The Yiddisher Kultur Farband in Argentina: Progressive and Communist Jews (1917-1956)

• Autores: Visacovsky, Saba Nerina
• Año de publicación: 2022
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: artículo
• Materia: ANTIFASCIST CULTURE; ARGENTINEAN COMMUNIST PARTY; ARGENTINEAN JEWISH IMMIGRANTS; PROGRESSIVE JEWS; YIDDISHER KULTUR FARBAND (YKUF)
• Institución: Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas

Progressive and Communist Jewish identity in Argentina flourished between the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Cold War. In 1937, during the Popular Front period, Jewish Communist intellectuals organized an International Congress of Yiddish Culture in Paris. Twenty-three countries were represented, and the Congress formed the Yiddisher Kultur Farband (YKUF). In 1941, this Congress was replicated in Argentina, where the YKUF sponsored an important network of schools, clubs, theaters, socio-cultural centers, and libraries created by Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. The Ykufist or Progressive Jewish identity reflects a particular construction that is as ethnic as it is political. As “Jewish,” it aimed to transmit the secular heritage of the Yiddishkeit devastated in Europe during World War II, but as “progressive,” “radical” or “Communist,” it postulated its yearning for integration into a universal socialism led by the Soviet model. Progressive Jewish identity was shaped in the antifascist culture and by permanent tensions between Jewish ethnicity and the guidelines of the Communist Party. Above all, it was framed by a fervent aspiration of the immigrants and their children to integrate into their Argentine society.
Fil: Visacovsky, Saba Nerina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Políticas. - Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Investigaciones Políticas; Argentina