Judaism and Zionism in Argentina (was RE: Was: Spy plane crisis ; nowZionism = ?)

[Les Schaffer <schaffer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

[ from Nestor ]

En relación a RE: Was:  Spy plane crisis ; now Zionism = ?,
el 16 Apr 01, a las 18:46, Craven, Jim dijo:

> To say that increasingly in Argentina, or anywhere else: "being a Jew has
> become more and more the same thing with being a Zionist or a sympathizer of 
> the
> State of Israel" I think is to concede what need not be conceded and to hand 
> the
> argument over to the Zionists: Zionism = "True" Judaism; and "therefore",
> anti-Zionism = Blasphemy against Judaism and/or "anti-Semitism".

But I am not arguing with Zionists here! I am just describing a reality.  If by
"being a Jew" one understands "taking part in the activities of the Jewish
community", not just sharing the best part of the principles in the Jewish
cultural and religious tradition, then I stick to my words. In Argentina, it is
increasingly difficult to "be a Jew" without becoming another member of the
Zionist or pro-Zionist crew.  In a sense, Israel has become a surrogate "Mother
Homeland" for Argentinean Jews.

Maybe this requires a short explanation: in Argentina, we call "Mother
Homeland" the country of origin of an immigrant. In an extended sense, Spain is
referred to as the "Mother homeland" of Argentina as such. In a narrower sense,
Argentineans of Italian origin refer to Italy as their own "Mother Homeland",
and so on.  Jews, on the contrary, had no actual "Mother Homeland" here. Nor
did they actually want to have one. Tsardom Russia? The flea-ridden "shtetl"?
The aggresive environment of anti-Semite Polish peasantry?

Probably the Jews were the only migrants who came to Argentina with a massive
decission not to "hacer la América", that is,  to fill the pockets and return
to Europe (they had nowhere to return to, particularly after the Holocaust).
They honestly came to Argentina in order to build a new life in a new land.
They had no "Mother Homeland" to keep in their heart. They wanted to be adopted
by Argentina, they wanted to adopt Argentina as their new home. This is a
striking feature of Jewish migration that could have made (and partly did make)
an important difference.

Ironically enough, the Russian Revolution provided Eastern European Jews
in Argentina with a "Mother Homeland" of a new kind befor the creation
of the State of Israel in 1948 provided them with another, more clearly 
"Jewish",
one. And after World War II the main Jewish institutions were friendly divided
between those directed by Zionism and those directed by Stalinism. The division
made itself visible in the two youth camps, "Zumerland" -of the Communist Party
system- and "Kinderland" -of the Zionist system.  And the main voice in
Argentinean Zionism was, up to the early 70s and perhaps a few years later,
the "leftist" Zionists. Not only because they were the ruling party in Israel, 
but
also because of the history of the Argentinean Jewish community (1).

All this was possible because the Argentinean middle classes to which the Jews
belonged were alienated from their own fellow countrypeople. When this
alienation began to dissolve, that is by the late 60s, the Jews in Argentina
began to see themselves torn apart between support to Israel and support for
the oppressed peoples in the Third World. The situation became more serious yet
after the 1967 Six Days War. The impact of these events was greatest among non-
Zionist Leftist Jews. They had to choose between supporting Israel and
remaining Leftists, since the same historic wave that was bringing them to the
side of the Argentinean workers opened up their eyes to the situation of the
Arab masses. Thus, a first breakup took place, where some of these Jews decided
to "remain faithful to our people", that is, they became pro-Zionists, and
others decided to "meet our own people", that is they began to meld with the
mass of the Argentineans.

At the same time, this process of "nationalization of the middle classes" had a
strong impact on the Zionist Left, compounded by the effect of the Six Days
War. While the latter drained to Israel most of the local leadership of the
youth movements which provided the bulk of the Left Zionist parties in the
Argentinean community, the former dried up the sources for recruitment. The
Argentinean Jewish youth simply turned their back on Zionists, and particularly
the Leftist Jewish youth.

The Stalinist-controlled system of Jewish institutions, thus, simply waned (not
to mention the effect of the breakup of the fSU, of course!). And the Zionist
system became the sole representatives of the Jewish in Argentina. When the
1976 dictatorship came in, and a massive "repatriation" of Leftist Jews was
organized by the Israelis, the whole scenario took shape. In fact, what (little
or not) remains of "Jewish" in Argentina is now, in a way or other, "Zionist".

It should also be kept in mind that in Argentina, contrary to the United
States, religion is not an important issue in everyday life. So that there are
not too many reasons to "remain Jewish", unless a tradition that is fostered
ONLY from the Zionist-controlled institutions. This is the actual situation,
not an argument against Zionists.

> Indeed there
> are some Jewish anti-Zionists for whom anti-Zionism is a necessary and
> inexorable expression and stand from their own notions of what is true 
> Judaism;
> I guess it was in that spirit (and as an admitted rhetorical device) that I
> attacked the Zionists at that meeting (an angle of attack they were simply not
> expecting).

But a very good one, since this is precisely the angle that makes me keep at
least a shred of hope in that the Israeli population may, who knows, if they
wake up clever just for once, reject the Zionist state by honestly looking at
its necessary consequences: the Bantustanization of the Palestinians and the
transformation of the Israeli Jews into a Herrenvolk.

N O T E S

(1) By the way, these Left-leaning Zionists had an unexpected weight in
Argentinean politics: I still recall a remark made by a Zionist in Israel on
the involvement of Zionists in our politics by the early 60s. This man had come
from Avellaneda, a by then strongly working class area of the Greater Buenos
Aires, immediately to the South of Buenos Aires city proper. As such, the
middle classes had been engulfed by a wave of Peronists during the preceding 15
years. The Socialist Party, even in its Leftist, "pro-Cuban" version of the
Partido Socialista Argentino, was essentially a middle-class organization in a
process of atomization, which however held some strength among the petty
bourgeois and intellectual workers of the Greater Buenos Aires area. Well, this
context will provide full meaning to the remark by this man in Israel: "The
Socialists never organized a mass rally in Avellaneda if we -that is, the Left
wing Zionists- did not make them sure that we would be there".


Néstor Miguel Gorojovsky
gorojovsky@xxxxxxxxxxxx