Crossing Borders, Claiming a Nation

Deutsch Sandra McGee Deutsch

Description

In Crossing Borders, Claiming a Nation, Sandra McGee Deutsch brings to light the powerful presence and influence of Jewish women in Argentina. The country has the largest Jewish community in Latin America and the third largest in the Western Hemisphere as a result of large-scale migration of Jewish people from European and Mediterranean countries from the 1880s through the Second World War. During this period, Argentina experienced multiple waves of political and cultural change, including liberalism, nacionalismo, and Peronism. Although Argentine liberalism stressed universal secular education, immigration, and individual mobility and freedom, women were denied basic citizenship rights, and sometimes Jews were cast as outsiders, especially during the era of right-wing nacionalismo. Deutsch's research fills a gap by revealing the ways that Argentine Jewish women negotiated their own plural identities and in the process participated in and contributed to Argentina's liberal project to create a more just society.Drawing on extensive archival research and original oral histories, Deutsch tells the stories of individual women, relating their sentiments and experiences as both insiders and outsiders to state formation, transnationalism, and cultural, political, ethnic, and gender borders in Argentine history. As agricultural pioneers and film stars, human rights activists and teachers, mothers and doctors, Argentine Jewish women led wide-ranging and multifaceted lives. Their community involvement-including building libraries and secular schools, and opposing global fascism in the 1930s and 1940s-directly contributed to the cultural and political lifeblood of a changing Argentina. Despite their marginalization as members of an ethnic minority and as women, Argentine Jewish women formed communal bonds, carved out their own place in society, and ultimately shaped Argentina's changing pluralistic culture through their creativity and work.

Sujets

• Histoire
• América del Sur
• Argentina
• Jewish studies
• South America
• History of the Americas
• Argentine

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 13 juillet 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822392606
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

crossing borders,

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acknowledgments iii

©2010Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acidfree paperb Designed by Amy Ruth Buchanan Typeset in Dante by Achorn International Library of Congress Catalogingin Publication Data appear on the last printed page of this book.

Duke University Press gratefully acknowledges support from the Dr. and Mrs. W. H. Timmons Professorship of Borderlands History, University of Texas, El Paso, which provided funds toward the production of this book.

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contents

List of Illustrations and Tables vii Acknowledgments ix List of Women xi

Introduction1

“If the Water Is Sweet”13 Jewish Women in the Countryside “I Worked, I Struggled”42 Jewish Women in Buenos Aires “A Point of Connection”73 Pathways into the Professions “Not a Novice”105 Prostitutes “A Bad Reputation”123 Family and Sexuality “What Surrounds Us Dissatisfies Us”148 Leftists and Union Members through the1930s “A Dike Against Reaction”172 Contesting AntiSemitism, Fascism, and Peronism “We the Women Have to Do Something”205 Philanthropies and Zionism

Conclusion236

Appendix 249 Notes 257 Bibliography 319 Index 363

maps

list of illustrations and tables

1. Argentina xiii 2. North and Central Argentina xiv 3xv. Jewish Colonization Association Agricultural Settlements 4. Greater Buenos Aires xvi

figures

1. German Jews in Colonia Avigdor, Entre Ríos, wait for their furniture18 2. Sephardi foods33 3. Jews dressed to dance thepericón39 4. Aconventillo(tenement), Buenos Aires49 5. An overcrowded public school, Villa Crespo,193558 6. A party for Matilde Israel, a bride from the Izmir community,193865 7. Dr. Sara Satanowsky,191890 8. Cipe Lincovsky95 9. Berta Singerman97 10. Algarrobos Cemetery, Colonia Mauricio109 11. A dance in Colonia Avigdor,1938131 12. Fenia Chertkoff155 13. Arecreo infantil(afterschool center)158 14. Victoria Gucovsky160 15. Isa Kremer188 16. Relatives of political prisoners in Villa Devoto prison,1941194 17. Fanny Edelman202

