or upper officer ranks, although both Chile and Brazil had Jewish generals. The for ign service was also ss ntially dos d to Jews. During the tenure of the military regime of 1943, many Jewish teachers were dismissed from their jobs. Under the military governments of 1966 and 1976 a gr at many Jews were3 removed from the civil servic posts and univer­ sity positions they had acquir d when the [ d mocratically elected] Radi­ cals were in power.

Avni argues that the closest Arg ntina has come to adoption of an anti­ Semitic policy was when it r fused to admit Jewish refugees from Nazism. Catholic religious instruction in the public schools has b en another sensitive 253

Jews and Non-Jews area; while not explicitly anti-Semitic, it has allowed for the transmission of anti-Semitic ideas. Local legislation outlawing kosher slaughter or restricting the public use of the Yiddish language also shaped the Argentine J wish experience, although some of these measures were transitory:' It may b that discrimination, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Perhaps Argentine Jews, like Mao Zedong's allegorical fish who do not know what water is, are so acclimated to high levels of free-floating anti-Semitism that they accept it as the natural order of things. As individuals and as a group, they accept limitations and discriminations that appear outrageous to North Americans as the cost of living in a Catholic society that partially excludes them, yet exerts a sweet charm over them. The romanticized story of the agricultural colonies has rooted them in the very earth of Argentina. Those who came to the city were mostly able to attain a satisfactory way of life. Criollo ways-the close-knit family ties, the intense intell ctual life of cafes and bookstores, the streets and restaurants filled with throngs of p ople until well past midnight-contrast d lightfully with dark memories of the old country or more recent impressions of chilly northern climes. There seemed to be no reason why life should not continue to unfold pleasantly into the indefinite future. This dream began to crumble in the fifties and sixties during the administra­ tions of two democratically elected presidents. It is part of the Argentine paradox that the viability of Jewish life in that country was brought seriously into question during the constitutional administrations of Presidents Arturo Frondizi (1958-62) and Arturo Illfa (1963-66)." Within the context of an ongoing economic crisis and tension between civilian and military forces, anti­ Semitic verbal and physical attacks escalated. Anti-Jewish graffiti appear cl on city walls and attacks on Jewish businesses and institutions were carried out by right-wing groups, without eliciting a police response or even official ac­ knowledgment of the incid nts. Out of a long catalogue of anti-Semitic actions, Senkman lists some examples from the period 1959-62. B ginning in 1959, propaganda fliers and anti-Semitic graffiti scrawled on the walls of Jewish institutions in Buenos Aires encouraged violent attacks on Jews. In March, students at Colegio de] Salvador, while protesting a change in the national constitution, incidentally took up an anti-Semitic chant. In April, th Sociedad Hebraica Argentina was violently attacked. In May, a gang confronted Jewish children in Villa Devoto on their way to a Zionist fi stival. Synagogues in the city of La Plata and the province of C6rdoba wer attacked. In July, a bomb exploded in front of Congregaci6n Isra lita de la Republica Arg ntina in th center of Buenos Aires. In August, armed men entered the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires and destroyed stands that had been put up for an exhibition by Hebrew University. In August and S ptember, additional attacks occurred against Jewish institu­ tions: October witness cl attacks against Jewish youth centers in C6rdoba, Parana, and La Plata; and in D cemb r the patios of the Faculty of Economics at UBA were painted with swastikas and anti-Jewish slogans. Throughout 254 JEWS AND THEIR WORLDS

D cemb rand th following January, anti-Jewish inscriptions app ared all over the country, c m teries wer d s crat d, and Jewish businesses wer painted with swastikas, esp cially in La Plata and C6rdoba. Threat ning phone calls to members of the J wish community h ighten d the tension. Wh n school resumed, there wer mor attacks against Jewish students at Col gio Na io­ nal Sarmi nto. In this atmosphere, the abduction of th Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann by Israeli agents triggered an organized campaign of attacks on Arg ntin J ws by the political faction Union Cfvica Nacionalista and the neo-Nazi group Tacuara,on the pretextIn that national sovereignty was in danger. Th pot boiled over with the national d bate overEl j11d(o th r en introd el misteriouction deof laCatholic historia instruction in th schools. this debate, the pri st Julio Meinvielle found his m tier, reissuing his anti-Semitic book, (The J w in the Mystery of Hi tory). AnJ uninterrupted fusillade of anti-Semitic attacks by UCN and Tacuara in anticipation of el ctions culminated in June 1962 with the kidnapping of a young wish woman, who was6 forcibly tatoo d with a swastika on herJ hr ast. Neo-Nazis disrupted colleg s and universities all ov r th country upon Israel's ex cution Inof Eichmann. Attacks on wish individuals and institutions m t with no officialobj ction and were carried out with impunity. some instances, police refus d to accept victims' complaints and deni d to th pr ss that any attack had tak n place. Anti-Semitic acts were dismissed as stag d events for the purpose of covering up "Jewish economic crim s." The DAIA, which made representations to the police and to presidential aid s, was accused of falsifying incidents in order to foment a communist plot. Meanwhile, the army, which held the civilian governm nt in checkmate, "obsess d with radical or I ftist conspiracies," confus d working-class action, such as union-based or peronista politics, with its chief enemy, communism.' Senkman's explanation for th failur of these transitional d mocratic regimes to act (they were bracketed and displac d by military coups) is that both Frondizi and Illfa were primarily interested in neutralizing social and political unrest. Because neo-Nazis and right-wing goons ssw re battling the threat from the left, they chose to ignore their attacks on Jews. At the same time, th se d mocratically el cted presidents fail d to ass the damage b ing done to the social fabric by the lie nse b ing allowed to the right wing to carry out criminal acts against the civil population; the intensive focus of government and military on stopping the advance of peronism and communism conditioned them to excuse the "excesses" of gangs who included anti-Semitism in their anti-communist arsenal.H The strident propaganda pouring out of a vari ty of presses at this time, and the closing of Jewish leftist institutions while groups inspired by Nazi ideology continued to operate freely, prepared the public to b Ii ve in the existence of a "Jewish communist plot." Strong feelingsof insecu­ rity permeated the Jewish community, most of whose members had voted for the Radical party that now was presiding over their deteriorating position. The leaders of DAIA nevertheless continued to support democratic forces. Jews and Non-Jews 255

They reasoned that anti-Semitism was being used as a political weapon by reactionary forces seeking to destabilize democracy in the interest of a return to authoritarian9 government, and that both Frondizi and Illfa failed to see the danger because they shared the attackers' goals: to block the ascent of the left to power. On the basis of this analysis, and knowing that a demonstration on behalf of Jewish rights would get nowhere, DAIA called for a protest strike by democratic sectors at all levels of society against terrorism by "Nazis" (meaning Nazi-influenced nativists). The theme was: "They'll begin with the Jews and end with democracy." The work stoppage, carried out on 28 June 1962 following the attack on Graciela Sirota, was a success, attracting considerable numbers of non-Jewish as well as Jewishgn participants. For their constituents, DAIA offered a defense of personal di ity as Jews and as Argentine citizens whose rights were bP.ing infringed. The chaotic democracy that engulfed Argentina in the 1960s was brought to an end by General Juan Carlos Onganfa (1966-70), who ousted Illfa and initiated the destruction of Argentine intellectual life by pillaging the universi­ ties.mccartisrno, Libraries burned books, plays were proscribed, intellectual and artistic life virtually shut down throughout the country, in a period argentinos describe as but which went a great deal further than McCarthyism in the United States. Repression of faculty and students and the closing of universities during this regime led to the flight into exile of a large number of Argentine intellectuals and artists, and came close to destroying the countty's intellectual and artistic life. Not surprisingly, with nacionalistas in power, anti-Semitism became another instrument of policy. Under Onganfa, all Jewish officials were removed from government posts, and assassinations and acts of hooliganism against Jews went unpunished. At the same time, numerous fascist organizations were operating in Argen­ tina, fueled by ideas scavenged from the wreckage of the Third Reich. It is not necessary to imagine sophisticated Nazis seducing naive Argentines into adopting their agenda: their message resonated sufficientlywithin local culture to make itself at home in criollo terms. Thirty years after the collapse of Nazism in Europe, its ideology was alive and thriving in Argentina,El Peru, Fort{n, and Cabildo, Chile. ReIn thetauraci6n, latter country, Patria Dignidad, Peronista an enclosed community of n o-Nazis, survived intact. Extreme right-wing newspapers and magazinessuch as and were peddling anti-S mitism with articles such as one that declaimed, "We confirm that the white slave trade and drug trafficare two instruments utilized by Zionist imperialism to corrupt our youth. This should be investigated as a conspiracy against our nation." Organizations such as Tacuara, Falange de Fe (C6rdoba), Centuria Universitaria Nacionalista, Falange Restaurador Nacionalista, Centuria Nacionalista, Agrupaci6n Nacio­ nalista Arg ntina, and Partido Acci6n Nacionalista, all were propagating a line based on hatred of Jews as cosmopolitans who imported for ign ideas-com­ munism and capitalism-that corrupt the body politic. In support of the charge of a Jewish plot to subjugate Argentines to "international bankers," a gov rnm nt-controlled television station broadcast in February 1975 a dramati- 256 JEWS AND THEIR WORLDS Bolsa zation of La (Th Stock Exchange), the hoary anti-Semitic lib 1 that newspapers had serializ d three gen rations arlier. The "Andinia Plan," fabri­ cated by the professional anti-S mite Walt r B veraggi Allende, populariz d th paranoid delusion that there existed an international conspiracy to er ate a second J wish state in the south of Argentina. While coping with the thr at from th right, J ws also came und r attack from the left. Radical groups aligned with Middle Eastern guerrilla factions became overtly anti-Semitic in th s venties, drawing on racial prejudice to bolster their anti-Zionist agenda, not only in Argentina but all across Latin Am rica. Revolutionary groups stablished contact with the Palestine Libera­ tion Organization and Popular Front for the Lib ration of Pal stine, working toward an alliance of Third World revolutionaries whose principal target rapidly b came Isra 1, and by extension, J ws anywhere in the world. In n ighboring Brazil, the combination of dependence on Arab oil, a rapid transition from dictatorship to democracy, and agitation by professional anti-Semites among left-wing supporters of the Pal stine Lib ration Organization trigg red vitu­ P rative attacks against Jews. J ws were attacked for having links with Israel, and Israel for having links with imp rialist powers (the United States, Great Britain, the International Monetary Fund) that alleg dly held the continent in a position of conomic depend ncy. w These radical groupings attracted Jewish as well as non-Jewish students. In the 1960s and 1970s, multitudes of university-educated Jewish youth w re becoming asalienated from th J wish establishment as non-Jewish youth were fromthe criollo establishment. By 1976, fewer than 10 percent of Buenos Aires

