THE JEWS AND PERÓN: COMMUNAL POLITICS AND NATIONAL IDENTITY IN PERONIST ARGENTINA, 1946-1955 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History of The Ohio State University by Lawrence D. Bell, M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 2002 Dissertation Committee: Approved by: Professor Kenneth J. Andrien, Adviser Professor Donna J. Guy ________________________ Professor Matt Goldish Adviser Department of History ABSTRACT This dissertation focuses on the question of Jewish ethnic politics in Argentina under the Peronist regime from 1946-1955. Despite the claims of Perón’s detractors in the United States and elsewhere that he was anti-Semitic and in sympathy with European fascism, Perón in fact demonstrated a considerable amount of pragmatism in his dealings with Argentina’s 250,000 strong Jewish population. Like other Latin American populists, Perón combined a corporatist conception of the state with ideals of popular democracy and widespread social mobilization throughout most of his first two terms as President of Argentina. As such, his regime attempted to integrate a number of traditionally excluded groups, including Jews, into its socially and politically inclusive national vision. In February 1947, Perón officially endorsed the creation of a “Jewish wing” of the Peronist Party, the Organización Israelita Argentina (OIA), in effort to court Jewish voters and promote Peronist ideology within the country’s Jewish community. In doing so, he also granted the OIA considerable powers as the final intermediary between the Jewish community and the state. Yet, unlike many other communities, the Jews of Argentina generally resisted the encroachments of Peronism and the OIA, and instead struggled to forge a compromise relationship with the state. Led by a federation of Jewish institutions, known as the Delegación de Asociaciones Israelitas Argentinas (DAIA), the Jewish community offered ii various shows of loyalty and public support for the regime, while at the same time retaining its political autonomy and independence. The key to the DAIA’s success against the OIA and other competing Jewish organizations, I argue, lay in its unique ability to reconcile the external world of Argentine national politics with the internal organization of the Jewish community, centered on a European-Jewish political system very different from that of the surrounding host society. Despite of the fact that the vast majority of Argentine Jews opposed Perón’s election in 1946, the leadership of the DAIA, and especially its president, went to great lengths to demonstrate their usefulness to the state, at one point even offering to propagandize for Perón among Jews in the United States in 1948 in an effort to improve foreign relations between the two countries. At the same time, however, the DAIA managed to retain the loyalty of the country’s Jewish population in the realm of communal politics due to its unwavering support for the Zionist movement and the newly created state of Israel after 1948. Standing at the nexus of an intricate diplomatic triangle between Argentina, Israel, and the United States, the DAIA was able to use Perón’s benevolent statements and gestures towards the state of Israel as means of vanquishing its various internal rivals within the community and establishing an increasingly cordial relationship with the Peronist government by 1955. Ironically, pressures from the state and from the OIA actually served to consolidate the power of the DAIA within the Argentine-Jewish community rather than weaken it, expanding the role of institution into that of Argentine Jewry’s preeminent political representation, which it remains to the present day. Utilizing sources such as Argentine census data, voting returns, institutional records, community newspapers, and archival documents from both Argentina and the iii United States, this dissertation expands our understanding of ethnic politics in Latin America beyond the traditional focus on immigration, to consider the ways in which these new immigrant communities adapted to the turbulent political realities of their host societies in the years after 1930. It also advances the study of Peronism and populist regimes in general beyond the traditional focus on organized labor to consider the ways in which immigrant and ethnic communities responded to unique challenges posed by populist leaders. Lastly, it integrates new sources, especially Yiddish language documents, drawn from institutional records and the Jewish press, to build upon a small but growing historiography on the subject of the Argentine-Jewish community under Perón. iv To my grandfather v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to acknowledge some of the many people who have helped make this