18the of Moisesville. Leaders of osfa(Organización Sionista Femenina Argentina) center,1939210 19. Women selling flowers and candies for the Asilo Argentino de Huérfanas Israelitas,1925213 20at the Villa Crespo. Berta de Gerchunoff osfacenter,1939230

appendix tables

1. Jewish Agricultural Population250 2. Literacy Rates for Women over Six Years Old, by Origin,1914250 3Families Registered in Mediterranean Jewish Communities in. Origins of Buenos Aires,1960251 4. ForeignBorn Jewish Population in Buenos Aires by Birthplace,1936251 5. Jewish Population in Argentina, by Province and Territory252 6the Labor Force by Age, in Greater Buenos Aires,Women in . Percent of 1960253 7. Percent of Jewish Women Age Fourteen and Older in the Labor Force by Birthplace, in Greater Buenos Aires,1960254 8. Literacy Rates for Women by Age and Origin, in Buenos Aires,1936254 9. Literacy Rates for Women Age Fifteen and Older, in Buenos Aires,1936255 10Women in the Labor Force Age Fourteen. Occupational Distribution of and Older,1960255

viii

list of illustrations and tables

acknowledgments

Numerous individuals and groups assisted me with this project. Ana Weinstein and Hélène Gutkowski supplied sources, interviewees, expertise, andcariño. The Centro de Documentación e Información sobre Judaísmo Argentino Marc Turkow, directed by Weinstein, and the Instituto Científico Judío (iwo), under Abraham Lichtenboim, were indispensable. Mónica Szurmuk and Rich ard Walter read the entire manuscript; Judith Elkin, Donna Guy, and Marga ret Power read large portions of it; and Jeanne Delaney, Judith Friedenberg, Nicolás Iñigo Carrera, Marion Kaplan, Daniel Lvovich, Cheryl Martin, Pamela Nadell, and Jorge Nállim read chapters. Patricia Flier, Noemí Girbal, and Dora Schwarzstein, whose death I mourn, provided university bases and much more. All of the aforementioned gave warm and invaluable assistance. I give special thanks toamilat, Haim Avni, Dora Barrancos, Margalit Bejarano, Luis Blacha, Adriana Brodsky, Susana Carioli, Thomas Cohen, Irene and Rosa Cusien, Mabel Damián, Torcuato di Tella, John Fahey, Federico Finchelstein, Nora Fistein, Jorge Gilbert, Silvia Hansman, Adela Harispuru, Mieke Izjer mans, Elizabeth Jelín, Robin Judd, Esther and Salo Koval, Asunción Lavrin, Jeffrey Lesser, Fanny Mandelbaum, Enrique Martínez, John Moore, José Moya, Kristine Navarro, Raanan Rein, Fernando Rocchi, Eva de Rosenthal, Mariela Rubinzal, Leo Senkman, Robert Singerman, Lila Sintes, Rosalie Sitman, José and Ilse Smilg, Kathleen Staudt, Lynn Stoner, Graciela Tevah de Ryba, Lili Trumper, Alejandra Vitale, Docha and Osías Wainer, Paloma Wainstein, Mark Wasserman, Barbara Weinstein, Rosa Woscoboinik de Levin, and Ruth and Robin Young. I am deeply grateful to Valerie Millholland, senior editor of Duke University Press, for her advice and support. I thank Leigh Barnwell, also of the Press, for her painstaking help. The following facilitated my research in many ways: Simone Abadi, Esther Abourachit, Vicky Aguirre, Nora Alvarez, Ann Ankowski, Bernardo Armus, Lois Baer Barr, Daniel Bargman, Lawrence Bell, Graciela Ben Dror, Elena Berflein, Alicia Bernasconi, Julio and Celia Bernator, Andrés Bisso, Scarlet Bowen, Berta Braslavsky, Julia Schiavone Camacho, James Cane, Donald Castro, Etel Chromoy, Vanda Ciporin, Marcela Crocce, Golde Culperstein, Maceo Dailey, Marcelo Dimenstein, Bruria and David Elnecavé, Myriam