Jewish youth (estimated11 at a total 90,000) belonged to any Jewish community institution. Among univ rsity students, the proportion of the affiliat d was just 5.8 perc nt. The r volutionary movements sweeping South and Central Am rica caught up th se unaffiliated Jewish youths. There were Jewish Mon­ toneros in Arg ntina and Tupamaros in Uruguay, Jewish Cubans in the ranks of the revolutionaries of 1959, and Jewish Sandinistas in Nicaragua in the seventies. In the process of joining th revolution, they distanced th ms Ives from other Jews and from Judaism, either as a matter of principle or in order to establish their cred ntials with their comrad s in arms. Th hostility of left­12 wing groups toward Isra I xerted pre sure on these young Jews to prove th ir exclusively national loyalties by dropping th ir ties to J ws and Judaism. Having adopt d the stance of th militant left, thes J ws view d Israel as an imp rialist power, alli d with the oppressor class they were r belling against. A full-scalecivil war broke out in Argentina in 1970, with left-wing gu rrillas organized in the Revolutionary Popular Army (ERP by its Spanish initials) and Montoneros (an offshoot of peronism) in armed reb Ilion against a s ries of corrupt and ineffici nt governments. Right-wing gangs, organized as the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance, or Tr iple A, began kidnapping and murd r­ ing I ftists,apparently with the connivance of the police. Among oth r violent 257

Jews and on-Jews acts, attacks on Jewish institutions and individuals escalated. Bu nos Aires r became a center for the publication of anti-S mitic literature, hand d out feely to pedestrians on La Florida and other shopping stre ts, some of which w nt so far as to incite pogroms ("save th fatherland-kill a J w" ran one slogan). The administration of President Isabel Martfnez de Per6n, under the dominance of her adviser, the spiritualist Jose L6pez R ga (who may have been th sponsor of the AAA), was u ing anti-Semitism as an instrument of terror. Given Argentina's history of oscillation b tween ungovernabl democracy and brutal authoritarian rule, by 1976 many middle-class Argentines vi wed a military junta pledged to restoring constitutional norms as the lesser among sev ral evils. This judg­ ment was concurred in by the organized Jewish community, as represented through the DAIA.

Dirty War The military junta that took power in 1976 terminated the threat from the Left by means of a "Dirty War" aimed at physically exterminating subversion. Many Jews, like other middle class citizens, anticipat cl relief from the harass­ ments, kidnappings, and politically motivated murders that had charact rized the Left's assault on organized society. Unfortunately, in practice, th military were mor viol nt than the guerrillas, b tter armed and organized, more anti­ Semitic, and able to utilize the figleaf of l gitimacy to act on their murderous ideology. As the then Chief of Buenos Aires Police, Colonel Ram6n Camps, said at the time: "First, we will kill the guerrillas. Then w \viii kill the gu rrillas' families. Th n we will kill the friends of th ir families, and the fri nds of their friends, so that there will b no one left to rememb r who the guerrillas w re." The junta, organized as the Process of National Reorganization (called the proceso), acted on this premise by killing an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 civilians, many with no record of political activity of any kind. (The Commission ap­ pointed lat r to investigate th matter was able to document 8,800 cases, but many famili w re too frightened to come forward to report th ir losses.) As planned, disappearances occurr d in chain reaction. s

Af

brutality. The act was never acknowl dg d officially, and his body was never found. Adrian Sidon, fiance of Aida Leonora, was killed by the police on a public sidewalk. His body was never deliver d to his father, a well­ known lawyer and entrepren ur who demanded it persistently. Patricia Villa, sister of a daughter-in-law of the Bruschteins, was detained while working in the office of Inter Press in Buenos Aires, b fore numerous witnesses. One w le later, her family was notified by the navy that Patricia had died, but they did not indicate where she had b en buried. The authorities demanded that the family keep the episod s cret, or what had happ ned to other members of the family would happ n to them also. At six in the morning, in a joint operation of the federal police and the army, Irene Bruschtein de Ginsburg, sister of Aida Leonora, and her husband, Mario Ginsburg, w re detain d. She was an artist and he a master workman and stud nt of architecture. Th ir children Victoria, not quite three y ars old, and Hugo Roberto, eighte n months, were abandoned at the door of the building where th ir parents w re seques­ tered. They remain permanently disappeared. One month earlier, Victor Rafael Bruschtein,13 sevent en, had b en detained in the home where he resided with his mother, in Moron, province of Bu nos Aires. He also disappeared.

Edy Kaufman, a r spected investigator of human rights abuses, estimates that Jews account d for close to 10 p rcent of the disappeared, far exce ding the proportion of Jews in the population 14at large or even within those profes­ sions-university faculty, social workers, psychiatrists, union lead rs, literacy teachers-that were specifically targeted. Testimony of prisoners fre d from some of the 304 detention centers maintained by the proceso confirms that Jewish prison rs were singled out for particularly abusive treatm nt, often to the accompaniment of verbal assaults that mimicked Nazi rhetoric. Of course, 90 p rcent of victims were Christian, mostly Catholic like th ir victimizers, and they included priests and nuns as well as lay religious I ad rs. Strangely, it was difficult to disc rn imm diately the ori ntation of the military junta toward Jews and the J wish community. Mainline Jewish institu­ tions were not attacked. Jewish parents were not slow to draw conclusions, enrolling their children in community schools, synagogues, and sports clubs where activities focused on strictly Jewish concerns (religion, Israel, Hebrew­ center d education), soaking up the youngsters' time that might otherwise have b en spent getting involv d with suspect groups. Censorship of the press, plus fear of speaking out, made it difficult to understand xactly what was going on, and som int rviewees claim d that they were unaware of the repression until they made a trip abroad and were able to read about ongoing atrocities in the foreign pr ss. The conflicting opinions of community leaders were reported by Israeli embassy officials and ar just now being extracted from that government's archives.,.� On one side were those who b lieved the junta members themselves were not anti-Semitic; 259

Jews and Non-Jews they accepted the generals' statement that, in battling subversion, which threat­ ened the very existence of the state, "excesses" (such as torture and summary execution of prisoners) could be expected to occur, that such acts were not sanctioned by the junta but were the work of gangs they were powerless to control. Those who believed the statements of the moderados (moderates) led by Gen. Jorge Rafael Videla concluded that the atrocities being committed against detenicl.os (those who were arrested and held in jail) and desapareciclos (those who had been snatched off the street or from their home and made to disappear without trace) occurred either because the victims had been involved in the subversion or because they were the unfortunate victimsof unauthorized actions by militias operating independently of the junta. No doubt there were anti-Semites among the personnel who carried out these actions, but anti­ Semitism was not a settled policy of the junta. People who accepted these assurances did so in part because they believed that b hind the moderate faction waited the duras-hardliners who included in th ir ranks known anti­ Semites whom the community had good reason to fear. In May 1976, DAIA president Nehemias Resnitzky trav led to New York to press this point of view. He had been assured, he told representatives of North American Jewish organizations, that the junta would restore democracy afterfixing the economy and that official anti-Semitism was out of the question because Argentina needed U.S. financial support. The extreme right of the Argentine political spectrum, however, was capable of using anti-Semitism to distract p ople from their real problems. He pleaded with U.S. organizations not to publicize crimes against Jews in order not to fall into16 what he describ d as a trap by I ftist groups to discredit the junta with charges of anti-Semitism and thereby leave it vulnerable to a putsch by the duras. The other school of thought held that the scale of government repression faroutweighed the danger posed initially by the ERP, Montoneros, and various Maoist groups. By May 1977 the armed subversion had been physically extermi­ nated, but the repression ground on. Rumors of the existence of moderate and hardline factionswere only a version of the "good cop, bad cop" routine familiar to every police interrogator. The specter of a putsch by hardliners was a ploy to get the gullible to go along with the junta, which really was in control of the actions of its "wild men" and was using state terror as an instrument of governance. The sadistic behavior of camp guards and their commandants did not emerge from nowhere. The way had been prepared for it. by years of racist articles and cartoons in literature and the press; sermons by Catholic priests whose anti-Semitism went unreprimanded by their bishops; rallies of nationalist organizations; anti-Semitic graffiti and vandalism at Jewish institutions; Jett rs and telephone calls17 to community leaders threatening mayhem to themselves and their families; bombs placed in synagogu s; kidnappings, and physical attacks on Jews. Such actions, and popular as well as governmental acquies­ cence in them, laid the basis for the explosion of anti-Semitism that took place within the protected precincts of proceso prisons. Yet, as much as one year SUBVERSION

