Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 2014. Illustrations. 240 pp. $85.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8047-9200-4; $24.95 (paper), ISBN 978-08047-9341-4.
Reviewed by Dalia Wassner (Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, Brandeis University)
Published on H-Judaic (May, 2016)
Commissioned by Matthew A. Kraus
wright); Julio Jorge Nelson (n Julio Rosofsky, the journalist); and one of the exported crown jewels of modern Argentine Jewish literature, Csar Tiempo (born Israel Zeitlin). At the same time, Reins nuanced understanding of the changing political climate of the twentieth centuryinvolving a (qualified) invitation to European immigration, a total of six coups, the rise of
Peronism, and the tragic period of the 1976-83 military
dictatorshipis placed alongside a narrative of evolving
Jewish trends in national politics (socialism, communism,
and depoliticization) as expressed within the Jewish
sports clubs shifting periods of politicization. One example is Reins coverage of the Peronization of Argentine
sports and the clubs deliberations regarding naming the
stadium after Eva Pern (p. 104).
Having authored several founding historical accounts
of the Jews of Buenos Aires and their relation to key political figures and movements, Rein is uniquely positioned
to undertake the study of Jewish participation in Buenos
Aires neighborhood sports as it relates to their integration within national cultural identity, which he delivers
with an eye to new scholarship emerging in the United
States and England aiming to do the same in their own
contexts. Moreover, the authors personal connection to
the topic (his father-in-law provides authentic memorabilia and his relations are current Atlanta fans) gives texture to his abundant professional archival, oral, and photographic sources of evidence. In addition, Reins own
visual elaborations, be they maps of Buenos Aires neighborhoods that detail evolving Jewish settlement (map 1.1)
or tables graphing the growing stadiums by size (table
3.1) and charting evolving club rankings by year (tables
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4.3, 5.1, 6.2, 7.1), are aided by Ariel Korobs detailed list
of Jewish members of the board of directors from 1970 to
1996 (table 7.2). These auxiliary sources of comparison,
mostly produced by the author, provide the reader with
a condensed forum for relevant statistics and a visual appreciation for the clubs evolution in terms of location,
membership, and rankings.
A consistent strength of the work is the authors detailed use of various archives in Buenos Aires (Archivo
de la Asociacin del Ftbol Argentino, Archivo del Club
Atltico Atlanta, Archivo General de la Nacin, and
Archivo Personal de Jorge Kolbowski), which offer insight into the existence, expansion, and success of the
club in terms of leadership, finances, player acquisition
and trades, and the centrality of political endorsements
from such figures as Juan and Evita Pern and Jorge
Videla. With the help of such archives, Rein documents
in detail Jewish participation in the clubs leadership, beginning in 1922 with Osvaldo Simn Piackin and reaching a high point in 1968 with Len Kolbowskis last term,
when Jews reached a majority on the board membership. At the same time, Rein documents overt manifestation of anti-Semitism during Atlanta games, providing
the troubling lyrics of certain chants that in some cases
express sympathy with Nazi goals and methods of genocide. Rein also documents the details of local cultural
figures participation in club communal events, which
drew, for example, such personalities as radio hosts Osvaldo Miranda and Elas Fort, the poet and artist Hctor
Gagliardi, the orchestra of Pedro Lurenz, and the singer
Roberto Quiroga.
Note
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If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at:
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Citation: Dalia Wassner. Review of Rein, Raanan, Ftbol, Jews, and the Making of Argentina. H-Judaic, H-Net
Reviews. May, 2016.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=43991
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoncommercialNo Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.