Judit Bokser LiwerantUniversidad Nacional Autónoma de

México

Brandeis University, BostonOctober 23rd, 2011

Result of processes of

Relocation

Redefinition

Reshaping

Experiences and identities

New geographical and social territories

Changes (migration, relocation, return, dual residency, dispersal, renewal) impact domains of public life:

•Inclusion and exclusion within broader communal and societal contexts

•Shifting ideological commitments

•Construction, resilience, transformation, contesting and reconstitution of individual and collective Jewish life

• Building, imagining, reformulation and adjusting-redefinition of individual and collective identities

Collective life and identities

Different institutional arenas

Territorial

Communal

Ethnical

Religious

Cultural

Different political-ecological settings

Local

Regional

National

•Diverse nature of the different countries and cultures

Shared features and singularities of Latin American Jewish communities

•Particular and global condition of the Jewish people

Globalization processes strengthen commonalities and differencesMigrating + Receiving communities

Inner stratification

Complexity

Latin American Jewish Presence in US

Growing; Diversified; Singular

Still in need of comprehensive research

Latin American Jews in a Transnational World(Bokser Liwerant, DellaPergola, Senkman)

Multidimensional natureJewish identities in a context of identity revival, transformation, negotiation, or even fading away and loss

In Latin America- Abroad

Implications for social morphology as expressed in the changing character of social/communal formations

Past- present

Historical development of Latin America Jewish and changing conditions

Dialectic of de-territorialization and re-territorializationHistorical and current moments of a transnational world can be located

among Latin American Jews and their communities

Key concept to approach historical development of ethno-national Jewish Diasporas in LA + present condition

Bordered and bounded social and communal units as transnationallyconstituted spaces interacting with one another

Homeland and the elected new places of residence widen the scope of Jewish life and their reciprocal influence.

Changing character of social/communal formation.

Transnational actors become effective agents of micro- and macro-social change

Ethno-National Diaspora in Times of Transition

Center-Periphery Model Radial Contemporary Configuration

Research questions….

Multiples Modernities and Mauselum of Modernities

Transformation of historical tensions

Patterns of formation and transformation of the criteria of membership and its socio-ethnic dynamics inclusion/exclusion

Corporatist patterns and popular movements that generated recurrent waves of repression and democratization

Widening the public sphere and large-scale migration flows

Shrinking Jewish communities Revitalized Jewish life

Latin AmericaLatin American Jewish world

International Migrants

2005: 195 millions2010: 214 millions

Latin American Migrants

2005: 24 millions2010: 29.5 millions

Latin American Jews1970: 514.0002010: 390.000

Country 1967 1970 1984 1995

2009 % differ. 1970-2009Jewish

PopulationPopulation per 1000

Total Latin America 747.800 513.800 454.900 428.200 390.600 0.8 -24

Costa Rica 1.500 1.500 2.500 2.500 2.500 0,6 +67

Cuba 2.100 1.700 700 700 500 0,0 -71

Guatemala 1.500 1.900 1.000 1.000 900 0,1 -53

Mexico 30.000 35.000 35.000 40.800 39.500 0,4 +13

Panama 2.000 2.000 3.800 5.000 8.000 2,4 +300

Puerto Rico 2.000 1.200 2.000 1.500 1.500 0,4 +25

Total Central America 42.600 46.800 48.200 53.200 54.700 0,3 +17

Argentina 450.000 282.000 228.000 206.000 182.500 4,7 -35

Brazil 140.000 90.000 100.000 100.000 95.800 0,5 +6

Colombia 10.000 10.000 7.000 5.000 2.700 0,1 -73

Chile 35.000 30.000 17.000 15.000 20.600 1,2 -31

Ecuador 2.000 2.000 1.000 900 900 0,1 -55

Peru 4.000 5.300 5.000 2.900 2.000 0,1 -62

Uruguay 50.000 32.000 27.000 23.400 17.600 5,4 -45

Venezuela 8.500 12.000 20.000 20.000 12.200 0,5 +2

Total South America 705.200 467.000 406.700 375.000 335.900 0,9 -28

[Without Argentina, Brazil] [157.800] [141.800] [126.000] [122.200] [112.300]-21

Source for 1967: American Jewish Year Book; for 1970-2009: Schmelz (1981) quote in fn. 5; estimates by author; and American Jewish Year Book, various years.

JEWS OF LATIN AMERICAN ORIGIN AND THEIR FAMILIES, WORLD ESTIMATES

Areas of settlement of Latin American Jews

Jewish Population Core definition

Jewish Population Enlarged

definition* 1880 1948 2010 2010

Central America 54,500 62,000

South America 335,000 476,000

TOTAL IN LA 5,000 520,000 389,500 538,000

United States 100,000 133,000

Israel 115,000 150,000

Other country 12,500 20,000

TOTAL WORLDWIDE 617,000 841,000

Percent living OUT of LA 37% 36% *Including members of households who are not Jewish or are not of Latin American origin.