In this diagram of the Argentin military mind, the tree of subversion grows out of the tap root of Zionism and its collatorals, Marxism and Fr masonry. From these roots grow (1) societies and leagues for defens of human rights, women's rights, pacifism, non-aggression, disarmament, " tc." Communist parties spring dir ctly from the trunk of subversion. Socialist parties sprout (2) national, (3) Ar­ gentine, (4) vanguard, and (5) d mocratic branches. Revolutionary armed organi­ zations include the (7) Montoneros, (8) FAR (Revolutionary Armed Forces), and ERP (People's Revolutionary Army) in addition to th sp ctral (6) Other. Indi- r ct aggres ion caps the tree of subv rsion, sprouting (9) union corruption, (10) s cular education, (11) liberal economics, (12) liberal politics, (13) drug addic­ tion, alcoholism, prostitution, and gambling, (14) the Third World, (15) postcon­ ciliar mod rnism, (16) progressive Catholicism, (17) liberal Christianity, (1 ) hippie-ism, pornography, homosexuality, and divorce, and (19) the mass m dia, including art, the press, radio, TY, cinema, magazin s, and books. S ctarian anti­ Christian Protestantism subverts society through (20) "American noblemen of fir ," (21) evangelism, (22) Ana I Lodge, (23) Mormonism, (24) Jehovah's Wit­ ness s, (25) Modern school N w Acropolis, (26) Hare Krishna, and (27) Siolismo-Youth Power. Liberal Democracy spawns (28) Radicals, (29) Christian D mocrac.y, (30) Social D mocracy, (31) Populist D magogy. Surprisingly, th ex­ treme right branch of totalitariani m (Nazism-Fascism) appears to have no off­ shoots at all in Argentina; but Fr masonry leads dir ctly to the thr at of (32) Rotary Club, Lion's Club, and Junior Chamb r. "La oersion," (The original drawing,1976-1983. ") 11b­ was obtained and translated by Edy l<.imfman all(/ Is reproduced in 7ewtsh VicHms of Repression in ArgenHna under Military Rule, Jews and Non-Jews 261 after the coup, the Jewish community seem d unconcerned about anti-Semitic attacks by th junta. This may have occurred in part because they had grown inured to th level of free-floating anti-Semitism that had alway s surrounded them. But their apparent willful ignoring of reality also stemmed from the fact that the c nsored press misrepresented the deaths of prisoners who had b en tortured and exe ·uted without trial as having r suit d from armed confronta­ tions betw en the armed forces and the gu rrillas. This caused some observers to blame parents of the disappeared for not having brought up their children "correctly." It took years for many civilians to realize that the nacionalista forces had moved b yond random acts of terror to th systematic use of t rror to cow them into submission. In coming to power, the military gained the capacity to activate its paranoid fantasies through the machin ry of the state. The primitive notions of what or who a Jew might be were transcribed in dozens 1 of prison interrogations and recorded in survivors' memoirs. x Their worldview is graphically displayed in th diagram "La Subv rsi6n" (see opposite page) included in a pamphlet found on the desk of the vice-director of the Escuela Superior cl Guerra Aerea in 1980 and evidently intended for distribution to the officercadets. w The barbarity of its conception is exceeded only by its lack of und rstanding of the real world. The Dirty War was plainly dir cted against "subversives," but much de­ pended on the definition of that term. For nacionalistas, activism on behalf of the poor s11bverts society, campaigns for women's rights s11bvert the family, and belief in a subconscious subverts Christianity. Th se were present cl as specifically Jewish crimes, the culprits: Marx , Marcus , and Fr ud (but not Jesus). Practitioners in these fields were especially targeted by the regime; and J ws were disproportionately numb red among them. Were they being disappeared and tortured for these suspect activities, or did being Jewish constitute a suspect cat gory in itself? Onganfa's anti-intellectual campaign turned out to have been only a prelude to the large-scale winnowing of intellectuals and artists, community outreach workers, labor union leaders, social work rs, psychologists, and psychiatrists undertaken by the generals of the Process of National Reorganization. Demonized as subverters of the social ord rand p rverters of Christian family values, Jewish professionals fled to Mexico, Spain, Isra 1, and the United States. The extinction or exodus of the talented added a bitter epilogue to the history of immigration policy. Governmentsat the beginning of the twentieth century had preferred farmers to int llectuals. Two generations later, elites were still trying to prev nt foreign ideas from contaminating criollo minds. Argentina was not alone in adopting an authoritarian-bureaucratic sty! of governing in the 1970s. Cont mporaneous Brazilian, Uruguayan, and Chilean dictatorships likewise targeted men and women they identified as communists and labor agitators, incidentally sending to their deaths numerous innocents who were in th wrong place at the wrong time. Jews were among those killed by these governments, not for being Jews, but because they were suspected of subversive activity. Only in Argentina was there a distinct anti-Semitic 262 JEWS AND THEIR WORLDS component to the repression. The Argentine military surpassed their colleagues in other countries by their untrammeled acting out of Nazi-style anti-Semitism.

Many testimonies of Jewish and non-Jewish prisoners document the fact that, from the moment of detention up until the decision to "trans­ fer" and in many cases to execute the victims, there existed a tendency toward negative preferential treatment of Jews. This was manifest, in the first place, in plainly anti-Semitic oral expressions, including refer­ ences of a religious-traditional type about the Jew as Antichrist; and in a vocabulary of clear Nazi derivation; also in the interrogations about the objectives of Zionism and its anti-Argentine activities. In the second place, the existence of Nazi inscriptions and emblems in the detention centers has been documented; and in the methods used to destroy the personality of the victim, an anti-Jewish dimension played a part in psychological torture as well as in accentuated brutality. Finally, 20it is possible to establish that, in the selection of victims for sacrifice by means of "transfer," priority was given to the Jewish disappeared.

Moreover, the Argentine military brought the Church hierarchy along with them. (convivencia)A 1966 concordat with the Vatican, initiated by the democratic administra­ tion of Illfa and confirmed by General Onganfa, provided the basis for agree­ ment between the army and the church, and identification of the military with Catholic dogma. Although the struggle for dominance by the one over the other never ceased, the posture of the Argentine church coincided more with the military regime of the proceso than21 with the Brazilian and Chilean church hierarchies that, in similar circumstances, confrontedtheir own authoritarian regimes over issues of human rights. The actions of the junta have been scrutinized by foreign observers as well as by the Argentine National Commission on the Disappeared (CONADEP), and the Argentine courts. Appointed in 1983, CONADEP comprised individ­ uals with national and international reputations as defendersof human rights; it included two Jewish human rights advocates, Professor Gregorio Klimovsky and Rabbi Marshall Meyer. Their report, aswell as subsequent judicial proceed­ ings against members of the junta, proved that thousands of people had been illegally deprived of their freedom, tortured and killed in secret prisons and concentration camps. Atrocities were the common practice, the normal method of daily operation that could not have occurred without the approval of top commanders. Moreover, the commission22 of the most heinous crimes against Jewish Argentines was licensed and condoned by the anti-Semitic ideology at the top of the military hierarchy. The response of nacionalistas wasto describe the published report as a Jewish conspiracy aimed at besmirching the honor of the Argentine military. The role of the DAIA during the Dirty War quickly became, and has remained, a focus of bitter controversy. Accused of passivity in the faceof anti­ Semitic outrages, the kehillah leadership was able to point to the fact that the Catholic Church had not been able to protect its own people; and that the DAIA had at least protected its member institutions from physical invasion. 263 Without verbally expressing th distinction, DAIAJews mayand be Non-Jews said to hav esch wed responsibility for J wish Arg ntines who were not affiliated with the kehillah and who were thus (in the words of one kehilla president) "not even Jewish." Defined out of the community by proprietary criteria of membership and by their own choic , unaffiliated Jews fell victim in significant numbers to the military's paranoid delusions regarding Jewish proclivities toward subversion.

