Jewish Internationalism and the Southern Cone Dictatorships

FAIN: FT-291620-23

Debbie Sharnak
Rowan University (Glassboro, NJ 08028-1702)

Research leading to a book about Jewish struggles against antisemitism in Latin America’s military dictatorships during the 1960s-1980s.

This project explores the specific nature, context, and activities of Jewish groups in reaction to the antisemitism of the Southern Cone dictatorships. This research looks at archives—including unprocessed and never-before-examined repositories—to understand how Jews articulated and organized on behalf of their counterparts suffering under repressive regimes in the Global South and helps us understand how humanistic ideologies lived in the concrete practices of Jewish-based activist networks. This book project offers a new perspective on how Jews established and navigated links with their counterparts in other parts of the globe, and how they understood a longer lineage of humanitarian work in the matrix of emerging human rights networks.

Associated Products

Jewish Transnational Advocacy Networks during Uruguay’s Dictatorship: Human Rights, Jewish Rights and the Cold War,” Association for Jewish Studies (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Jewish Transnational Advocacy Networks during Uruguay’s Dictatorship: Human Rights, Jewish Rights and the Cold War,” Association for Jewish Studies
Author: Debbie Sharnak
Abstract: The paper focuses on the transnational connections between Jewish groups in the United States and Uruguay during Uruguay’s Cold War dictatorship, 1973-1985, particularly regarding advocacy around pressuring the military to improve its human rights practices in relation to Jews. The very nature of Uruguay’s official policy towards religion makes it a compelling case to study these dynamics. Under the presidencies of José Batlle y Ordonez (1903-1907 and 1911-1915), the State officially separated church and state. While most other Latin American countries are notable for possessing strong Catholic influences, Uruguay’s officially secular policies has meant that antisemitism often existed in more covert or coded ways, wherein government officials hid behind the nation’s legacy of official separation. During the dictatorship, the military arrested and disappeared Jews to a higher degree than the rest of the population, but the experiences of Jews did not draw much attention because these violations were predicated on the basis of their involvement in “suspicious” professions and organizations. Many domestic Jewish groups, especially those with large Holocaust refugee and survivor populations, often refused to speak out against the dictatorship, worried that overt opposition would garner further attack on Jewish life. This abnegation often pushed victims and victim families to appeal to Jewish groups in the Global North, which confronted the complex politics of international human rights advocacy, relationships with local Jewish groups, Cold War concerns, and the possibilities of reform. The paper focuses on the unprocessed and previously unexplored files of the Anti-Defamation League, government documents, oral histories, and newspapers in Uruguay and the United States. As such, this paper makes two historiographical interventions. First, much human rights scholarship on transnational Jewish activism of the late Cold War centers on campaigns around Soviet Jewry; yet t
Date: 12/18/2023
Conference Name: Association for Jewish Studies

Transnational Jewish Networks and the Case of Uruguay (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Transnational Jewish Networks and the Case of Uruguay
Author: Debbie Sharnak
Abstract: The very nature of Uruguay’s official policy towards religion makes it a compelling case to study antisemitism. Under the presidencies of José Batlle y Ordonez (1903-1907 and 1911-1915), the State officially separated church and state. While most other Latin American countries are notable for possessing strong Catholic influences, Uruguay’s officially secular policies has meant that antisemitism often existed in more covert or coded ways, wherein government officials hid behind the nation’s legacy of official separation. During the dictatorship, this meant that the military still arrested and disappeared Jews to a higher degree than the rest of the population. Domestic Jewish groups often refused to speak out against the dictatorship, worried that overt opposition would garner further attack on Jewish life within. This abnegation often left victims and victim families to appeal to Jewish groups in the Global North, who were left to navigate the complex politics of international human rights advocacy, perceived threat to local Jewish groups, and the possibilities of reform. Centering on the unprocessed files of the ADL’s 1980 trip, this paper makes two historiographical interventions. First, much human rights scholarship on transnational Jewish activism of the Late Cold War centers on campaigns around Soviet Jewry; yet, that focus obscures the global work of the Jewish diaspora on behalf of human rights in Latin America. By focusing on Uruguay, this paper looks at how transnational Jewish networks worked beyond the confines of the bipolar Cold War to understand how Jews articulated and organized on behalf of their counterparts suffering under repressive regimes in the small Southern Cone country. It also reexamines the official secular politics of the Uruguayan state to see how underrepresented groups navigated the dictatorship at a local and transnational level.
Date: 1/7/2023
Conference Name: American Historical Association

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