Organized Prostitution and the Jews of Buenos Aires
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Polacos, White Slaves, and Stille Chuppahs: Organized Prostitution and the Jews of Buenos Aires, 1890-1939 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History by Mir Hayim Yarfitz 2012 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Polacos, White Slaves, and Stille Chuppahs: Organized Prostitution and the Jews of Buenos Aires, 1890-1939 by Mir Hayim Yarfitz Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Los Angeles Professor José C. Moya, Chair This dissertation explores the particularly prominent role of Jews in coercive sex trafficking, then called white slavery in Buenos Aires when it was considered to be the world capital. The project aims to de-exoticize the subject by comparing Jewish pimps and prostitutes to other immigrants, grounding them in the neighborhoods they lived in, exploring the concrete concerns of their opponents, and connecting the broader discourses around these issues to transnational conversations about migration, sexuality, and the significance of race, ethnicity, and nationhood – the establishment of the boundaries of whiteness – in the furor around white slavery. I introduce new evidence about the Zwi Migdal Society (also called the Varsovia Society), a powerful mutual aid ii and burial association of Jewish pimps based in the Argentine capital. Ostracized by the nascent Argentine Jewish community, the Zwi Migdal Society nonetheless developed the same communal structures as those found in conventional voluntary immigrant associations: a burial society, a synagogue, health benefits, and peer recognition. My archival discoveries underline the significance of this battle to the local Jewish community's centralization and the shifting international articulation of norms around morality, marriage, family, and labor, and develop a history that opens into larger issues of migration, identity, women’s agency and transatlantic politics. Based on archival research in Buenos Aires, Geneva, New York, London, and Southampton, this project builds upon previous scholarship through new archival discoveries and close analysis of local and international press. iii The dissertation of Mir Hayim Yarfitz is approved. David N. Myers Lauren Robin Derby Adriana J. Bergero José C. Moya, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2012 iv For Trudi, Stu, and Dan v Table of Contents Abbreviations…………………………………………………………........……………viii List of Figures…………………………………………………………........…………….ix List of Tables…………………………………………………………........……………...x List of Charts…………………………………………………………........………..……xi List of Maps………………………………………………...…………........……………xii Acknowledgements………………………………………..…………………........……xiii Vita…………………………………………………………........…………………….xviii Introduction…………………………………………………………………..……………1 Chapter 1: “The So-called White Slave,” a Genealogy…………….……….…………….8 Chapter 2: White Slaves and Jewish Masters on the Road to Buenos Aires…...………..53 Chapter 3: Police and Prostitutes as Heroes and Heroines……………….………….…111 Chapter 4: Sociedad Varsovia as Voluntary Society……………….………………….150 Chapter 5: Ezras Noschim, Jewish Marriage Regulation, Morality Certificates, and Degenerate Prostitute Mothers……………….……………………….……197 Conclusion……………………………………………………........…………………...227 Appendix 1: Crying Tango Men………………………………………………………..230 Appendix 2: Criminologists on La Mala Vida………………………………………….238 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………..…..247 vi Abbreviations EN Ezras Noschim GdF Gaceta de Foro JAPGW Jewish Association for the Protection of Girls and Women JCA Jewish Colonization Association LON League of Nations NYPL SIBL Science Industry and Business Library, New York Public Library VS Varsovia Society ZM Zwi Migdal vii List of Figures 1.1: “Selling a White Slave,” 1882 28 1.2: Exposing the White Sex Slave 45 2.1: “A Bad Night” 77 2.2: Buenos Aires Police Mugshot, November 27, 1893 99 2.3: Buenos Aires Police Record, November 27, 1893 99 2.4: Brothel Owner in Once’s 1895 Red-light District 103 2.5: Simon Rubenstein’s Silk Business Ad in Di Presse 106 3.1: Women Captured by Varsovia Society Members 119 3.2: Alsogaray Immortalized in La Critica 134 3.3: Grateful White Slave Thanks “Man of the Day,” Judge Ocampo 140 3.4: Joke of the Day: Amigdalitis 142 3.5: Police Apprehend Zwi Migdal Members 145 4.1: The Varsovia Society’s Cordoba Avenue Headquarters 170 4.2: The Varsovia Society’s Cordoba Avenue Meeting Room 172 4.3: Entrance to the Varsovia Society’s Cemetery 184 4.4: Plots in the Varsovia Society’s Cemetery 186 4.5: Varsovia Society Synagogue 188 5.1: Yiddish Theater Poster Excerpt Limiting Entry 209 viii List of Tables 2.1: Comparison of Registered Prostitutes’ Statistics 92 2.2: Birthplaces of Jewish