Falklands War By 1982, the repression had succeeded in liminating political dissent but Argentina's economy was a shambles. In a cl sperate gamble to regain public approval, the generals played the irredentist card, invading th islands that Argentines call the Malvinas. Under their English name, th Falklands had been ruled by the British for a c ntury, but the Argentines had never given up their daim. Britain, the United States. and the European Community all froze arms shipments to Argentina when the invasion took place, and requested that other trading partners do the same. Israel, however, continued making deliveries of goods already contracted for. The war held up a funhouse mirror to th political alignments of the day. Though Argentina had suppressed her own leftists, her chief military suppli rs were the USSR and Cuba. Israeli arms deliveries established rapport with the most anti-Semitic el ments in Argentina. Perhaps as a quid pro quo, the army for the first time permitted the appointment of Jewish army chaplains (no on of Je,vish origin had been commissioned above the rank of captain in the Argentine army since 1934). In the atmosphere of chauvinist exhilaration that characterized the first clays of the war, the kehillah became the first ethnic community officially to express loyalty to the junta. The DAIA was quick to pl dge allegiance in a statement linking Argentina's drive to recover the Malvi­ nas with the Jewish people's desire to recover the land of their ancestors.

Jews in Argentine Politics In Argentina, the notion of Jews in public officeis still viewed by nacionalis­ tas as a betrayal of traditional values, a reversal of natural law. The idea of Jews exercising power ov r Christians has b en taboo in Spanish culture since the fifteenth century. Nacionalistas who remain enthralled by the preconciliar past view the ascension of Jews to positions of public trust as prima facie evidence of a worldwide Jewish conspiracy, beachheads for the advancement of foreign, subv rsive ideas. Thus the election or appointment of Jews to public office, and their retention there, tests the readin ss of these sectors to break from the medieval past. When President Frondizi assumed office in 1958, he appointed a number of Jews to his administration, including the country's first Jewish cabinet minis­ ter, David Blejer, as minister of labor. Santiago Nudelman, a physician, lawyer, and national deputy, was an important figurein the Uni6n Cfvica Radical. Four Jewish delegates were elected to the Argentine House of Representatives in 264 JEW S AND THEill WORLDS Neuquen the same election; two other Jews were elec:ted governors that year. in escribed and Formosa . At th very same time, the anti-Semitic demo nstrations d concern . above w re taking place without attracting Frondizi's attention or were More Jews were elected to national office in 1963 , but officeholders 2 survived r mov ed arbitrarily by the militar y coup of 1966. ~ No Jewish official ganfa. The the purges that took place under th e presidency of Juan Carlos On interludes record shows that Jews a ttain official position s during democratic h for their but are removed by right-wing and military gov rnm ents, as muc Jewishness as for their politics. In 1973 , with the advent of the peronista governm ent of Hector Campora, of inter ior, two Jews w re a ppoint ed to top positions : one as undersecretary , finance the other as finance minister. However, following the death of Peron each minister Jose Ber Gelbard, a former peddler and the second J ew to r y Lopez cabinet rank, became the focus of an anti-Semitic campaign launch d b sition, R ga, adviser to Pr sident Isabel Peron. After being dismissed from his po elbard also G !bard was stripp ed of his citizenship and deport ed. Attacks on G e a nti­ targeted th e Jewish busin essmen's association that h e had h eaded. Th h commu­ Semitism that surfaced at this time shook the confidence of the Jewis nity that the excesses of the Onganfa period had ended. When No Jew was elected or appoint ed to publi c office durin g the pro ceso. presidency the junt a dissolved in disarray, the election of Raul Alfonsfn to th e lection, six in October 1983 marked a watershed in Argentin histor y. In that e candi­ Jews were elected to the Chamber of Deputi es. Two years later, Jewish of Jews dates won 11 of 254 sea ts, or 4.3 p rcent, higher th an th e proportion es was in the Argentine popul ation . Increase d acceptabilit y of Jewish candidat rious prov ­ d monstrated by the fact that th ese deputies were e l ct d from va Both th e inces an d from both the Radical and Ju sticialista (p ronist ) parti s. leadership: Chamber of Deputies and th e Senate chose Jews to serve among its Senator Cesar Jaroslavsky was e lected majorit y leader of the Chamber , and Only Adolfo Gass became c hair of the S nat e Foreign Relations Committee. eir ballots, two of fourteen competing politi cal parti es did not includ e J ws on th . "Overall, and J wish identity did not become an issue during th camp aign rational the Argentine electorate displayed a much mor e so phisticated and 14 understanding of candid ates a nd issues than in the past." President Alfonsfn app ointed a numb er of J ws to his administration, includ­ planning ; ing Berna rdo Grinspun as minister of finance and later as minister of ersohn Leopoldo Portnoy as vice-presid nt of the Central Bank, Mario Brod d adminis­ as tr asury seer t ary, Oscar Oszlak as undersec retary of research an trative reform, and Rob er to Schteingart as undersecretary of state for informa­ el Sadosky tion and development. Adolfo Stubrin as minister of education, Manu as secretary of s tate for science a nd technology; Oscar Shuberoff as r ctor of sh d eans, the University of Buenos Aires, as well as the a ppointm nt of Jewi ish psycho­ and espec ially the appointm ent of Marcos Aguinis, a w II -known Jew analyst and writer, to the post of undersecretary of cultur e, signified recognition Chur ch of the multicultural reality of the co untr y but enraged th Catholic Jews and Non-Jews 265

and its allies?; These app ointm ents aroused a campaign to discredit th adminis­ tration as "la sinagoga Radical" ("Radical" is the name o f Alfonsin's centri st part y; sinagoga is defined b y Spanish-language dictionari es as "conspiracy") and J ewish officials we re acc used of infiltratin g the g overnm ent on b ehalf of "international Zi onism." General R amon Camps, the "hero" of th e military repression in Buenos Aires responsible for gross human right s violations durin g the proceso, publi shed a book in which he charged that Jewish banking int r sts were s ubve rting the s tate a nd w arnin g of Zioni st infiltration . Neverth eless, these app ointments held, and pr p ared the way for amendm ent of the constitu­ tion so as to eliminate the requir ement th at th e president of th e nation be a communi cant of th e Ca tholic C hurch. Pero nista Ca rlos Saul Menem, a Catholic born into a Muslim family that originated in Syria, followed Alfonsfn in the presidency. Menem showed sensi­ tivity to Jewish issues, b coming the first Argentin e president to send his foreign minister o n a visit to I srael. H e a pp arently utilized hi s special relationship to ask th e gov rnm ent of S yria to look into th e fa te of mi ssing Israeli pri soners of w ar. He is known t o have close a dvisers w ho are Jews (such as Samuel Muzykanski and M oises Ikonicoff) a nd h as a ppoint ed J wish p eronistas to important p osts in hi s a dmini stration , includin g Ca rlos Vladimiro Corach as minister of interior and D eput y Justice Minist r Eli as Jassan.

Disintegratio_n It was in thi s democratic period th at Ar gentine Jewry s uffered it s most cl vastating blow. On M onday mornin g, 18 July 1994, at a few moments before ten, a bomb destroyed the AMIA buildin g in downtown Buenos Aires, brin ging to an end a decade o f hope that h ad b gun with th e elections of 1983 . Eighty­ six persons were killed, hundr eds maimed, and th e building its If w as de­ stroyed.2fi The terror ists who planned and carried out the a ttack- like those who had destroy cl the mbassy of Israel two years earlier- knew exactly what they were doing. They had stru ck at th e functioning heart of th e Jewish community. The damage ca used b y destru ction of th e building and loss of life was comp ound ed by a surge of hoaxes perpetrated against survivors and telephon ed threats of"we 'll g t you next." Perhaps the unkindest cut came from sympathiz­ ers who r g retted th at "not ju st J ews but inno cent p opl e" had b een killed. Thousands of citizens came o ut t o demonstrate against race hatred and terror, but oth r s resp onded by distancing themselves motionally and geographically from the hazard th ey pe rceived as e manating from too do s ass ociation with the victims. J wish institutions now had difficulty renewing their leases, J wish soccer t eams found themse lv s cane led out of league c omp tition s, a nd th e erec tion of concrete barri ers in front of Jewish schools created th e atmosphere of a gh tt o, so mething that h ad n eve r existed .in Arg ntina. To the suggestion that a motive fo r th attack may have been t o destroy Nazi archives which Pr sid nt M n em h ad r ece ntly handed ov er t o the DAIA for analysis, one 266 JEWS AND THEIR WORLDS

AMIA-Comunidad Judfa de Buenos Aires-is the pr incipal organization of Argentin Jewry. Its building at 633 Pasteur, in the heart of the old Jewish district of Once, housed a library, archives, social welfare agenci s, a labor exchange, publishing and cultural activities. r searcher responded, "In Argentina, no one would be mbarrass d to be publicly reveal d as a Nazi." To date, the perpetrators have not been apprehended, leading to the suspi­ cion that they never will be. The perpetrators of the earlier attack on the Isra li Embassy, which left 30 dead and 250injured, have never be n caught. Suspicion in both cas s focused on pro-Iranian Hezbullah, but this wasnever proved; in any event, terrorism experts believe the attacks could not have succeed d without local help, possibly from among disgruntled soldiers and police who believ d themselves unjustly accused of criminal behavior for having follow d orders to torture or assassinate prisoners during the Dirty War. Such persons likewise have n ver b en identified or appr hended. The long-run outcome of the bombing of AMIA has yet to unfold. The Jews of Argentina, who had had ample r ason for discontent with their major institution, rallied to renovate and rebuild th AMIA. A process of communal self-evaluation got under way. Conceivably, public revulsion at the massacre of innocents may lead to a mod ration of anti-Semitic rhetoric as the legacy of Jews and N on-Jews 267

On 1 8 Jul y 1994, the AMIA building perp was d estroyed by an explosive etrators were never apprehend device. The en ed. Eighty-nine persons were s more maimed. Most of th e vic killed a nd doz ­ tims were Jews, but othe port ed, "we re innocent." rs, the ra dio re­ 268 JEW S AND THEIR WORLD

for examination . President relentless nacionalista propagandizing is held up was that the attac k h ad M nem, whose first reaction to th e AMIA bombin g neither th capacity nor the been carri ed out to embarrass him , has display cl will to solv th e c rim e.

