Populism and Ethnicity: Peronism and the Jews of Argentina'

H-LatAm Goldfine on Rein, 'Populism and Ethnicity: Peronism and the Jews of Argentina'

Review published on Monday, July 12, 2021

Raanan Rein. Populism and Ethnicity: Peronism and the Jews of Argentina. McGill-Queen's Iberian and Latin American Cultures Series. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2020. 296 pp. $39.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-228-00166-9.

Reviewed by Daniela Goldfine (University of Wisconsin-River Falls) Published on H-LatAm (July, 2021) Commissioned by Casey M. Lurtz (Johns Hopkins University)

Printable Version: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=55710

Raanan Rein’s book (translated from the 2015 Spanish version, Los muchachos peronistas judíos: Los argentinos judíos y el apoyo al Justicialismo) is a comprehensive history lesson, not only of one of the most massive and defining political movements in Argentina, namely Peronism, but also of the migration, arrival, settlement, and melting of the Jewish community into the fabric of the country. (The latest estimates put the number of Jews in Argentina at 200,000—it had peaked in the 1960s at 310,000.) With Populism and Ethnicity, Rein debunks the long-held belief that President Juan Domingo Perón and his wife, Eva Duarte de Perón, promoted antisemitism in Argentina. Instead, through reports, stories, and documents in different fields including journalism, television, and politics, among others, Rein demonstrates Perón's support of the Jewish community in Argentina and how that support facilitated this community's inclusion in mainstream society.

Rein is one of the leading voices in Jewish Latin American studies and an expert regarding Peronism vis-à-vis Jews in Argentina. In this book the author digs deeper “to recover the silenced voices of those Argentines of Jewish origin who supported early Peronism” (p. 12). (A clarification should be made: throughout the text Rein mainly refers to Perón's first presidency, 1946-52. Perón was also president from 1952 to 1955 and 1973 to 1974. He lived in exile from 1955 to 1973, returned to Argentina, and passed away in 1974.) Rein has two additional goals: one is to assess the reach of the Peronist government through the relations between the president and the Jewish Argentine community. His second goal is more intricate and intriguing: to demonstrate that Peronism, through its socialist component, helped move various ethnic groups from the margins to the center of the Argentine nation. Among those groups, Jews started to become part of the multicultural Argentina as it exists today.

Rein is extremely thorough and starts his book by explaining the processes of immigration and settlement, the specific characteristics of the Jewish community, and the Jewish presence among the working and lower classes during the first half of the twentieth century. As much as Rein focuses on the Jewish community, he also explains in detail how the immigration processes worked in Argentina in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is a rich history, one that both overlaps with and diverges from immigration history in the United States. A few key additions to Argentina’s early immigration history are the ties to the old colonial power, Spain, and the elite's enthusiasm for France. Argentina's strong Catholic foundation also played an important role in the nation's

Citation: H-Net Reviews. Goldfine on Rein, 'Populism and Ethnicity: Peronism and the Jews of Argentina'. H-LatAm. 07-12-2021. https://networks.h-net.org/node/23910/reviews/7922351/goldfine-rein-populism-and-ethnicity-peronism-and-jews-argentina Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 H-LatAm immigration history. Rein discusses the idea of Argentina as the “the Other Promised Land” while he explains the geographical journey of Jews in Argentina from the short-lived agricultural colonies in provinces like Entre Ríos to the capital city (Buenos Aires), followed by its iconic Once neighborhood.

After this detailed historical background, Populism and Ethnicity moves to the well-known facts of Argentina’s role during WWII. The neutral stance that the country took and the revelation that Nazi war criminals were living in the country gave Argentina a reputation as a safe haven for these criminals and, therefore, cast it in a clear antisemitic light. Rein dismisses this reputation in his book. He starts his argument by discussing the OIA (Organización Israelita Argentina), the Jewish section of the Peronist Party, and the relationship between Peronism and the new Jewish state, describing the “administration’s excellent ties with the state of Israel and Perón’s numerous gestures towards this community” (p. 74). (It must be remarked that the first Latin American country to open an embassy in Israel was Argentina.) The author strengthens his claim by providing ample documentation of the OIA and its role during Peronism, as well as detailed historical facts of Argentina’s (and Perón’s) journey to recognize the establishment of Israel. Rein successfully shows the ongoing cordiality of their relationship during Perón’s government. This is supported by the chapter that thoroughly documents support for Perón among Jewish intellectuals and media in Argentina. The same goes for Jewish unionists and businessmen: the author painstakingly covers all aspects of the Jewish Argentine community during the years of the Peronist government to leave no doubt that many Jews supported Perón from 1946 to 1955. By dismantling the notion of the opposite, Rein’s historical, political, and sociological analysis emphasizes the idea that the Jewish community underwent many positive changes because of Perón’s presidencies.

Rein concludes his book with a discussion of Israel’s portrayal of Peronism, based on an analysis of seven Israeli daily newspapers. He focuses on how the newspapers referred to Peronism, covering events like bilateral relations with Argentina and the development of Peronism. The author also considers Perón’s forced exile, his return to Argentina, and the events in the early 1970s: the Ezeiza massacre, Perón's election to the presidency, and his death. At this point Rein mentions Perón’s wife at the time, Isabel Martínez de Perón, and a close aide (albeit with dubious reputation), José López Rega (even though their inclusion in the last chapter is brief, it is imperative given the influence they would have in the country's future). Rein also includes some well-founded fears of antisemitism during these years and concludes his project by connecting the past with the present and expressing his thoughts about politics and the Jewish community in the 2000s. He reiterates his effort to look at the dynamics and changes that ensued during the presidencies of Perón. Peronism, Rein successfully argues, was a populist movement with an inclusive approach, and Jewish Argentines benefited from this outlook, as it protected minorities and marginal groups.

Citation: Daniela Goldfine. Review of Rein, Raanan, Populism and Ethnicity: Peronism and the Jews of Argentina. H-LatAm, H-Net Reviews. July, URL:2021. https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=55710

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.