The Jews of Argentina

Tuition: $360 | YIVO members: $270**

This is a live, online course held on Zoom. Enrollment will be capped at about 25 students. All course details (Zoom link, syllabus, handouts, recordings of class sessions, etc.) will be posted to Canvas. Students will be granted access to the class on Canvas after registering for the class here on the YIVO website. This class will be conducted in English, and any readings will be in English.

Instructor: Ilan Stavans

An exploration of the history and culture of the Jews of Argentina, from the immigration to the agricultural colonies sponsored by Baron Maurice de Hirsch at the end of the 19th century and the "Semana Trágica" riots of 1919, to the growth of urban communities, the rise of Peronismo, the capture of former Nazi official Adolf Eichmann, the Dirty War and the desaparecidos, the terrorist attack against the AMIA (Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina), and beyond. Themes include anti-Semitism, assimilation, activism, state repression, communal organization, Zionism and Israel, languages, gender roles, and self-defense. We will analyze poems, short stories, journalistic accounts, speeches, fragments of novels and memoirs, and films. Figures to be discusses are Alberto Gerchunoff, Jorge Luis Borges, Pope Francis, Marcos Aguinis, Daniel Barenboim, Marcelo Birmajer, Aída Bornik, Daniel Burman, Julio Cortázar, Juan Gelman, Rabbi Marshall Meyer, Alejandra Pizarnik, Ana María Shúa, and Jacobo Timerman, among others.

Course Materials:
Students should purchase the following texts:

• The Seventh Heaven: Travels through Jewish Latin America, by Ilan Stavans (Purchase)
• Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number, by Jacobo Timerman (Purchase)
• The Crimes of Moises Ville, by Javier Sinay (Purchase)
• Oy Caramba! Jewish Stories from Latin America, edited by Ilan Stavans (Purchase)

Ilan Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities, Latin American, and Latino Cultures at Amherst College, publisher of Restless Books, host of NPR’s podcast In Contrast, and a regular contributor to the New York Times en Español. An international bestselling author, his books include On Borrowed Words (2000), Spanglish (2002), Dictionary Days (2010), and Quixote (2015). Among his graphic novels are Latino USA: A Cartoon History (2000), El Iluminado (2012), Angelitos (2017), and an adaptation of Don Quixote of La Mancha (2018). He is the editor of, among others, The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories (1998), The Schocken Book of Sephardic Literature (2008), Norton Anthology of Latino Literature (2011), Becoming Americans (2013), and Oy Caramba!: An Anthology of Jewish Stories from Latin America (2017). His work, adapted into theater, TV, film, and radio, has been translated into twenty languages.

**Become a member today, starting at $54 for one year, and pay the member price for classes! You’ll save on tuition for this course and more on future classes and public programs tickets.