Rethinking Jewish-Latin Americans

by Jeffrey Lesser (Editor), Raanan Rein (Editor)

This edited volume places Jewish-Latin Americans within the context of Latin American and ethnic studies. It departs from traditional scholarship that segregates Jews as inhabitants in Latin America republics rather than as citizens of Latin American republics. The essays draw examples primarily from Argentina and Brazil, the two South American countries with the largest Jewish populations, and span from the late nineteenth century into the 1990s. By giving primacy to the national identity of Jewish-Latin Americans, the essays included here emphasize human actors and accounts of lived experiences. Lesser and Rein's thought-provoking introduction outlines seven new formulations of the relationship between Jews, the nation-state, and their Diasporic experience. Individual contributors then pursue new perspectives of the Jewish experience, including those of the working class, labor organizing and anarchist activities, women, and the reconceptualization of racism and anti-Semitism.

Genres: Race

304 pages, Paperback

First published August 16, 2008

Reviews

[Cata Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leí solo los ensayos relativos a Brasil y a América Latina en general, dejando de lado los de Argentina y Uruguay (solo por un tema de tiempo porque en verdad parecían muy interesantes). De los ensayos sobre Brasil: uno trata sobre las estrategias utilizadas por los judíos inmigrantes para no ser marginados durante el régimen nacionalista de Getúlio Vargas (el estado novo) y otro, sobre el imaginario judío en las producciones culturales de los años treinta (aquí hacen una lectura del samba de Noel Rosa, "Quem dá mais?", y otros).
Todos los ensayos del libro traen mucha bibliografía importante, creo, sobre el judaísmo en latinoamérica y estudios colindantes.