LATIN AMERICAN JEWISH STUDIES LATIN AMERICAN JEWISH STUDIES 28: 2 SUMMER/FALL 2008 ESSN 0738-1379 FALL 2008 VOLUME 28, NO. 2 ESSN 0738-1379 http://www.utexas.edu/cola/orgs/lajsa/ Message from the Editors/Mensaje de las editoras/ Note from the President/ Mensagem das Editoras Nota del presidente/ Mensagem do presidente ¡Shanah Tovah Umetuka a nuestros colegas de LAJSA! Nuestros mejores deseos que el 5768. Sea un año de paz, salud y alegrias. Luego de nuestros seis números impresos y publicados, el boletín de LAJSA continuará saliendo en forma PDF, en la página web de LAJSA. Esperamos de este modo llegar a muchos más lectores, reducir los costos de la impresión a las universidades que nos subsidian, aumentar el número de páginas de los I am pleased to inform the LAJSA boletines con más artículos, reseñas y anuncios, incluir ilustraciones en community that we have completed color, y publicar los números siguientes sin demoras de imprenta. Como the election process. The results are bien dijo Judith Laikin Elkin en su mensaje del 18 de septiembre, “we posted [below]. I am grateful to can be proud of our achievements and look forward to an equally Judith Schneider for carrying out productive quarter-century ahead.” this important task. Seguiremos publicando noticias académicas y profesionales, poniendo As you know, we are making the al día la bibliografía de libros de relacionados con literatura, historia, definitive transition from a printed sociología, política, cine, arte y cultura judeo-latinoamericana, además de copy of the newsletter to its anuncios sobre becas, congresos y convocatorias Como en el pasado, availability online at the LAJSA seguiremos enviándoles un reporte sobre el estado de las finanzas, y un website so expertly maintained by anuncio sobre los nuevos miembros de LAJSA en el número primaveral. Naomi Lindstrom. Look for future Les adjuntamos en este número el anuncio sobre el XIV Congreso de news there. Please DO continue to LAJSA, que tendrá lugar en Tel Aviv, del 26-28 de julio de 2009. provide Kenya Dworkin and Nora Esperamos muchos ustedes puedan participar. No olviden que deben Glickman with your input for the estar al corriente con el pago de sus cuotas (LAJSA 2009) antes de electronic newsletter. This goes with inscribirse en la conferencia. En el próximo número les informaremos my expression of gratitude to Kenya más sobre las becas de que LAJSA dispone, destinadas a ayudar a and Nora for their work on LAJS. algunos participantes. No olviden enviar sus propuestas antes de 31 de Finally—but of utmost importance octubre. to all—Tel Aviv University will be Felicitamos a los nuevos vicepresidentes de LASJA, Raanan Rein y hosting the next international Edna Eizenberg, asi como a los nuevos miembros del Consejo Ejecutivo, meeting of LAJSA, from 26-28 July, Rosalie Sitman y Judit Bokser Liwerant, y a los miembros vitalicios, 2009. Please look in this issue of Judith Laikin Elkin y Jacobo Kovadloff. the newsletter for the Call for Papers. Anyada buena, ke sanos i mazalosos estesh, I look forward to seeing you all in Tel Aviv in July! Nora y Kenya David In this issue… Professional News.........................................p. 4 Letter from the Editors......................................p. 1 Fellowships and Job Positions......................p. 9 Note from the President. ................................. p. 1 Bibliography..................................................p. 14 LAJSA Board.................................................... p. 2 Calls for Papers and Submissions.................p. 20 Election Results.................................................p. 3 LAJSA Call for Papers...................................p. 22 The Birth of LAJSA, Film Review-”El viaje de Ana”......................p. 26 by Judith Laikin Elkin.........................p. 3 Borges and the Kabbalah From the New Co-Vice-Presidents....................p. 4 by M. Kupferminc & S. Sosnowski.....p. 31 1 LATIN AMERICAN JEWISH STUDIES 28: 2 SUMMER/FALL 2008 ESSN 0738-1379 LAJSA BOARD SECRETARIAT México, D.F. 04510 Kenya C. Dworkin y Méndez Monique Rodrigues Balbuena [email protected] Editor (Ex-Officio) Clark Honors College Department of Modern 1293 University of Oregon Languages Beth Pollack Eugene, OR 97403 Baker Hall 160 New Mexico State University [email protected] Carnegie Mellon University Department of Languages and Pittsburgh, PA 15213-1328 Linguistics [email protected] MSC 3L EXECUTIVE BOARD Las Cruces, NM 88003 David William Foster [email protected] President Nora Glickman School of International Letters Editor (Ex-Officio) Nora Glickman and Cultures Department of Hispanic Department of Hispanic Arizona State University Languages and Literatures Languages and Literatures Tempe, AZ 85287-0202 Kiely 243 Kiely 243 Queens College [email protected] Queens College City University of New York City University of New York 65-30 Kissena Boulevard 65-30 Kissena Boulevard Edna Aizenberg Flushing, NY 11367 Flushing, NY 11367 Co Vice President [email protected] [email protected] Department of Spanish Marymount Manhattan College Naomi Lindstrom