Jewish Self-Defense in South America charts the ways in which Jewish youth in Argentina and Uruguay organized self-defense groups in the wake of an anti-Semitic wave that swept the Southern Cone in the 1960s.
The kidnapping of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires in 1960 and his trial and execution in Israel in 1962, as well as the assassination of the Latvian war criminal Herberts Cukurs in Montevideo in 1965, provoked violent attacks by right-wing nationalist organizations against Jewish lives and property. Thousands of Jews decided to teach the anti-Semitic bullies a lesson and make it very clear that shedding Jewish blood would not go unpunished, that Jews were no longer passive victims. The central role that the State of Israel and its envoys played in organizing, instructing, and training self-defense activists highlights the special ties between Israel and the Jewish Diaspora. Based on more than 120 interviews with former activists of self-defense, ex-Mossad officers and veteran Israeli diplomats, as well as on archival research, this is a pioneering study on ethnicity and diaspora in a time of growing political violence in South America.
This book is a valuable study for scholars and students researching Jewish history and Latin American history.
Author(s): Raanan Rein
Series: Routledge Studies in Modern History
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 288
City: New York
Cover
Half Title
Series
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction
“We Will Not Allow a Second Shoah to Happen, This Time in South America”
Oral History and Attempts to Understand the Meaning of Events
Structure of the Book
1 Israel and the Safety of Diaspora Jews
The Crystallization of a Self-Defense Tradition in Europe and in Palestine
Muscular Judaism
Militaristic Zionism
Israel and Its Jewish Responsibility
Can a Model Be Replicated? Misgeret Organizations in North Africa
An Overhaul in the 1980s: The Misgeret Undergoes Changes
As Far Away as Possible From the Scene of the Crime: Nazis in Argentina
2 Eichmann’s Capture and the Birth of the Irgún
Frondizi’s Brief Democratic Interlude
Capturing Dybbuk
An Affront to National Sovereignty and Accusations of Dual Loyalty
Upgrading Self-Defense Activities
Argentina-Israel Relations vs. the Argentine State’s Attitude Toward Jews
3 From Spontaneous Activities to an Organized and Institutionalized Self-Defense
Anger, Bitterness, and Physical Fear
“No Longer Passive Victims”
Avner Azulay and Yehuda Harari, Founders of the Jewish Self-Defense
A Fatal Shooting
“We Want to Be a Commando Force of Blood and Iron”
Partisans, Ghetto Rebels, and Self-Defense Fighters
4 Beating for Zionism
Tata Furmanski and Macabilandia
Identifying Jews With Communism
The Arab League in Alliance With the Argentine Nationalist Right: Hussein Triki
Self-Defense and the Rapprochement of Sephardic Jews With Zionism and Israel
From Iguana Hunting in Córdoba and Bodybuilding in Buenos Aires to the Self-Defense
From the Margins of Community Activity to the Irgún
Far from General Paz Avenue
A “Glorious Time”
The Battle of La Paternal
5 Troubled Waters: The Uruguayan Version of Self-Defense
The Birth of Self-Defense Groups in an Atmosphere of Panic
Eichmann’s Execution: A New Wave of Anti-Semitism
Betar Uruguay: At the Forefront of Jewish Self-Defense Initiatives
Black Belt in Self-Defense
6 Nazi War Criminals and Arab Propagandists in Uruguay
The Cukurs Case
The Arab Threat
The Galvanizing Effect of the Six-Day War
Julio Ring: A Leading Figure in Self-Defense
The Paladino Case and a Warning to All Anti-Semites
A Younger Generation of Self-Defense Activists
Epilogue
A Youthful Adventure or an Ethnic and Anti-Fascist Struggle?
From Jewish Self-Defense to Guerrilla Movements
Summary and Conclusions
Index