Number of Jews in the US

Percentage of Latino/Hispanic/Latin American Jews in the US

Number of Latino/Hispanic/Latin American Jews in the US

Sources

6.5 million 2.4 156,000 Sheskin & Dashefsky, 2005 & 2010

5.5 million Core definition Enlarged definition Core definition Enlarged

definitionDellaPergola, 2010 & 2011

1.8 2.4 100,000 133,000

Sources: Sheskin, Ira M. and Arnold Dashefsky. “The 2005 Las Vegas Jewish Community Study”. The Jewish Data Bank; Sheskin, Ira M. And Arnold Dashefsky. “Jewish Population in the US, 2010”. Number 1. The Jewish Data Bank.DellaPergola, Sergio. “World Jewish Population, 2010”. Number 2. The Jewish Data Bank; JPPI, 2011.

PHASE 1 PHASE 2

Cuban revolution in 1959

1970s: economic crises; political dictatorships in the Southern Cone

Neo-liberal economic policies and globalization (1980s and1990s)

Re-democratization: pull factor for Jewish exiles and return to their homelands

Economic crises and security problems: global international migration pattern

Choice of destination was grounded on push or pull factors reflecting structural transformations as well as individual/familiar/ communal options for better personal security, economic and life-chance needs

The perception of relevant places of destinations could not be totally free from evaluations involving a cultural dimension

Dependency of Jewish migration levels on the unfolding of specific localcircumstances

Material realities and cultural symbolic ideational factors

Cultural determinants in Jewish international migration

Israel- USA Historical alternative/supplementary moments

Jewish migrations are not unidirectional

•return migration •repeated and circular migration •bi-local or multi-local migrants

transnational networks and identities of

specific/singular region

Characteristics Respondent Spouse TotalN 29 38 67 Veterans in the US 100.0 100.0 100.0Mean years 28.6Mean year of arrival 1972-1973 Gender M 67.3 19.1 40.0F 32.7 80.9 60.0 Age Mean age 47.7 45.4 46.4 Region 100.0 100.0 100.0Northeast 37.4 24.0 29.8MidWest 10.1 0.0 4.4South 37.1 56.4 48.0West 15.4 19.6 17.8

Characteristics Respondent Spouse Total Education 100.0 100.0 100.0MA and above 42.4 30.6 35.9BA 19.4 32.7 26.8Some college 26.8 15.5 20.5High school or less 11.5 21.0 16.8 Employment 100.0 100.0 100.0Self-employed 4.1 37.7 23.1Employee 80.6 45.9 61.0Not working 15.3 16.4 15.9Source: National Jewish Population Survey 2001. Elaborated by Sergio DellaPergola and Uzi Rebhun

Trasnational networks and identities

1948-2007 (LA Israel):

94.700 (born in LA)

108.000 (plus 14% migrants from LA born in other places)

2007:60.000 residents(100.000 /plus 39.5000 born in Israel)

113.00068.000 first generation45.000 born in Israel

2001 (LA US):

67,000 (born in LA)

33,000 (migrants from LA born in other places + second generation)

*100,000

Binomial Diaspora-Transnationalism

New relevance

Diaspora making Diaspora un-making

Complex de- socialization and re-socialization

migrant integration and cultural distinctiveness

web of relations beyond Nation-State

Migration crises

Scenarios

De-diasporization with respect to belonging to an ethno-national Jewish Diaspora

Re-diasporization of migrant communities (old country/old Jewishness)

Integration through new narrative and visibility of collective identities

international migration

Reshaping of the social and cultural boundaries of Jewish migrants vis-à-vis the absorbing society

cultural and religious diversity

changes in the host-guest mutual perceptions of

identity boundariesAssimilation Process

routes and roots of collective life and perception- role of

migrants in the new places

Changing modes and strategies of community incorporation/integration; participation/affiliation

retain strong cultural traits related to the communities of origin

tend/want to be part of the new communal fabric

globalized Judaism Jewish communities in Latin America based on Nation-State primacy and

mono-cephalous culturesTension

Changing contents of identities, new definitions of attachment to Jewish context, understanding of Jewishness among children of families: intermarried, multiple ethnicity and multiple religion

Patterns of convergence Mutual exclusion

Resulting from earlier migration processes + persistent sub-ethnicities in Jewish domain

•Mechanisms for enrollment of adepts and ensuring institutional continuity in the sub-ethnic Jewish cultural context

Transnationalism of Latin American Jews

Living in MiamiLiving in California/San Diego (Mexicans)Living in the U.S. Northeast

How demographically and socioeconomically selective were the migrants vis-à-vis the profile of the total Jewish population in the country of origin? Who went and who remained, and why?

Which migration networks, local, international and transnational organizations (Jewish or non-Jewish) were part of this process?

What sort of relationships helped to link former, current, and potential migrants with the country of destination?

What degree of commitment developed toward the new country of residence? Through which channels?

Which links developed with the local Jewish community? Independent communities?

