This collection of articles constitutes a major contribution to the growing field of Latin American Jewish studies, offering different perspectives on the rich and complex phenomena in the social, political, and cultural development of Jewish communities in the area. The essays span across a wide range of subjects, from comparisons between Jewish communities from different countries and with different levels of assimilation, the effects of globalization and transnationalism on the field, the interactions between Jews and non-Jews in the area, all the way to literary criticism. Based on an international conference organized by the University of Sao Paulo, the Dahan Center of Bar Ilan University, and the Academic College in Ashkelon, this volume offers a new approach to Latin American Jewish studies: it contributes to demystifying stereotypes and raising awareness of the importance of Latin America in a global context, and it highlights the relevance of the different Jewish communities across the globe in their special relationship to the state of Israel.
Introduction: The Jewish Communities of Latin America Margalit Bejarano, Yaron Harel, and Marta Topel PART 1: GLOBALIZATION, TRANSNATIONALISM, AND LATIN AMERICAN JUDAISM AND JEWISHNESS Chapter 1: Expansion and Interconnectedness of Jewish Life in Times (and Spaces) of Transnationalism: New Realities, New Analytical Perspectives Judit Bokser Liwerant Chapter 2: Changing Identities in a Transnational Diaspora: Latin American Jews in Miami Margalit Bejarano Chapter 3: Globalization, Education, and Jewish Community Life: Latin American Transnational Jewish Educators—Toward a New Paradigm? Yossi J. Goldstein Chapter 4: Informal Jewish Education: Argentina’s Hebraica Society Silvia Schenkolewski-Kroll Chapter 5: The Effect of the Global Economic Crisis on the Affordability of Jewish Lifestyle in Latin America Eli Goldstein and Osnat Israeli PART 2: THE TWENTIETH AND TWENTY-FIRST CENTURIES: THE EMERGENCE OF NEW JEWISH RELIGIOUS IDENTITIES, AND THE CREATION OF SINGULAR INTERACTIONS BETWEEN JEWS AND NON-JEWS Chapter 6: Jerusalem, the Diaspora, and the Jewish Home: The Transfer of the Axis Mundi in Contemporary Judaism—The Case of São Paulo Marta F. Topel Chapter 7: Blacks, Jews, and the Paradoxes of the Struggle against Racial Prejudice in Contemporary Brazil Monica Grin Chapter 8: The Circulation of Jewish Agents and Jewish Symbolic Goods inside the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God Carlos Andrade Rivas Gutierrez Chapter 9: Identities, Migrations and Religious Practices: The Jews and Argentineans of Syrian and Moroccan Origin (from the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century to the Early Twenty-First Century) Susana Brauner Chapter 10: Brazilian Virtual Orthodox Jewish Education in the Twenty-First Century Daniela Susana Segre Guertzenstein PART 3: ZIONISM—MULTIPLE DIMENSIONS: HISTORY, DIPLOMACY, POLITICS, AND EDUCATION Chapter 11: The Beginnings of Brazilian Zionism: Historical Formation and Political Developments Michel Gherman Chapter 12: The Creation of the Relations between Israel and Brazil from a Pioneering Perspective: Between Diplomacy and Kibbutz Meir Chazan Chapter 13: The World Jewish Congress, the Jews of Argentina, and the Military Junta, 1976–83 Itzhak Mualem Chapter 14: Educational Excellence Program in South America—Case Study Margalit Yosifon Chapter 15: The Local Role of the Mordechai Anielewicz Movement in Uruguay during and after the Six-Day War Graciela Ben Dror and Victor Ben-Dror PART 4: FROM JEWISH WRITERS IN LATIN AMERICA TO LATIN AMERICA IN ISRAELI CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE Chapter 16: But at Night, at Night, I Still Dream in Spanish—The Map of Imagination of Israeli Literature: South America Yigal Schwartz Chapter 17: From Batiste Linen to the Empire at Palatnik Villa—Centennial Records of Economic Life in Natal’s First Jewish Community Nancy Rozenchan Chapter 18: Between Nostalgia and Utopia: Stefan Zweig in Brazil Luis S. Krausz Chapter 19: Representation of the Shoah in Brazilian Literature Berta Waldman Chapter 20: Samuel Rawet and the Representation of the Holocaust Saul Kirschbaum Index
Margalit Bejarano is a researcher at the Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry and Emeritus Lecturer in the Department of Romance and Latin American Studies, Hebrew University. She has published extensively on Cuban Jewry, Sephardim in Latin America, Cuban and Latino Jews in Miami, and oral history. Yaron Harel is full professor at the Department of Jewish History at Bar-Ilan University. He is the vice-chairman of the Israeli Historical Society, and incumbent of the Yekutiel and Hannah Klein Chair in the History of the Modern Rabbinate in Europe, Bar-Ilan University. His research deals with political, social, and cultural history of the Jews in the Middle East in modern times. He is the author of twelve books and several articles. Marta Francisca Topel is an anthropologist, researcher, and lecturer in the Program of Jewish and Arabic Studies at the University of São Paulo. She has written extensively about Jewish Orthodoxy both in Israel and in the Diaspora. She has also published several articles about Israeli society. Margalit Yosifon is a senior lecturer and a researcher in the Department of Education at Ashkelon Academic College. She has published extensively on sociology of education, teaching methods, and diversity and evaluation in education.