Jews in Politics : Beyond Argentina in national politics was Th path by which Jewish Latino s might participat partiall y and int er­ never clearly marke

property , as had happ ene

Jew in Politics: A Schematic View This rost er of non-hispanic names in Latin Am rican politics announc s a significant chang in social attituc.les , one that acknowlcdg s th citizens hip rights of Jews. A meaningful future for Jews is difficult to envision \vithout admittance to political participation . It may th refor e b a us ful xe revi w th rcis to conditions under which J ws ar able to participate in politics Latin America. This question in can be viewed from thr ee different p rsp that ctives: of society at large, the organiz d J wish community, and Jewish individuals politically active ; and in thr ee differ ent cont xts: demo raci tates, s, authoritarian and under revolutionary conditions. 'lfi From th e standpoint of society at larg , Argentina , Brazil, hil , Uruguay. osta Rica and Panama hav all I cted r sp ctab l numb rs of J wish candi­ dates to public offic during d mocratic p riods . o legal barriers to their election or appointment ar known to ex.ist, but an ient hatreds may surface when partisanship b comes heat d. or may b cl lib rat ly employed in ord to drive a wedge through th ranks r of the opposing party . Th p riods 1958 - 62 and 1983-8 5 in Argentina and 1970 -73 in hile d mon trated this political schizophrenia: Jews w re I ct d to office, but nacionalistas attack d th ernm gov­ ent for being "under th contro l of J ws." Authoritarian r gimes restrict political participation by all converting political int rests to financial ones. Rob rt L vine r citiz ns, often ecords an structive incident from 1930s in­ Cuba . "Relations b tw en th J wish colon officialdom followed th y and e rath r p ersonalistic formula r quir d by th fact that Batista was d e facto the h ad of stat . When anti-S mitic broadca . ts on one radio station incr as cl in bellicosity in 1935, repres entativ es from th UHC [United H br w Congr gations] paid a visit to Batista during which th pl dg d ten thousand dollars toward th y campaign to build a n w national library; and th y used th opportunity to ask that som thing b done about the broadcasts . Batista cl ni d that h had any pow r to influenc . .. within a few days unknown vandals smash d the radio things but station, and th offensive hroadcasts w re stilled."·17 J ws ar not found in nacionalista admi nis­ trations , though pr sumably thes accept emo lum nts as w II. Revolutionar regim s tend to b more puritanic y , sine th y come to pow r on a platform 272 JEWS AND THEIR WORLDS

corruption. Furth rmore, nations in turmoil fac problems of such of cleansing plications arising from is usually a desire to avoid com magnitude that ther Allend 's h citizens; in Castro's Cuba as in concern for the status of Jewis the regime against charges of anti-Semitism. Chile, care was htken to protect have to the p erception that their actions might Sandinistc,s too reac ted quickl y Jews. been prejudicial to Nicaraguan rspectiv e of the organized considering the political process from the p In the kehillot originated in it should be remem b r ed that J wish commun ities, on issues that working out coh r ent polides the desire to develop a base for bodi s such as the Argentine DAIA J ws spedfically. R pr esentativ e concern Jewish point of view to the are organized for th purpos of presenting a ligion, lay education , and issues as the free exe rcise of re government on such and many Europ ean ews abroad. As in th e United States the situation of J of commun ica­ find it us ful to have a sing! channel countries, governments require that one be form d; they may also tion, and may eve n request that et fill this role, as did General Pinoch the community name a chief rabbi to in hile?~ be and an authoritarian regime cannot Transactions betwe n a kehillah the dos cl natur e of such regimes. With unsanc­ completely known because of is survival, d, veryone 's principal concern tioned political initiativ e su ppr ess economic characteristics intact. In e with on ·s human , cultural, and if possibl denc e points to a consid rable e of regular political chann els, evi the abs ne Th strategy dates to or recou rse to back channe ls. ex rcise of shtadlanut, ed by .laws Jewish communities, politically immobiliz the Middle Ages, when their safety. depended on the king to guarantee incarc rating them in ghettos, le in th e d into play in both Argentina and Chi Shtadlanut may have been calle escape physical invasion by govern­ 1970s, enabling Jewish institutions to ment forces. ona ry soci ties to hav e no plac e in postr evoluti Shtadlanut would appear the victors are in such as Castroit Cuba or Sandinista Nicaragua, wher er, all th rns of behavior. As a practical matt rebellion against traditional patt fill the d individuals who might conceivably wealthy and politically sophisticat th country by the time their (the interm ediary ) will have I ft role of shtadlari loses authority litions of d mocracy, the kehillah talent is requ ired. Under com ty , who pour out into gen ml socie can no longer speak for its memb rs and political engagem nt. t, edueation , interma rria ge, and via employmen to a Latin American For individuals , being Jewish confers no advantage drop th ir relationship to the commu­ politician, which is why ambitious persons rnor of the Argentine provin c One thinks of Nestor Perl, peronista gov nity. ess of a handi cap now than identifi cation with Judaism is l of Chubut. But d Jews are accepting the increasing numbers of self-identifi formerly, and lit s for educated , public service. The need of modernizing challeng of prejudic e; working tent individuals can override residual technically comp Moderniz rs who recognize d inh erited pr judicial attitudes. relationships ero on the basis of le talen t appoint J ws to office the need to make use of availab Jews ancl Non-Jews 273

th ir t chnical qualifications rather than th eir ancestry, and J ewish emphasis on education position ed thousands to take advantage of the n ew openness. Under conditions of liberal democracy, the numb er of Jews holding public office rises dramatically, demonstrating enhanc d acceptability of Jewish candi­ dates among liberals as well as the existence of a reservoir of political talent and desire for public service that pr eviously were locked up within the kehillal1 or confined to th e bu_sin ss world. Jewish appoint ees appear to outnumb er Jews who are e lected to public office, though this observation has not b een t sted b y research . No Jews have been identified as serving right-wing authoritarian regimes. There are no doubt highly conservative J ws, some of whom ma y sympathize with the goals of such regimes, but th e anti-Semitism inherent in the nacionalista orientation precludes their appointm ent to governm ent office and mandates the expulsion of any who may already occupy a position . In revolutionary times, some Jews join the revolution, o thers l eave the co untr y, and the remainder stay put but adopt a low political profile. This happ ened in Cuba and Nicaragua, where the majority of communit y members l eft th e co untr y but individual Jews remained and continu ed with their lives. Overall, one may say that individual Jews are motivated politically by the same forces that motivate non-J ws , but conditioned by the presence or absence of anti-Semitism. The kehillot have adapted to the entire range of governments that hav e exe rcised pow er in Latin Am erica, but they have never b een able to control th e actions of individual Jews, who are free to drop th eir association with the comm unity. Adaptation takes place through the increased acceptance of Jews in public life, and the eme rgence of politically sophisticated community leaders who have grown up in the national political system a nd learn d how to work with it. As Latin as they are Jewish, these leaders adapt Jewish institu­ tions to th e exigencies imposed on them. So th e commun ities have s urvived under every co nceivable type of governme nt, but th ey are diminishing in size as different socio conomic classes, buffeted by left-wing revo lution or right­ wing repression, find th ey can not survive under the prevailing re gime and choose reluctantly to emigrate.