work possible. First and foremost, I wish to thank the members of my dissertation committee for their vital efforts on my behalf and their careful reading of various drafts of this project. I would also like to acknowledge the generous support I have received from the Melton Center for Jewish Studies at the Ohio State University, as well as the assistance provided by Jewish Studies librarian, Yossi Galron, here at Ohio State. In Argentina, I would like to give my warmest thanks to the helpful staff and volunteers of the IWO – Instituto Judío de Investigaciones and the Idisher Cultur Farband (ICUF), as well as the Centro Marc Turkow, the Delegación de Asociaciones Israelitas Argentinas, the Sociedad Hebraica Argentina, the Congregación Israelita de la República Argentina, and the Asociación Filantrópica Israelita for all of their assistance, advice, and receptiveness to my project. I would also like to extend my appreciation to the editors and staff of Mundo Israelita, La Luz, and Nuevo Síon for allowing me to access archived copies of their various publications. In the United States, special mention goes to the dedicated archivists of the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the YIVO - Institute for Jewish Research in New York City. Finally, I would like to extend my personal thanks to Ezequiel Zabotinksy, Ignacio Klich, Haim Avni, Raanan Rein, Anita vi Weinstein, Yaacov Rubel, Jacobo Kovodloff, Efraim Zadoff, and Thomas Klubock, all of whom contributed in various ways to the making of this project. Finally, I owe my greatest debt of gratitude to my family, and especially my wife, Tracey. Without their love, encouragement, and support, none of this would have been possible. vii VITA August 3, 1970……………………….Born – Phoenix, Arizona 1992…………………………………..B.A. History, Arizona State University 1996…………………………………..M.A. History, The Ohio State University 1995 – present………………………..Graduate Research and Teaching Associate, The Ohio State University FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: History viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………….ii Dedication ………………………………………………………………………………..v Acknowledgments ……………………………………………………………………….vi Vita ……………………………………………………………………………………..viii Chapters: Introduction: Argentine Jewry and the Historiography of Peronism ……………..…...…1 1. Prelude to Perón: Argentine Jewry Before 1946 …………………………...…...34 2. A Question of Ethnicity: Argentine Jewry and the Elections of February 1946 ……………………………………………………..…….………………...74 3. Confronting the “New Argentina:” The Jewish Community, the DAIA, and the Peronist Regime, 1946-1948 …………………………….…………………110 4. In Name of the Community: The OIA, the IJA, the DAIA, and the Struggle to Represent Argentine Jewry, 1948-1951 ………………………...…………..160 5. From Unity to Division: Zionists Against Progressives on the Jewish Street …202 6. A Community Compromised? Argentine Jewry and the Peronist State, 1952- 1955 ....…………………………………………………………………..251 7. Conclusion: Communal Politics and National Identity ……………………......300 Bibliography ...………………………………………………………………………....310 ix INTRODUCTION ARGENTINE JEWRY AND THE HISTORIOGRPAHY OF PERONISM When I realized that Perón, contrary to previous governments, gave Jewish citizens access to public office, I began to change my way of thinking about Argentine politics... – Ezequiel Zabotinksy (President of the Jewish-Peronist Organización Israelita Argentina, 1952-1955) Of all the great figures of twentieth century Argentine history, few have inspired more passion and more controversy than Juan Domingo Perón. For decades, scholars have attempted to explain the way in which a relatively unknown army colonel could defy the traditional political system that had dominated Argentina since the 1890’s, mobilize millions of voters to his cause, and forever change the balance of Argentine social and political life in the process. Many contemporaries, especially among the opposition, initially attempted to explain away Peronism as a breed of European fascism imported to the Americas in the wake of the Second World War and destined to disappear with the return to true democracy. 1 Yet, with the persistence of the Peronist movement even after the fall of Perón in 1955, such theories lost much of their validity as a new generation of academics took up the challenge of analyzing its distinctive appeal. In doing so, they posited the idea that Perón was able to mobilize the masses through his charismatic populist appeal, in the process integrating a number of social groups who had previously been excluded from the older liberal-based political system of the early 1 twentieth century. In particular, scholars have concentrated much of their efforts on the subject of Perón’s relations with industrial workers and the labor