Landscapes of Memory and Impunity <UN> Jewish Latin America Issues and Methods Edited by Raanan Rein (Tel Aviv University) Editorial Board Edna Aizenberg (Marymount Manhattan College) Judah Cohen (Indiana University) Luis Roniger (Wake Forest University) David Sheinin (Trent University) Rosalie Sitman (Tel Aviv University) volume 6 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/jlam <UN> Landscapes of Memory and Impunity The Aftermath of the amia Bombing in Jewish Argentina Edited by Annette H. Levine Natasha Zaretsky LEIDEN | BOSTON <UN> Cover Illustration: “Stones for Justice,” Marcelo Brodsky’s Urban Intervention, Buenos Aires, 2003. A tribute to the Hospital de Clínicas of the University of Buenos Aires for attending to the injured of the amia bombing. Concept for cover design developed with the assistance of Jennifer Burgess. Landscapes of memory and impunity : the aftermath of the AMIA bombing in Jewish Argentina / edited by Annette Levine, Natasha Zaretsky. pages cm. -- (Jewish Latin America, ISSN 2211-0968 ; volume 6) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-29748-7 (hardback : acid-free paper) -- ISBN 978-90-04-29749-4 (e-book) 1. Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina. 2. Antisemitism--Argentina--Buenos Aires. 3. Bombing investigation-- Argentina--Buenos Aires. 4. Terrorism--Argentina--Buenos Aires. 5. Buenos Aires (Argentina)--Ethnic relations. I. Levine, Annette H., 1973- II. Zaretsky, Natasha, 1975- DS146.A7L37 2015 363.3250982’11--dc23 2015011589 The publication of this book series was supported by Tel Aviv University’s Elias Sourasky, Chair of Iberian and Latin American Studies. issn 2211–0968 isbn 978-90-04-29748-7 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-29749-4 (e-book) Copyright 2015 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. <UN> Contents Acknowledgements vii List of Figures ix List of Contributors x Introduction 1 Annette H. Levine and Natasha Zaretsky 1 The Nation’s Bodies: Justice and Belonging in the Aftermath of the amia Bombing 8 Susana Wappenstein 2 Reading Memoria Activa’s Discourse: Demands for Justice and Identity Symbols 44 Fernando Fischman and Javier Pelacoff 3 Remembering the amia Bombing: The Mothers of Pasteur Street and Stones of Memory 59 Edna Aizenberg 4 Vestiges of Memory Post-Atentado: Monumental Photographs and Spaces of (Impossible) Return 77 Annette H. Levine 5 Blows to the Heart: Reflections on the Literature of the amia 102 Stephen A. Sadow 6 Struggles of Coherence: Listening as Political Agency in the Plazas and Streets of Memory 125 Natasha Zaretsky 7 Searching for Justice: Citizenship, Human Rights, and Anthropology 153 Karen Ann Faulk 8 So We Don’t Lose Memory: Jewish Musical Performance in Buenos Aires after the amia Bombing 169 Lillian M. Wohl Index 191 <UN> Acknowledgements The publication of this volume benefited from the generous support of the Jewish Studies Program at Ithaca College and the Office of the Provost at Ithaca College. An earlier version of Edna Aizenberg’s article, “The Mothers of Pasteur Street,” was published in Spanish in the journal Revista Iberoaméricana, Vol. lxvi, Núm. 191, (abril-junio 2000), and her article, “Stones of Memory,” was published in Iberoamericana (2001-), Nueva época, Vol. 1. No. 1 (2001). We would like to thank Nicole Arocho for her translation of “Stones of Memory” and the editors of these journals for the permission to reprint those articles here. We would also like to thank Jennifer Burgess for her concept for the cover design and the photographer Marcelo Brodsky for permission to use the images taken by Annette Levine of his 2003 installation, Piedras por la Justicia, Intervención Urbana de Marcelo Brodsky (Stones for Justice, Marcelo Brodsky’s Urban Intervention), Buenos Aires. We are grateful as well to Christopher MacNamara for his research and edito- rial assistance, and to Mark Bast for his copyediting assistance. We would also like to thank Meghan Connolly, Katelyn Chin, and Paige Sammartino of Brill for their assistance, efficacy and dedication. Additionally, we would like to thank Raanan Rein, the series editor, for his comments and support of this volume. This volume would also not be possible without the ongoing support of our respective families (especially our partners, Robert Levine and Oliver Schietinger) for accompanying us during our many years of fieldwork and research trips to Buenos Aires. This work developed through many conversations and