Integration

There were at all times in th e history of Latin America individuals and class s who were uninterested in scapegoating and more concerne d with the modern­ ization of social attitud es. Masonic lodges, with their history of opposition from the churc h, were r ceptive to J ews as allies. Positivists in Brazil and M xico welcomed European Jews as modernizers. Anticlericals dep lore the teachings of the church with respect to Jews and sometimes becom pronoun ced philo­ Semites, collecting Jewish and converse memorabilia and endowing themselves retroactiv ly with Sephardic ancestors. It h as b en noted that individual non- 274 JEW A D THEIR WORLDS y spontaneous ly with th ultimate and reb ls som times identif conformist elemf'nts within th hi er­ y of Jews. In r ec nt yea rs, important nonconformit Brazil, and Chil , have hurch , particular! in Peru , an:hy of th atho lic th , I v I of ed Jewish commun ities to rC'duc ·ollaborat cl with th organiz encyclicals of John the spirit of the en light ned free- noating anti-S mitism in ecumenica l are most active! involv ·cl with I. Never theless , thos wlto popu ­ XXII hav not thus far pen ·trat ed initiatives acknowl dge that th ir fforts 11 lar consciousn ess. ' ews was projected lations betw ee n J ws and non-J An optimistic view of re ittee in 1992. Attitud s by th American Je\vish Comm by a survey sponsored d in five regions of r immigrant groups were surv y toward Jews and oth Tucuman , and , Greater Buenos Air s, and 6rdoba, Argentina(~ deral capita l er. In order e junta 's dismissal from pow provinc es) a cl cade after th Santa ~ s ntim nts and gen raliz ti en specifica lly anti-S mitic to distinguish b twe r sponclents to rate five at a ll immigrants , the poll asked xenophobia aimed , and Arabs . The sur­ , Paraguayans , Koreans , J ws immigrant groups-Italians thnic origin, nationality . of respondents consider d e v y found that 82 per ·ent all" in dealing important " or "not important at and r ligion either "not very An ev •n higher p rcentag had no with n ighbors or coll agu s at work. am , mber of any of th five immigrant objection to a son or daught r marrying of r spontl nts er than J ws. ·eventy p ' rcent groups; only Italians scor cl high ethnic e id a that th country would b b tt r off without these r ject d th J ws, Protestants , Muslims , Evan­ groups, and 80 p rc ent upheld th right of d b 62 eligion freely. J ws w er rate g licals, and Buddhists to practic th ir r were s n as the nt-ori •nt cl" group; Italians p rcent as the "most achi vem showed ws running a closes cond. Ambivalenc most d vot cl to family, with J , (group) estion : "Would you say that in Arg ntina today up in respons e to th qu long to a s parat are part of th Arg ntin p opl or b or th ir desc ndants nly. Forty-s v n per nt felt r spond nts split almost v p ople?" On this , p oples (Koreans and their cl sc endants ar separat that J ewish immigrants that J ws ar a part whil 49 p rc ent r sponded app ared ven more ali n); of th Argentine peopl . of Tucuman, sm wer found in th provinc e highest I v ls of anti-Sem iti Th and r ligious homog n ity are attitucl s privileging cultur al wh re traditional socio conomic !add r , , th low rap r on 's position on th most p rsist nt. Also s plurali sm. to ndors e cultural or r ligiou the less likely was h or sh ... are a minority ph nom non negative feelings toward J ws Whil e low r on go s on th e so ·io­ society. they do increas the rabl in Arg ntine low st groups show a consid econom ic !add r , to th point that th th high for very on r sponcl nt at d gr of negativity. In g neral, form of rej ction of J ws, four respond- or middl levels xpr ssing som lev I do so . nts on th low st I vel : the mor J ws is also r lated to ducational Hostility toward to manit st negative al, th less lik l y h or she is educat d the individu ll g -educat cl , while only 2 p rcent of co ~ elings toward Jews. Thus Jews and Non-Jews 275

respondents assert that Jews are undesirable as immigrants, among those who have only an incomplete primary education such belief reaches 15 percent. Not surprisingly, the same applies to a pluralistic outlook in general, with college educated-respondents being most open to cultural and religious diversity. It is important to note that the less educated sectors show a greater hostility toward Jews than toward other minor- 41 ity groups. '

The generally positive perception of Jews found by this survey is surprising in the light of Argentine history and in view of other surveys that have been conducted periodically since at least 1919 and that have found higher levels of anti-Semitism.41 It points either to a reversal of historic beliefs (perhaps inspired by acknowledgment of the excesses to which these beliefs have led) or else to flaws in the design of the survey. Only time will tell which interpr etation is nearer the truth . "In a violent society where public constraints against defama­ tion are not very well institutionalized , the political culture of Argentina is ill-equipped to neutralize anti-Semitism, despite the enactment of anti­ discrimination laws." 42 During democratic interludes , not only Jewish politicians but Jewish intel­ lectuals and artists become visible in the public sphere. J ws occupy faculty positions at institutions of higher learning in numbers that apparently exceed their proportion in the population , although many intellectuals of Jewish origin no longer consider themselves Jewish. Perhaps the area of greatest achievement by self-identified Jews has been literary. Fictional works by Jewish authors , widely sold throughout Latin America as well as in translation abroad, no longer portray the idealized landscape paint ed by Alberto Gerchunoff in his centenary homage to Argentina , Los gauchosjud{os. The next genera tion of authors such as Mario Szichman, German Rozenmacher , Mario Goloboff, and Pedro Orgambide expressed disillusionment at Jewish marginalization and the ingenious ways in which the marginalized attempt to accommodate to their capricious, often malevolent, circumstances. Contemporary Latin American Jewish authors such as Angelina Muniz , Esth er Seligson, Ilan Stavans, and Margo Glantz (Mexico), Victor Perera (Guatemala ), Isaac Goldemberg (Peru), Ricardo Feierstein , Manuela Fingueret , Alicia Steimberg , Eliahu Toker, and Marcos Aguinis (Argentina) elaborate on "multiple exiles," "zones of marginal­ ity," "cultural mestizaje," and "dual identities ," the latter being a more serious affliction than "dual loyalties" because it attacks one's inner self Samuel Rawet, Clarice Lispector, and Moacyr Scliar, each with a different response to their Jewish heritage , are all respected Brazilian writers . Scliar turned his Jewish protagonist into a centaur to express the ambiguous status of Jew as Brazilian and human being. These artists' breadth of imagination , willingness to experi­ ment with traditional genres, and creativity in inventing new ones have attracted a genera l readership while also revealing a profound insecurity; disillusionment is the hallmark of their work. And this very hispanic desengaiio has won them public acceptance. Through fiction, poetry , and literary criticism (one thinks WORLDS 276 J EWS ANO THEIR es and iel Mu chnik) Jewish s nsibiliti osa Lida, David Vii'las, Dan 4 1 of Maria R erican litera ry canon . ' ar winning a place in the Latin Am Jewish authors profession, and a consid­ grants turn ed to journ alism as a Many J wish immi . The total numb er of their own journ als of opinion erable numb er founded e circulated in entifiably Jewish sources that hav periodica ls e manatin g from id 250.44 With prob ably comes to as many as Buenos Air s at one time or another l press, tion and attrition of the communa ulturation of the second genera th acc er, multim

from Jerusalem . replicating in an uncanny way the experience of fifteenth­ century Sephardim , many of whose greates t achievements were accomplished beyond the borders of Spain in Egypt or Turkey. Some p rforming artists find it necessary to quit their native lands for less dramatic reasons: to acquire the training they need, or in search of an interna­ tional career . Bolivian Jaime Laredo, the Argentine composer Lalo Schifrin and the pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim all made their reputations in the United States . Schifrin was born in Buenos Aires to Latino par nts with roots in Russia. His father was concertmaster at Buenos Aires ' Teatro Colon and his first piano teacher was Enrique Barenboim (father of Daniel). After studying with Olivier Messia n, Schifrin formed a jazz band that attracted the attention 4 of Dizzy Gillespie, who brought him to the United States in 1958. " Daniel Barenboim, born in Buenos Aires in 1942 , debuted in the United States in 1957 and went on to an international career. In 1996 he made a nostalgic trip down memory lane with a cassette of tangos titled "Mi Buenos Aires Querido. " The title comes from a Carlos Garde! tango, which itself may owe something to a Yiddish song. The underground survival of Jewish culture during periods of repression was demonstrated in 1983 , when , within a month of the resignation of the military regime, Buenos Air s a udiences were treated to a production of The Diary of Anne Frank and a recital of Mozart songs sung in Yiddish. The arena within which artists and intellectuals of Jewish origin may function-theatres , universities , art gal leries , radio and television-has expanded dramatically in recent years, a fact worth noting because their success depends not only on talent but on their ace ptability to the public. The roster of Jewish scientists who have emerged from Latin cultures to play a role in the evolution of scientific knowledge is distinguished and should be the subject of a separate monograph. A not atypical life history is that of Cesar Milstein, son of a Jewish farmer from Villaguay, Entre Rios, and a Russia­ born peddler who founded the first Yiddish school in Bahia Blanca. Cesar graduated in biochemistry from the University of Buenos Aires , where he founded the first cooperative bookstore. His doctoral thesis was awarded a prize by the Argentine Society of Biochemists , and he went on to win a fellowship to study at Cambridge . Returning to Argentina to make his career, he became director of the Department of Molecular Biology at the National Institute of Microbiology. He resigned his position in 1963 beca\lse of turmoil in the institutions of higher learning . Thereafter, he returned to Cambridge. 4 He was awarded a Nobel prize in medicine in 1984. ~ He is just one of the hundreds of intellectuals who were lost to Argentina due to the brutalization of politics in that country. The integration of Jews into Latin American soci ties is taking place in an amazing variety of ways. Jewish gauchos continue to exert their · charm: in 1995, two Buenos Aires plays dealt with that vanished tribe . Countless colom­ bianos wear a six-pointed Star of David on a chain aro und the neck as a R WORLD 278 JEW A D TIIEI stamp , Urngua issued a postag At anoth t>r level. in 1992 good l11c:kc harm. nce in tlw Americas; the ed years of a Jewish prese comm morating five hundr e r of' a Yiddish ­ Orsuj, daught t>r of' th found was designecl by Raquel Fuji­ stamp ac:t, Peruvian President Alberto In a meaningful symbolic: language daily. prim e minister by remov­ oldenbt>rg's swparing in as mori prepar ed for Efrafn In a cenwter y in ides over s11c:hceremonies. e c:ruc:ifix that usually pr es Moya!. ing th at th · grave of' Rabbi Salon s make pilgrimag e to pray Manau s. 'hristian saint , it is said, miracu lously s of' the Amazon in 1910. Tlw who ws. tomb . ot all the mytl1olo

