Argentine Jews or Jewish Argentines?

The essays gathered here challenge essentialist concepts and overemphasis on Jewish particularity, as well as the common discourse of Jewish victimology. At the same time, they reveal how the Jews, like other ethnic groups, are not monolithic but fragmented by place of origin, social class, political ideologies, and gender.

The topics discussed include the non-political Zionism espoused by Sephardic Jews during the first half of the 20th century, Argentine neutrality during World War II, the entry of Nazi war criminals to Argentina, the regime of Juan Perón and its attitudes towards Jewish-Argentines and the state of Israel, the reactions of Jews to the anti-Semitic wave in Argentina following the kidnapping of Adolf Eichman by Mossad agents, the Latin American community in Israel, and protests by Argentine exiles in Israel against the 1978 world-cup soccer games, played in Argentina during a brutal military regime.

"...Argentine Jews or Jewish Argentines?: Essays on Ethnicity, Identity and Diaspora is a critical contribution encouraging more subtle approaches to studying the identities of Jewish populations in Latin America." Steven Hyland Jr., Wingate University

Raanan Rein, Ph.D. (1990), is a Professor of Latin American and Spanish History and Director of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for International and Regional Studies at Tel Aviv University. He is the author of numerous books and articles including In the Shadow of Perón (Stanford U.P., 2008).

"This absorbing book by Raanan Rein, a pioneer of teaching Latin American Studies in Israel, draws together a number of academic essays that have emerged from his ongoing research into the Jews of Latin America in general and the Jews of Argentina in particular."

Rebecca J. W. Jefferson, University of Florida, Association of Jewish Libraries, September/October 2011, Volume 1, No. 3.

"[Rein's] argumentation is very clear and free of jargon and extraordinarily well documented. [...] Argentine Jews or Jewish Argentines? will certainly be of interest to scholars in Jewish studies and Latin American Jewish studies, Israel studies and historians of Argentina."

Stephen Sadow, Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 92, no. 2 (May 2012)

"Rannan Rein's fine collection of suggestive essays, entitled Argentine Jews or Jewish Argentines? Essays on Ethnicity, Identity, and Diaspora, is a critical contribution encouraging more subtle approaches to studying the identities of Jewish populations in Latin America. These thoughtful pieces will also prove to be significant for scholars of other immigrants and minorities in the region."

Steven Hyland, Jr., Wingate University, Journal of Latin American Studies 44 (2012)