This book puts two of the most significant Jewish Diaspora communities outside of the U.S. into conversation with one another. At times contributor-pairs directly compare unique aspects of two Jewish histories, politics, or cultures. At other times, they juxtapose. Some chapters focus on literature, poetry, theatre, or sport; others on immigration, antisemitism, or health. Taken together, the essays in Promised Lands North and South offer sparkling insight and new depth on the modern Jewish global experience.
David S. Koffman is the J. Richard Shiff Chair for the Study of Canadian Jewry, an Associate Professor of History at York University, and the editor-in-chief of the journal Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes. His most recent book is No Better Home? Jews, Canada and the Sense of Belonging (University of Toronto Press, 2021).
David M. K. Sheinin is Professor of History at Trent University and Académico Correspondiente of the Academia Nacional de la Historia de la República Argentina. His most recent book is Recasting the Nation in Twentieth-Century Argentina (Routledge, 2023), co-edited with Benjamin Bryce.
List of Figures and Tables
Notes on Contributors
Introduction: Common Origins, Distinctive Paths: What’s to Be Gained by Putting Argentine Jewry and Canadian Jewry into Conversation
David S. Koffman and David M. K. Sheinin
PART 1: Making People
1 Jewish Migrations to and from Argentina and Canada: Tides, Waves, and Streams
Robert Brym and Ezequiel Erdei
2 Jewish Alterity and the Myth of the Jewish Gaucho
Amy Kaminsky
3 Argentina and Canada: Promised Lands for Moroccan Jews?
Adriana Brodsky and Yolande Cohen
PART 2: Creating Community
4 Jewish Support for Nationalist Movements in the Americas: a Comparative Re-Appraisal
Simon-Pierre Lacasse and Raanan Rein
5 Jewish Archives in Countries of Immigration: Argentina and Canada
Amir Lavie and Silvia Schenkolewski-Kroll
6 Charity, Health, and Community: the Hospital Israelita of Buenos Aires in Comparative Context
Benjamin Bryce
7 Mid-Century Modern: Simón Bronenberg, Sammy Luftspring, and the Coming of Age of Jewish Boxing
David M. K. Sheinin
PART 3: Penning Culture
8 Rewriting Lorca in the Argentinian and Canadian Jewish Imaginaries
Cynthia Gabbay and Emily Robins Sharpe
9 Plowing Argentine and Canadian Soil: Jewish Colonization in the Writing of Memoirists
Mariusz Kalczewiak
10 Writing Settler Relations: Jewish Literary Engagements with Indigenous Themes in Argentina and Canada
David S. Koffman and Stephanie Pridgeon
11 Representing Jewish Experience: the Novels of Adele Wiseman and Ana María Shua
Ruth Panofsky and Claire Solomon
12 Yiddish Theater in Montréal and Buenos Aires: Common Origins, Distinctive Paths
Zachary M. Baker
PART 4: Dealing with Difficulties
13 What We Can Learn from a Comparison of Antisemitisms in Argentina and Canada
Marisa Braylan and Ira Robinson
14 The Deafening Silence: a Reappraisal of the Early Canadian Jewish Response to the Holocaust
Hernan Tesler-Mabé
15 Under Suspicion: Argentina’s Jews in the Optic of Conspiracy Theories
Luis Roniger
16 “A Rescued Jewish Young Lady Comes”: Malka Owsiany’s Reception and Testimony in Buenos Aires (1945–46)
Malena Chinski
17 Reimagining Testimony: Holocaust Memory and the Public Sphere in Contemporary Argentina
Natasha Zaretsky
18 Jews in a Counterfactual British Argentina
Yosef Dov Robinson
Index
Academics, students, libraries, and anybody else interested in Jewish life, Latin American Studies, Argentina, Canada. Relevant subject areas include History, Sociology, Literature, Politics, Theatre, Ethnic Studies, Women and Gender Studies.