Reorienting Jewish Life Jews that the accommodation and I 980s demonstrat ed Events of the 1970s attachecl to Zionism as n life-a sec ular minorit y had made to Latin Anwrica close relation ­ had rC'a ·heel its limit. Th e t>for its ancestral religion- s a s11bstitut ce of' prid e. pr rse nted dang<'r of' Israel. originally a sour ship with tht State of' d11al lo_ alty) and from tlw right (as a form Zionism canu:• under attack Jewish statt· as t pow e rs). riginall , the as an ally of imperialis ad the left (Israel . A gPnera tion down tlw ro rit y of insec m e immigrants had enhanc ed the secu not by thf' dif'fic:ulti('S of' dri vC'n by its own needs. it was clear that lsrad was f'<'n lsrael anPnc·xposc·d 1 generatio to whom tlw I folocaust SPt'tn<•t . or African kehillot . and thc>Europt'an . Asian rc•ligious c:on• to J<'wisl fron1 , pain . hsc•ncf' of' a as distant as tliP Expulsion rntl' of int<•nnar­ rc•a:on for the acc:<'lerating came to lw s1•c•11as a princ:ipal aism f'ron lifr· ·t of' disappc•untnt·c• of' Jud brought with it the prospc• c·ct riag<'. which nts that rqm •ssc·d otlwr asp ly. Furtlw rn1on'. govPl'lllll<' tl,c• c:ontiiwnt <·ntir<' of' resp<'cli11grc-ligiou or Bundi s111. had a n ·c·ord of Jt·wish lift'. su ·h as Zionism as cornntitnwnt t, 11daism as a rc·ligio11 incn·ast'd ohsc·r anc<·. lnl·c·n•st in J . Zionism wa1wd dubs . and c1ilt11ral i11stitu . Argc·ntinc· synagoguPs. sports As notC'd c•,1rlil'r an · r<'gi11H· of 1976 -, dur ing the rq m·s~ivC' 111ilit lions all gaiil<'d m<·111l)('rship dl'111ot·rac), so111 huvc•ns. \,\'ith lhl' rc'llll'n of wne pc•rt·PivPd lo IH' sali· c11~t()(' as tlwy bolt from tlwir protl'ctiv<' that thPir d1ildrl'n wo uld pan•11ts 1<.·ur<'cl n1on' c·xposing tlw111st>lv< politic·al mac•lstro1n, one:<· and rC'lurn to llw national llC'~an. infl11l·11cl'd I . a spetiC's of n·ligio11s rC'vival lo dang<·r. At this j1111cture I I Jews ancl Non-Jews 279 I global as well as regional developments. 4/iReligious commitm nt is evident ly I increasing throughout the Christian, Muslim, and Jewish worlds. Within Judaism , the phenomenon of the baal t'shuva (one who returns to b Ii f) \ has gained importance . Orthodox rabbis with a mission of outreach to the lost Jews of Latin America took up the challenge in the 1980s. Missionaries of Agudat Israel, as well as Lubavitch rand Satmar Hasidim were sent to principal cities all over Latin America ; founding yeshivot (religious schools) to attract the sons of the unaffiliated. Rejecting efforts to modernize th ancient religion, Orthodoxy receives considerable financial and moral suppo rt from J ws who lack religious formation themselves but ar now seeking their spiritual roots. It detracts nothing from their spiritual motivation to note that the choice of Orthodoxy sometimes originates in the desire to inoculate their childr n against assimilation and keep them out of reach of another round of rebellion and r pression . As described earlier, the Buenos Aires rabbinical seminary has pr par d several classes of Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking rabbis capab l of present ­ ing Judaism in a modern vernacular . Their Progressive congregations attract parents who may thems Ives b agnostic but who want to give their children a J wish identity without entering into the Orthodox world. Th se congrega­ tions have acquired social status, as upwardly mobil families exchange their Yiddish-sp aking schools and clubs for moderniz d religious congregations. By 1988, some fifty Conservative congregations were functioning in Argentina , Chile, Peru , Brazil, Ven zuela, Colombia , and M xico, thirty of th s with S minario-trained rabbis, and embracing about one hundred thousand congre­ gants whos enthusiasm can achieve lyrical h ights.49 Progressiv rabbis also engage in dialogue with Catholic and Prot estant clergy where such initiatives are possible, advancing into territory Orthodox J ws avoid. The dialogue is probably most advanc d in Brazil; in Arg ntina, engagement with th church was foreclosed by the hierarchy 's involvem nt with th military repression . Interfaith dialogu could b gin only in th postdictatorship p riod of the 1980s, when it was jump-start ed by officials of th World Jewish Congr ss, Anti- 0 famation L ague, and Amer ican Jewish Committee. Today, dialogue and th publishing of guidelines for activating the 1952 r forms of Vatican II proceed at a dignified pace. But the principal spokesmen for J wish and Catholic rapproch em nt r side in the United States:"' Possibly the most sp ctacu lar instance of a revival of re/jgion among J ws is taking plac in Cuba . Under the R volution, creyentes- r ligious beli vers of any faith- w re not ace pted as members of th Communist part y, and ther fore could not be admitted to a university or a proC ssional care r. Even so, fiv synagogu s survived in Havana , although most J ws abandoned the island and few of those remaining wer int rest d in religion. Wh n th government's r ligious policy was r )axed by decision of the Fourth ongr ss of the Cuban Communist party in 1991, synagogues revived along with church es. As Cubans were reli ved of the necessity of suppressing 280 JEW A D THEIR WORLD . Th ere were still ho! s in its roof. their r ligious beli fs. Jewish life revived Hebr a

within liberal and pro gressive sec tors find th ems Ives defenseless against re­ pression from th right. The experiences of the 1970s and 1980s ended th e dream of integration into a secular society. The destruction of the AMIA, compound ed by the impunit y allowed th e ter rorists , brought into qu stion the future of the largest of the Jewish communities of Latin America and under­ scored th e need to r ethink th e s trat egy for Jewish survival in Latin Am erica. The ideal of a s cu lar Latin American Jewish id entity found ered on the rock of nacionalismo. In this situation, a turn to religion could be see n as a way of gaining accepta nce as a tolerated minorit y. It was not th e path originally chosen by the Ashkenazic immigrants; it is not th e liberalizing solution sought by th e immigrant generation. But it is clos e to th e path historically follow ed by Sepharclim , whose cultur e and whose survival skills were d veloped in a thou sand years of living in hispanic societies . During th Columbu s quincenten­ ary year the governm ents of both Sp ain and Portugal abjur ed the anti-Semitism that l ed to p ersecution and expulsion of the Jews five hundr ed years ago . If the Latin American republics follow a similar path, religion could becom e a way to satisfy both th e Jewish quest for survival and the proscriptions that these soc ieties lay upon their nonconformist s.

I I I

\ I

\ I I I I 303 in possible violation of arms-export controls.Notes Into latePages November 245-252 1986, Reagan Administration officials announced that some of the proceeds from the sale of U.S. arms to Iran had been diverted to the Contras" (xiii). Inv stigation revealed that Israel had been one of the channels utilized by Reagan operatives under the control of Col. Oliver North to sell weapons to Iran in exchange for U.S. hostages, and to use profits from the sale to transmit weapons to the Nicaraguan Contras. 31. The 1975 figure, from the 1982 figure, by Sergio DellaPergola, "Population Trends of Latin American Jewry," in Elkin and Merkx, Comuniclades j11d{as de latinoamerica, 1973-75; 32. Ignacio Klich, "Latin America, the United States, and the Birth of Israel: The Case of Somoza's Nicaragua,"The Jewish pp. 429-30. Presence. 33. Cited in JoAnn Fagot Avie!, "The Enemy of My Enemy," in F,rnandez, pp. 17-18. 34. See reports and editorials in Central America, tc., throughout the year. 35. These and other insights ar Christiandeveloped Science by Damian Monitor, J. FernandezNew York Tirnes, in his essayLatin "Central America America,Weekly Report, the Middle East, and the Spiderweb Theory of Conflict," in F, rnandez, ed., 36. Peter Kornbluh and Malcolm Byrne. Centralpp. 59-60. America and the Middle East. 37. Ibid., p. 59. The Iran-Contra Scandal: The Declassified38. History, 13 January 1985, p. 1, " icaragua Rebels Reported to Have New Flow of Arms." 39. NewEdy Kaufman,York Times, "Israel and the Contras," pp. 14-17. 40. Edy Kaufman, "The View from Jerusalem," p. 45. 41. The report of the delegation, sponsored by the now-defunct New Jewish Agen

