Searching for Home Abroad: Jews in Argentina and Argentines in Israel

• Authors: Rein Raanan

Title variants

CS

Hledání domova v cizině: Židé v Argentině a Argentinci v Izraeli

• Languages of publication: CS

Abstracts

EN

This study deals with the position of the Jewish community in Argentina (the largest in Latin America) and its fortunes, as well as anti-semitic trends in this country since the 19th century. Argentinian Jews, or Jewish Argentinians, have integrated into Argentinian life and society without giving up the Jewish elements in their personal or collective identity. The author opens his study with an analysis of the image of Argentinian Jews in several films made by various producers over the last few years (El año que viene… en Argentina, Un abrazo partido, Like a Fish Out of Water). He then deals with the emergence and development of the Jewish Argentinian immigrant community from a historical and sociological perspective, as well as the image of the community in literary works. Jewish immigration to Argentina (inter alia) was the outcome of economic and social problems in Central and Eastern Europe on the one hand and the liberal immigration policy of the Argentinian government on the other. The author traces where these Jews came from, which waves they belonged to chronologically, which towns they settled in and where they were active; he also provides various details on the size of the Jewish minority in Argentina. Another set of questions hangs over Nazi emigration to Argentina (which helped to create the myth of the country as pro-Nazi and anti-semitic) and various manifestations of anti-semitism that emerged in Argentina. The study is concluded with a look at the genesis of the community of Argentinian Jews in Israel.

Keywords

EN

Jewish community; Argentina; 19th and 20th centuries; image of Jews in film and literature; immigration

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Arts, Czech Republic
• Journal: Historie – Otázky – Problémy (History, Issues, Problems)
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 5
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 155-169

Contributors

author

Rein Raanan

• Tel Aviv University