Pimps Arrested 1893-4 101 2.3: Jewish Pimps Arrested 1893-4, Length of Residence in Buenos Aires 103 ix List of Charts 4.1: Annual Immigration to Argentina, Varsovia Socios and All Jews 175 x List of Maps 2.1: 1895 Registered Brothels in Central Buenos Aires 94 2.2: 1895 Registered Brothels in the Seventh District 96 2.3: Teme’im Brothels and Residences in Central Buenos Aires, circa 1930 104 2.4: Jewish Brothels in Buenos Aires, Circa 1930 108 xi Acknowledgements This research would not have been possible without the generous assistance of the following institutions and individuals: Silvia Hansman, Débora Kacowicz, Lara Milier, and Jana Powazek at Fundación IWO (Spanish acronym for the Idisher Visenshaftlecher Institut); Monica Testa at CEMLA (Centro de Estudios Migratorios Latinoamericanos); Adolfo Willy Covi and Adriana Graciela Muñoz at the Centro de Estudios Históricos de la Policía Federal; Eugenio Zappietro at the Museo Policial de la Policía Federal Argentina; Jesse Aaron Cohen at the YIVO Archives, and Eleanor Yadin and Miryem- Khaye Seigel at the New York Public Library’s Dorot Jewish Division. Thanks to Liat Kozma for her advice related to the League of Nations Archives, and Mollie Lewis Nouwen for her suggestions related to the Argentine Police Archives. I am also grateful to the UCLA Latin American Institute, Center for Jewish Studies, and History Department for their financial support, as well as the Mellon Foundation for assistance with League of Nations research. Each of my Committee members has played an invaluable role in my intellectual development and the elaboration of this work. Thank you Robin, for your availability, theoretical orientation, and helping me learn how to teach. Thank you José, for sharing your deep knowledge of Buenos Aires (and apparently everyplace else) – I could have never envisioned a pimp prosopography without you. Thank you David, for always pushing me towards the next level with incisive feedback and the ever-present “so what?” Thank you Adriana, for your insights into tango and theory, and your always overly- generous words of encouragement. Kevin Terraciano’s inspirational teaching enlivened xii my first years in graduate school. I’d like to thank the History Department’s staff for holding my hand despite my bungling of bureaucratic necessities, and am particularly grateful to Tammy Von Wagoner, Hadley Porter, Eboni Shaw, Nancy Dennis, and former staff members Mehri Eslami and Bebe Bernstein. My cohort and colleagues have been an amazing, cooperative, and brilliant bunch. I have particularly benefited from learning and teaching alongside, from, and with: Ben Cowan, Zeb Tortorici, Dana Velasco-Murillo, Xochitl Flores, Peter Villela, Liz Jones, Hillel Eyal, Adrián López Denis, Rob Sierakowski, Brad Benton, Liora Halperin, Karen Wilson, Erik Greenberg, Mark Smith, Cassia Roth, Jen Musto, Anat Mooreville, Devin McCutchen, Sarah Promnitz, Sarah Pripas, and Rebecca Dufendach. Special thanks to Ben Cowan for your suggestions on the fourth chapter, Liora Halperin for your translation assistance with Avni’s text, Sasha Sendlerovich for your Sholem Aleichem textual detail, and Pablo Ben for your insights into the porteño underworld. I have also been fortunate to benefit from interactions with accomplished scholars around the world. Sections of this work have benefited from the careful reading and insightful feedback of Raanan Rein, Daniel Llvovich, Lila Caimairi, and Eduardo Zimmerman. My time in Buenos Aires was made comfortable by Alejandro Dujovne, Laura Fernandez Cordero and Pablo, Laura Schenquer, Grabiela Rojas Molina, and the Núcleo de Estudios Judios. My extended family has tried to help me keep my feet on the ground (without holes in my shoes) during this process. A side-benefit of attending UCLA was the chance to deepen my relationships with extended family in the LA area during this time, and to share many fine meals with Joan, Denise, Marc, Evan, Jenna, Christoff, Wendy, Bruce, xiii and Mitchell’s household. Leo Yarfitz taught me from a young age the values of tenacity and the power of a good story; I am grateful to he and Dottie for their unconditional support, and know that Evelyn would also have expressed her pride in this completion. Jenny Block opened her home to me at the beginning of my New York research, and Mary Block did the same for me in London, as well as being the only non-professor to read my entire undergraduate thesis. Marilyn Webb and John Sheedy were also gracious New York hosts. I have always been inspired by the creative examples of Michael, Catherine, and Pepper; and Michael’s loss is still deeply felt. My friends have been the source of whatever sanity I have maintained throughout this process. Especially useful to my writing have been my working partnerships