Chapter 11

l. For recent scholarly analysis of anti-Semitism in Latin America, see Haim Avni, "Postwar Latin American Jewry: An Agenda for the Study of the Last Five Decades," in edited by David Sheinin and Lois Baer Barr (New York: Carland Publishing, 1996).The Jewish For analysis Diaspora of inthe Latin phenomenon, America: New see Studiesespecially on HistonJHaim Avni, and "AntisemitismLiterature, under Democratic and Dictatorial Regimes: The Experience of Latin American Jewry" (Jerusalem: Hebrew University, 1985); Judith LaikinElkin, "Antisemitism in Argentina: The Jewish Response," in edited by Jehuda Reinharz (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1987); and Jose Marfa Chio, "LaLiving cuesti6n with Antisemitism:nacional y la cuesti6nMod.em Jewishjudfa," Responses,in edited by

El genvcidio ante la historia y la naturaleza humana, 304 Notes to Pages 252-264

Beatriz Gurevich and Carlos Escude (Buenos Aires: Universidad Torcuato DiTella, 1994), p. 235. 2. Alb rto Spektorowski,"La imagen del judfoen lascorrientes integralistas y populistas de! nacionalismo argentino," in AMILAT II, p. 112. 3. Haim Avni, "Antisemitism in Argentina: The Dimensions of Danger," p. 69. 4. Ibid., pp. 68-69. 5. Leonardo Senkman, · "El antisemitismo bajodos experiencias demo- craticas," p. 7. 6. Ibid., pp. 13-18. 7. David Rock, Argentina, 1516-1982, p. 340. 8. Senkman, "El antisemitismo bajo," pp. 90-92. 9. Ibid., 91. 10. Robert M. Levine, "Anatomy of a Brazilian Anti-Semite." 11. Figures from Bernardo Kligsberg, "La juventud judfa en la Argentina," cited in Robert Weisbrot, "Jews in Argentina Today," p. 396. 12. Haim Avni, in "Antisemitism in Argentina: The Dimensions of Danger," pp. 62-63, asserts that "The affiliation of Jews with either organization (ERP and Montoneros) required the renunciation of Jewishness." A similar statement by the pres nt author in the first edition of this book aroused a passionate denial from a J wish former memb r of th Montoneros who asserted that Jews were accepted on equal terms with non-Jews among leadership, middle echelon, and action cadres alike. My informant also claimed that Jewish radicals were effective within the Uruguayan Tupamaros despite the anti-Israel stance of that group. 13. Testimony of Laura Bonaparte de Bruschtein, from exile in Mexico. In Exlgimos justicia porque queremos la paz, pp. 7-8. 14. Kaufman, "Jewish Victims of Repr ssion in Argentina under Military �k(illW����� 15. Barromi, "Argentina: twenty years afterwards"; and Senkman, "Isra I y el rescate de las v!ctimas de la represi6n," pp. 283-93. 16. Mir Iman, "Las organizaciones internacional s judfas ante la r presi6n y el anti-Semitismo en Argentina," p. 243. 17. The Anti-Defamation Leagueof B'nai B'rith, American Jewish Commit­ tee, and the World Jewish Congress all tracked these incidents. R ference may be made to their numerous publications fordetails. 18. S e, inter alia, Jacobo Timerman, Prisonerwithout a Name, Cell without a Number; CONADEP,Nunca Mas: The Reportof the ArgentineNational Commis­ sion on the Disappeared; Carlos Gabetta, Todos somos subverstvos; Centro de Estudios Legalesy Sociales,various publications reproducing testimony of victims. 19. Kaufman, "Jewish Victims of Repr ssion," p. 491 and appendix. 20. Edy Kaufman, "Introducci6n," p. 194, in Legaclo. My translation. 21. Paul Warszawski, "Regimen militar, iglesia cat6lica y comunidad judfa en la r publica argentina," pp. 221-23. 22 .. Nunca Mas (Never Again): The Reportof the Argentine National Commis­ ion on the Disappeared, passim. 23. Haim Avni, "Arg ntine Jewry," part 1, p. 152. Notes to Pages 264-276 305

24. Jacobo Kovadloff and Susan Rothblatt, "The Argentine Jewish Commu­ nity under Alfonsfn." 25. Leonardo Senkman, "The Restoration of Democracy and the Impunity of Antisemitism in Argentina," p. 42. 26. A moving memorial to the victims will be found in Eliahu Toker, Sus nombres y s11s -rostros: Album recordatorio de las v{ctimas de[ atentado de[ 18 de Julio de 1994. 27. By way of example, here is Gen. Juan Velasco Alvarado, on the first anniversary of the military takeover in Peru. "I want to repeat that not one of us has political ambitions. We are not interested in competing in the electoral arena. We have not come to play the game of politics .. .. Some p ople expect d very different things and were confident, as had been the custom, that we came to power for the sole purpose of calling elections and returning to them all their privileges. The people who thought that way were and are mistaken." Cited in Loveman and Davies, The Politics of Anti-Politics, p. 211. 28. Mario Sznajder, "Judafsmo chileno y el gobierno," in AMILAT II, p. 143. 29. Despite Chile's international reputation as a democratic society, in the 1950s the country had the second highest infant mortality rate in the hemisphere, exceeded only by Haiti. 30. AmericanJewish Year Book 77:356. 31. Alicia Backal and Gloria Carreflo,Parle de Mexico, 7:144-46, Generaci- ones j11d(as en Mexico. 32. AmericanJewish Year Book 96:226. 33. Washington Jewish Week, 3 November 1994. 34. World Jewish Congress, Dateline, 1992. 35. Nam s and offices were report d in successive issues of World Jewish Congress Dateline and OJI (Buenos Aires). 36. A more detailed analysis is to be found in my essay "Is There a 'Jewish Interest' in Latin American Politics?" 37. Robert M. Levine, "Cuba," in The World Reacts to the Holocaust, pp. 786-87. 38. Interview, Rabbi Angel Kreiman, at the time chief rabbi of Chile. 39. Interview, Rabbi Henry Sobel, Congrega�ao Israelita Paulista, Sao Paulo, 1996. 40. Edgardo Catterberg, "Argentina Survey." Nineteen hundred individuals were interviewed face-to-face in their homes between 12 November and 3 Decem­ ber 1992. 41. The three most influential studies are Gino Cermani's class,-based "Anti­ semitismo ideol6gico y antisemitismo tradicional," Comentario 39(1962); Enrique Pichon Riviere's comparison of civilian with military opinion, "Los perjuicios raciales en Argentina," in N11eva Sion for 31 January 1964; and Joaqufn Fischerman's "Etnocentrismo y antisemitismo,'' Indice 1 (Decem1?er 1967). All were reprinted in Sebreli, La cuesti6n jud{a en la Argentina. 42. Senkman, Impunity, p. 54. 43. See, for example, Lois Baer Barr, Isaac Unbound: Patriarchal Traditions in the Latin AmericanJewish Novel; Ana E. Wiinstein and Miryam E. Cover de Nasatsky, eds., Escritoresj11deo-argentinos. Bibl-iograf(a 1900-1987; Ilan Stavans, 306

d., Notes to Pages 276-280 Rob rt DiAntonio and Nora Glickman, eds., Tropical Synagogues: ShortDavid Stories Williamby Jewish-Latin Foster and NaomiAmerican Lindstrom, Write�; "Jewish Argentine Authors: A Registry." RicardoTradition Feierst and in,Inno ed., ation: Reflectionson Latin American Jewish Writing;Naomi Saul Sosnowski, Lil Glen aflos de narratlva judeoargentlna1889/1989; Rob rt and RobertaLindstrom.Jewish Kalechovsky, Issues inAn Argentine Literature. From Gerchunoff to S::::ichman; orilla inminente. Escritores judlos44. argentlnos;Ricardo Feierstein, Echad: Anthologyp. 330. of Latin American45. Jewish Biographic Writings. sk tches of hundr ds of Argentine J wish personalities will be found in Feierstein, Hlstorla de Los jud{os argentinos,and in Martha Wolff and Myrtha Schalom, For Mexico, s e Judit Bokser de Liwerant, Historia de Los judws argentinos, eds.,Jud{osy argentlnos,judlosargentinos. 46. WolfTand Schalom,Imagenes eds., de un enmentro:& La presenclap. 225. jud{a en Mexico durante47. la Ibid.,primera mitad& del siglo XX.p. 246. 48. Research into the practiceJudws of Judaism Argentinos, in Latin America is almost non­ existent. A rabbinicJud(os th sis onArgentlnos, "The Emerg nee of the Progressive Judaism in South America" was submitted to Hebrew Union College by Clifford Kulwin in 1983. 49. 27:1 (Jan-March 1988): 16. 50. Rabbi Leon Klenicki (Anti-Defamation League) and Eugene J. Fisher (National Maj'shaoot/Pensamientos,Conference of Catholic Bishops) have jointly published instructional materials in Spanish for putting into practice the principles of the 1982 document in which the Second Vatican Council spelled out th spiritual bonds between the church and th Jewish people. Nostro Aetate, 51. In 1991 the number of persons registered to receive matzo at Passover was 809.