Global city31% population foreign born2.500.000 people living in Miami1.600.000 Latinos1% Hispanic: Jews (16.000)

Is this a case of re-diasporization of Jewish migrants and temporary residents, or a relocation or regrouping of Latin Americans to Florida?

Expressions of multi-localism: a high number of transients living in two homes between a proto-Diaspora in the U.S. and their national home-

country

Singularity of Cuban Jews in Florida. Migrants from Argentina, Colombia and Mexico. Venezuelan Jews: test case?

Economic, legal, social and educational advice and supportbetween solidarity and

tensionsJoint ventures

Diverse patterns of organization of/integration to Jewish communal life:

Common denominator: collective incorporation

From autarchy to coexistence: Hebraica-JCC

The communal character of social life:

Shaliaj JAFI;

Macabi Games.

2002-2004: arrival of Argentinian Jews (economic crisis)

San Diego

Jewish community has shown a migratory pattern of recreating communal life in new milieus and the resulting translocalism represents new dimensions of transnationalism: concept of secondary-Diaspora

widen the concept of commuting: redefining the boundaries between homeland and place of residence;

inter-generational differences and common traits

2003 Jewish population: 89.00019% born outside USA Lowest percentage of community affiliation; congregational membership600 Mexican Jewish families

Organizational and institutional densityLeadership in American

Association: Hebrew Academy, AIPAC

The emergence of a world cosmopolitan middle class or elite that shares tastes and values, by maintaining widely spread transnational connections

The inner sectorial differences that historically marked the Mexican Jewish community tend to blur: Ashkenazi, Sephardic, Mizrahi -> Mexican/Jewish identity

Sub- ethnicity and religious streams

Encounters with other Jewish groups

The place of Hispanic culture in the reconstruction of a new transnational identity of Latin American Jews in the U.S

Transformation of the concept hispanic/ latino

What makes someone Hispanic, Latino, Spanish, Latin American?

Legal and culturalExternal and internal

Convergences and divergences

Negotiation of referents

Jewish newcomers -> hold a peripheral identity vis-à-vis Jewish Anglosaxon world

“I oscillate in my identification with Mexican Jews as if they were part of my own world, on one hand and my gardener’s world, on the other”

Hispanic migratory world and Otherness

Jews as the central Other

Different locations- distinct Jewish configurations (countries of origin, socioeconomic status and ideational orientation)

Previous experiences, new challenges

Transnationalism Conceptual utility

Historical changes

Latin American

Jewish experience

Past

Present

The original attachment of Jewish life in the region to external centers has been redefined and reshaped through diverse models of interaction while new types have emerged

Boston, New York, Washington, Chicago

Immigration patterns tend to be more individually and professionally oriented than the more collective patterns in the Southeastern and

Southwestern states

The Jewish Latin American presence may serve as a bridge between Latin Americans and North

American society

In new residence (professional motives + skills rather than proximity to LA): Virtual networking seems to play an enhanced role in maintaining ties to the parent community

Growing Hispanic population and its impact on domestic identity and international relations present a challenge to the Jewish community

Point of view of the Latino immigrant and second generation communities

Point of view of the Jewish community

Jewish community can be helpful at promoting status of Latinos taking advantage of the successful integration of Jews in America, the high socioeconomic status they enjoy and the network of relations they have developed over time

Latinos can contribute to the goals and agenda of the organized Jewish Community to gain the political support and lobby of a large, growingly influential and relatively recent section of American society on issues of Jewish interest

Equality of civil rights and dignity, openness to equal opportunities, opposition to discrimination, education to tolerance, democracy and pluralism

American Jewry represents the paradigmatic example of a successful and influential relationship between Diaspora and Homeland

(Literature on transnational migration underestimates the originality/exceptionality of Jewish case)

“BEFORE” CHANGES

Ethno-national Diaspora Communal endeavors Sub-ethnicity as identity and

organizational axes Secularization and politicization:

plural transnational cultural baggage

Zionist idea and the State of Israel as central axes

Educational networks developed as a replica of the different ideological and political currents that were created overseas

Religious institution not brought over from Europe but ‘imported’from the United States

De-secularization and religious growing and diversified profile

Orthodox groups and new religious congregations

Educational system: dramatically change expressing religious and cultural developments

An increase in religiosity and observance constitute part of the meaningful current changes in Latin American Jewish life

Theoretical and Methodological challenges

Multiples complexities

Socio demographical When, why, who….National setting and belonging/beyond citizenship, social stratification, sub-ethnicity, etc.*The need for mapping…(those who leave, those who remain…)

Cultural and SymbolicOld identities, new symbolic ones, borders and boundaries*Axes for comparison; multiple identities – methodological input/surveys of migrants

Material and territorialMultiple intertwined times and spaces; networks*Complementary disciplinary approaches and techniques; quantitative and qualitative methods (surveys, pilot projects->systematic field-work, oral history, in-depth analyses)Policy planning implications