Florinda F. Goldberg 221 East 71 St., NY, NY 10021 LAJSA-list and Website [email protected] Departamento de Estudios Manager (Ex-Officio) Españoles y Latinoamericanos Department of Spanish and Universidad Hebrea de Ranaan Rein Portuguese Jerusalem, Co Vice President BEN 4.116 Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem 91920 Department of History 1 University Station B3700 Programa de Estudios Tel Aviv University Austin, TX 78712-1155 Interdisciplinarios Tel Aviv 69978 [email protected] Universidad de Tel Aviv Israel Tel Aviv, Israel [email protected] [email protected] BOARD OF DIRECTORS Darrell B. Lockhart Alejandro Dujovne Judith Laikin Elkin Treasurer (Universidad Nacional LAJSA Founding President Department of Foreign Sarmiento, Buenos Aires) Frankel Center for Judaic Studies Languages and Literatures Moscoso y Peralta 2956 The University of Michigan MS 100 Alto Palermo Ann Arbor, MI 48105 University of Nevada-Reno Córdoba, 5009, Argentina [email protected] Reno, NV 89557-0034 [email protected] [email protected] Rosalie Sitman Judit Bokser Liwerant The Sverdlin Institute for Latin Coordinadora del Programa de American History and Culture Monique Rodrigues Balbuena Posgrado en Ciencias Políticas Room 314, Webb Building Secretary Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Tel Aviv University Clark Honors College Sociales Ramat Aviv, 1293 University of Oregon Circuito Mario de la Cueva s/n Tel Aviv, Israel Eugene, OR 97403 F.C.P. y S. Edificio "F" [email protected] [email protected] Ciudad Universitaria 2 LATIN AMERICAN JEWISH STUDIES 28: 2 SUMMER/FALL 2008 ESSN 0738-1379 2008 ELECTION RESULTS/RESULTADOS ELECTORALES - ELECTORAIS 2008 Congratulations to our new LAJSA officers! Members at Large, LAJSA Board of Directors Judith Bokser Liwerant, Professor of Political In July 2008, LAJSA held elections for a new Vice- Science at the Faculty and Head of the Graduate School President and two new Members at Large of the of Political and Social Sciences, UNAM, México City, LAJSA Board of Directors. Many thanks to our México former Vice-President and 2008 Election and Coordinator, Judith Morganroth Schneider, and her Rosalie Sitman, Coordinator of Spanish and a committee—Alejando Dujovne, Lynne Margolies, researcher at the Institute for Latin American History and Mónica Szurmuk—for their efforts, and to our of Tel Aviv University, co-editor of Estudios outgoing officers as well. Interdisciplinarios de América Latina y el Caribe, and secretary of the Israel Association of Hispanists. Vice-Presidents Edna Aizenberg, Professor of Hispanic Studies at Lifetime Members, Board of Directors Marymount Manhattan College, New York, U.S.A. and Dr. Judith Laikin Elkin, Founding President of Raanan Rein, Professor of Latin American and LAJSA Spanish History and Vice-Rector of Tel Aviv and University, Israel. Jacobo Kovadloff, Founding Member of LAJSA THE BIRTH OF LAJSA Excerpts "om a memoir in progress Judith Laikin Elkin, LAJSA Founder Returning to Albion College in the autumn of 1974 from my extended field trip through Latin America, I retrieved my mothering responsibilities from my husband, and resumed teaching my two-semester sequence in Latin American history, my goal the launching of an academic career based on the dissertation I was about to write. In an unused office the Dean allowed me to occupy at night, I reviewed my notes, gathered my thoughts, wrote steadily, and enjoyed my solitude. I was writing again, as happy as I had not been since kissing Krishna goodbye. I received my Ph.D. in 1976, at about the same time that my mentor, Charles Gibson, was elected president of the American Historical Association and with his recommendation, submitted my dissertation unchanged to the University of Chicago Press (“don’t write a dissertation,” Gibson had said; “write a book.”) He was right: the press accepted Israelita: The Jews of the Latin American Republics immediately, contingent…upon a pro forma reading by an outside critic. A year passed, during which I was assured that my book was on track and would soon receive final approval. The manuscript was returned to me yellowed from exposure, dog-eared, coffee ringed, needing to be retyped in its entirety (manually, at that date) if to was be submitted elsewhere. Israelita had been not only rejected but physically abused. The editor forwarded to me the anonymous peer review, which began: “By way of preliminaries, I am compelled to tell you that I abhor the title ISRAELITA. It sounds like the name of one or more of the Jewish publications in Latin America. Furthermore to the gentile reader, especially in Latin America, it has a pejorative sense to it...It reminds me of all those little Jewish shopkeepers in Costa Rica....” The contempt that Jews have been living with ever since settling in Latin America had transferred itself intact to this North American academic. When I pointed out the evident anti-semitism in the critic’s comment, and suggested that prejudice ought not be the basis for a manuscript’s rejection, the editor defended the reviewer by confiding that he was a Jew.