Jews and Argentina's Fútbol

Raanan Rein. Fútbol, Jews, and the Making of Argentina. Translated by Martha Grenzeback. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2014. Illustrations. 240 pp. $24.95, paper, ISBN 978-0-8047-9341-4. Reviewed by Dalia Wassner Published on H-Judaic (May, 2016) Commissioned by Matthew A. Kraus (University of Cincinnati) In Fútbol, Jews, and the Making of Argentina, A preeminent historian of Jewish Argentina, Raanan Rein sets for himself and the reader the Rein places the history of Club Atlanta within an following challenge: “Can we write the history of abbreviated history of Jewish immigration to Ar‐ Argentine Jews without mentioning the Atlanta gentina, and more specifically, within a localized football club?” (p. 164). Narrated at once against history of Jewish Buenos Aires replete with street the backdrop of Jewish immigration into Buenos names, neighborhood landmarks, and now-fa‐ Aires, Jewish integration into the city’s neighbor‐ mous inhabitants, to which he adds the club’s in‐ hoods, and the changing political reality of Ar‐ tersection with non-Jewish cultural and political gentina through the twentieth century, the trans‐ personalities who contributed to the formation of formation and growth of Club Atlanta (Club Atléti‐ modern Buenos Aires, and at times, Argentina it‐ co Atlanta) is traced with an eye to the inclusion self. Rein thus addresses defining Jewish moments of Jewish players, club membership, and club ranging from the Semana Trágica to neighbor‐ leadership. In his work, Rein underscores the hood claims to fame, such as Manuel Gleizer’s salience of sports as a valid lens through which to bookstore (a landmark), and the following person‐ approach not only immigrant integration into a alities: Samuel Eichelbaum (the playwright); Julio majority culture but also Jews’ participation in Jorge Nelson (né Julio Rosofsky, the journalist); the very formation of Argentine national identity. and one of the exported crown jewels of modern In undertaking such a study, Rein participates in Argentine Jewish literature, César Tiempo (born recent Jewish historical scholarship that urges Israel Zeitlin). At the same time, Rein’s nuanced more subtle studies on ethnic and national pro‐ understanding of the changing political climate of cesses of belonging as they intersect with local the twentieth century—involving a (qualified) in‐ histories.[1] vitation to European immigration, a total of six coups, the rise of Peronism, and the tragic period H-Net Reviews of the 1976-83 military dictatorship—is placed Atlético Atlanta as a neighborhood sports club alongside a narrative of evolving Jewish trends in where Jews at times formed a substantial percent‐ national politics (socialism, communism, and de‐ age in the club’s leadership and fan base, result‐ politicization) as expressed within the “Jewish” ing, perhaps most importantly, in a majority iden‐ sports club’s shifting periods of politicization. One tity in the public imagination. Substantiating the example is Rein’s coverage of the “Peronization of communal import for Club Atlanta, Rein details Argentine sports” and the club’s deliberations re‐ the club’s auxiliary activities, including such garding naming the stadium after Eva Perón (p. recreational athletic competitions as karate and 104). chess, the building of a skating rink, musical and Having authored several founding historical theatrical performances, flm festivals, fashion accounts of the Jews of Buenos Aires and their re‐ shows, evening dances, fencing exhibitions, an lation to key political fgures and movements, on-site kindergarten, and family programing, Rein is uniquely positioned to undertake the among many others. study of Jewish participation in Buenos Aires A consistent strength of the work is the au‐ neighborhood sports as it relates to their integra‐ thor’s detailed use of various archives in Buenos tion within national cultural identity, which he Aires (Archivo de la Asociación del Fútbol Ar‐ delivers with an eye to new scholarship emerging gentino, Archivo del Club Atlético Atlanta, Archi‐ in the United States and England aiming to do the vo General de la Nación, and Archivo Personal de same in their own contexts. Moreover, the au‐ Jorge Kolbowski), which offer insight into the exis‐ thor’s personal connection to the topic (his father- tence, expansion, and success of the club in terms in-law provides authentic memorabilia and his re‐ of leadership, fnances, player acquisition and lations are current Atlanta fans) gives texture to trades, and the centrality of political endorse‐ his abundant professional archival, oral, and pho‐ ments from such fgures as Juan and Evita Perón tographic sources of evidence. In addition, Rein’s and Jorge Videla. With the help of such archives, own visual elaborations, be they maps of Buenos