Se trata de un breve artículo que da cuenta de las transformaciones acontecidas en el judaísmo latinoamericano desde finales del siglo XX, señalando, de un lado, los procesos de revitalización de las corrientes ortodoxas, y del otro, la fluidización de las fronteras del campo que habilita formas de circulación y reapropiación de referencias simbólicas en el proceso de construcción individual de la identidad.Fil: Setton, Eli Damian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Saavedra 15. Centro de Estudios e Investigaciones Laborales; Argentin

Setton, Eli Damian

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CONICET Digital

Hemisphere Volume 1936CommentariesLatin American Judaismhas experienced a series oftransformations since the1980s that have signifi-cantly altered its makeupand given rise to new social actorsand conflicts. As in other parts of the world,Judaism in Latin America in theearly twentieth century was built ona foundation of secular matrixes thatreflected Jewish aspirations tobecome part of the nation, with thereligious dimension relegated to thebackground.  It is this religiousdimension, however, that came tomonopolize the attention of bothJewish communities and social scien-tists by the early 1980s.Again, as in other parts of theworld, Latin American Judaism iscurrently experiencing a revitalizationof Orthodox sentiments.  Many Jewsare practicing what in Hebrew isknown as teshuva, a word that canbe translated as “return,” and whichin sociological terms implies aprocess of religious conversion.Typically, Jews socialized in non-Orthodox environments adoptlifestyles emphasizing strict obser-vance of Jewish law.  This trendreflects the transformation of thedynamic between religion andmodernity that has affected otherreligions, including Christianity,Islam and “Oriental” religions.Some scholars, among them SusanaBrauner and Renato Ortiz, haveargued that the gap left by Zionismas a factor in Jewish identity hasbeen filled by religious movementsat the same time that the process ofglobalization and the consequentweakening of national referents haveopened a space for the constructionof transnational identities.  WhileConservative Judaism tried to createa movement that could express thenational realities of different coun-tries, as Leonardo Senkman notes,Orthodox congregations have littleuse for national considerations in theconstruction of their identities. InTransformations in LatinAmerican Judaism By Damián Setton; Translated by Alisa NewmanThe Mikve Israel Synagogue on the Dutch island of Curaçao is the oldest Jewish house of worshipstill in use in the Americas.Hemisphere Volume 19 37CommentariesArgentina, for example, followers ofthe Chabad Lubavitch movementidentify themselves as Lubavitchers,not as Argentine Jews.  In definitionsof identity, the transnational com-munity takes pride of place over thenational.  This doesn’t mean, howev-er, that we should ignore local partic-ularities when analyzing the teshuvamovement in its different contexts. The Chabad movement has alteredthe physiognomy of Latin AmericanJudaism through its practice of send-ing emissaries to countries whereOrthodox Judaism lacks a strongpresence.  Their goal is to createspaces for socialization that have amarkedly Orthodox stamp.  Otherbaalei teshuva (returnees) look forcities that offer the type of commu-nity infrastructure that was not avail-able in their countries of origin; forexample, many Uruguayan baaleiteshuva emigrate to other countriesbecause Uruguay does not have theinfrastructure they need to practicetheir desired lifestyle. Several factors are important toconsider when discussing thesetrends, above all the political trans-formations involved in Jews’ emer-gence into the public arena.  InArgentina, the return to democracyin 1983 opened spaces for theexpression of different religions.Argentine society stopped thinkingof itself as a monolithic whole andbegan to recognize and legitimate itsown plurality.   And in Mexico, theend of the PRI’s monopoly over poli-tics brought to power the NationalAction Party (PAN), whose traditionof conservative Catholicism lent newlegitimacy to religion in public life. Another trend developing on thefringes of Orthodoxy is the emer-gence of a heterogeneous collectivethat defines itself as “pluralisticJudaism” and comprises such sectorssuch as the Meretz party, the ICUF(Federation of Yiddish Cultures),Conservative rabbis and variousintellectuals. The Pole for PluralisticJudaism, which was created inArgentina in 2008, defines Judaismfrom a perspective that acknowledgesthe many different ways of being aJew and the individualization of defi-nitions of identity. Finally, for many Jews, Judaismitself is an arena for free circulationand fluid borders.  They constructtheir own Jewishness from a patch-work of different influences withoutaffiliating themselves with any singleone.  They build their own Judaismout of multiple sources of meaningthat incorporate diverse Jewish andnon-Jewish influences and, withinJudaism itself, different religiousexpressions. As a result, we are witnessing amoment when two apparently con-flicting trends are intensifying simul-taneously: on the one hand, the cre-ation of communities with well-defined borders, and on the other,individuals for whom these bordersdo not represent an insurmountablebarrier.  Orthodox Judaism benefitsfrom both of these movements.  nDamián Setton is a researcher at theCenter for Labor Research and Studiesand the Program in EconomicResearch on Technology, Labor andEmployment (CEIL-PIETTE) at theNational Council for Scientific andTechnical Research (CONICET) inBuenos Aires, Argentina.

Transformations in Latin American Judaism

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Transformations in Latin American Judaism

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