dialogues between the co-editors, beginning with a discussion we had during the xii Latin American Jewish Studies Association (lajsa) Conference held at Dartmouth College in Hanover, nh, June 2004, and continuing through many trips to Argentina and lajsa meetings. Most importantly, this collection also emerged through the ongoing and sustained engagement with the questions of memory and impunity that are at the heart of the bombing’s aftermath and central to the lives of our research subjects. We would like to dedicate this volume to the memory of the victims of the bombing and to the ongoing demands for justice. We would also like to dedicate this book to the brave work of Sofía Kaplinsky Guterman and her fam- ily and those who regularly attended the commemorative actos in the Plaza Lavalle, Pasteur Street, and the many other sites of memory and justice, includ- ing activists like José Blumenfeld, Isidoro Bronstein, Enrique Burbinski, Moisés Dulfano, Laura Ginsberg, Pablo Gitter, Benjamín Guz, Carlos Mañón, Rebeca <UN> viii Acknowledgements Sacolsky, Fernando Scheitman, Marcos Scherlis, Felisa Sendler, Carlos Susevich, Eugenia Szejer, Diana Wang, and the late Mina Fridman-Ruetter, Bernardo Gruman, Norma Lew, Samuel Sylberberg, and Gabriel Tallaradona. Our deep engagement with these topics is also indebted to the support of Moshé Korin, Shifra Lerer, the late Reizl Sztarker, Jack Fuchs, Ester Szwarc, Anita Weinstein, and Ricardo Feierstein, and to affiliations and research con- ducted at the amia’s Centro de Documentación e Información sobre Judaismo Argentino Marc Turkow (Marc Turkow Center for Documentation and Information about Argentine Judaism at the Argentine Jewish Mutual Aid Association), the daia’s Centro de Estudios Sociales (Center for Social Studies at the Delegation of Argentine Jewish Associations), the Buenos Aires iwo (Institute for Jewish Research), the ides Nucleo de Estudios sobre Memoria (Memory Studies Group of the Institute for Social and Economic Development), and the Contested Memories and the Politics of Change research group at the Allen and Joan Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life at Rutgers University. We would like to especially thank the family members of the victims and their supporters for opening their lives to us and for sharing their struggles. It is their persistent effort to seek justice and articulate their experiences that we chronicle here. May this volume further contribute to the daily struggle for justice and understanding in the aftermath of the amia bombing. <UN> List of Figures 1.1 Blowing the shofar on Mondays at 9:53 am (1999) 21 1.2 Crowds gather for Memoria Activa (1998) 21 1.3 We all are Active Memory (1998) 22 1.4a,b Memoria Activa’s “National Document Against Impunity” (1999) 30 1.5a Button in support of Memoria Activa with the slogan, “Enough Impunity!” (1998) 32 1.5b Button with the slogan: “Justice, justice shalt though pursue” (1998) 33 1.6 Mothers and Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo head march “For Justice, against impunity, exclusion and discrimination” at the commemoration of the military coup. Some hold pictures of assassinated photojournalist, José Luis Cabezas (1999) 35 1.7 Enough Impunity! Banner in Plaza Lavalle by the Unión de Trabajadores de Prensa de Buenos Aires (Print Media Worker’s Union of Buenos Aires, UTPBA) for a joint event with Memoria Activa (1998) 35 4.1 Andrea, a los tres meses, mirando con asombro un mundo supuestamente perfecto. (Andrea, at three months, looking in awe at a supposedly perfect world.) La gran mentira [The Great Lie] (11) 86 4.2 Andrea, a los cinco años, sonriendo a un futuro promisorio. (Andrea, at five years, smiling at a promising future.) La gran mentira (23) 87 4.3 Andrea, a los siete años, adquiriendo conocimientos para su futuro. (Andrea, at seven years, acquiring knowledge for her future.) La gran mentira (41) 88 4.4 Andrea, a los ocho años, cuando aún éramos una familia (Andrea, at eight years, when we were still a family.) La gran mentira (51) 89 4.5 “Piedras por la Justicia” [Stones for Justice], Intervención Urbana de Marcelo Brodsky (Marcelo Brodsky’s Urban Intervention), Buenos Aires, 2003 92 4.6 “Piedras por la Justicia” [Stones for Justice], Intervención Urbana de Marcelo Brodsky (Marcelo Brodsky’s Urban Intervention), Buenos Aires, 2003 93 4.7 “Piedras por la Justicia” [Stones for Justice], Intervención Urbana de Marcelo Brodsky (Marcelo Brodsky’s Urban Intervention),