Rein documents in detail Jewish participation in Aires neighborhoods that detail evolving Jewish the club’s leadership, beginning in 1922 with Os‐ settlement (map 1.1) or tables graphing the grow‐ valdo Simón Piackin and reaching a high point in ing stadiums by size (table 3.1) and charting 1968 with León Kolbowski’s last term, when Jews evolving club rankings by year (tables 4.3, 5.1, 6.2, reached a majority on the board membership. At 7.1), are aided by Ariel Korob’s detailed list of Jew‐ the same time, Rein documents overt manifesta‐ ish members of the board of directors from 1970 tion of anti-Semitism during Atlanta games, pro‐ to 1996 (table 7.2). These auxiliary sources of com‐ viding the troubling lyrics of certain chants that parison, mostly produced by the author, provide in some cases express sympathy with Nazi goals the reader with a condensed forum for relevant and methods of genocide. Rein also documents statistics and a visual appreciation for the club’s the details of local cultural fgures’ participation evolution in terms of location, membership, and in club communal events, which drew, for exam‐ rankings. ple, such personalities as radio hosts Osvaldo Mi‐ The author notes that Argentina was also host randa and Elías Fort, the poet and artist Héctor to nodes of exclusion, which in some cases result‐ Gagliardi, the orchestra of Pedro Láurenz, and the ed in the formation of discrete Jewish sports insti‐ singer Roberto Quiroga. tutions, such as the Hebrew Maccabi Organization Yet surprisingly, some of the most illustrative (1928) and the Club Náutico Hocoaj (1935). How‐ examples of what Jewish involvement with Club ever, this is a study of Jews’ inclusion of Club Atlanta meant for Jewish Argentine ethnic identi‐ 2 H-Net Reviews ty are saved for the introduction and epilogue, Michael Brenner and Gideon Reuveni, eds., Eman‐ where Rein tells of a Yiddish teacher’s testimony cipation through Muscles: Jews and Sports in Eu‐ noting that in the 1950s she altered her Monday rope (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, classes to center on her students’ rendition of the 2006); Anthony Clavane, Does Your Rabbi Know weekend football game, or a reflection that major You’re Here? The Story of English Football’s For‐ works of Jewish Argentine literature (authored, gotten Tribe (London: Quercus, 2012); Mike for example, by Manuela Fingueret and Ricardo Cronin and Avid Mayall, eds., Sporting Nation‐ Feierstein) lend testimony to the centrality of foot‐ alisms: Identity, Ethnicity, Immigration and As‐ ball and Villa Crespo for Jewish Argentina. Like‐ similation (London: Routledge, 1998); George wise, extending the cultural reverberations to Eisen, “Jewish Sport History and the Ideology of 2012, Rein mentions the contemporary telenovela Modern Sport: Approaches and Interpretations,” Los Graduados where one of the central families Journal of Sport History 25 (1998): 482-531; Bren‐ —the Goddzers—speak Yiddish, eat “geufiltefish,” da Elsey, Citizens and Sportsmen: Fútbol and Poli‐ and are passionate for football—specifically as tics in Twentieth-Century Chile (Austin: University fans of Club Atlético Atlanta. Lastly, a bold and of Texas Press, 2011); Franklin Foer, How Soccer unique contribution of the work is a parting pro‐ Explains the World (New York: Harper Perennial, posal to compare Jewish Latin American identi‐ 2004); Julio Frydenberg and Rodrigo Daskal, eds., ties vis-à-vis fútbol to Palestinian Latin American Fútbol, historia y política (Buenos Aires: Aurelia identities (specifically in Chile, Peru, and Argenti‐ Rivera, 2010); Grant Jarvie, ed., Sport, Racism and na). This perspective suggests an interesting foil Ethnicity (London: Falmer Press, 1991); Haim with which to further the study of ethnic integra‐ Kaufman, “Jewish Sports in the Diaspora, Yishuv, tion and identity in Latin American nations not and Israel: Between Nationalism and Politics,” Is‐ only in terms of diverse societies of immigrants rael Studies 10, no. 2 (2005): 147-167; Peter but also as a wider lens through which to under‐ Levine, Ellis Island to Ebbets Field: Sport and the stand Latin America’s nuanced relationship with American Jewish Experience (New York: Oxford immigrants from the Middle East. University Press, 1992); Jeremy MacClancy, ed., Rein’s Fútbol, Jews, and the Making of Ar‐ Sport, Identity and Ethnicity (Oxford: Berg, 1996); gentina thus serves as an invitation to cultural Joshua H. Nadel, Fútbol: Why Soccer Matters in and social historians, and to fans of football ev‐ Latin America (Gainesville: University Press of erywhere, to further explore the significance and Florida, 2014); and Raanan Rein and David M. K. representation of Club Atlético Atlanta in terms of Sheinin, eds., Muscling in on New Worlds: Jews, a more

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