Argentine, Jews and Comrades: following the socialist utopia.

Nerina Visacovsky
Buenos Aires: Biblos, 2015.

INTRODUCTION

This book studies progressive Jews gathered in the Federation of Jew Cultural
Entities, Idisher Cultur Farband, well known as ICUF, between the years 1937 and
1968; that is between its Foundational Congress in Paris and its 9th Congress in Buenos
Aires. Our purpose was to explore the features of the identity, as it was perceived by
people involved. To achieve that goal we deeply analyzed one of the entities which
adhered to it: the Sports and Cultural Centre I. L Peretz in Villa Lynch.
When we started this project in 2005, we went to the ICUF site in order to look for
documents. We discovered that many books and magazines were kept in the building
which belonged to the I. L. Peretz in Villa Lynch. The club, with 6 stories, a theatre, an
olympic swimming-pool and a big library, which we knew very well from the best
times, was closed since the year 1996 and was very damaged; the winter storms did not
pardon the old concrete building. The view was heartbreaking, hundreds of books, most
of them in dish, were trapped, not only in a forgotten place but in a society in which
hardly anybody could read them. Our aim was to face that situation and organize a
group of young volunteers 1. From that time on every Saturday we went to rescue books,
but not only we rescued them but for a very short time we awoke the old club. An idea
gave force to Peretz Project 2005; if those textile immigrants were in charge of the
institution in the past and dedicated so much, even more than to their own home and
worked hard in relation to progressive utopias, why our benefited generations would
not give back so much effort? Along those months the news went around quickly:
Peretz was reopened. The news brought many visits, messages and collaborations.

1
The group called themselves Proyecto Peretz 2005. Maira designed and administrated the
webpage, http://proyectoperetz.blogspot.com.ar/. Carolina, Lautaro, Joni, Bruno, Anabella, Itche, Sofa,
Lito and Vladimir were members of the stable staff. Later on, more friends, partners and activists
participated in different ways and each of them were very important.
Past stories surfaced one after the other and we should confess that instead of choosing
it as a study case we were chosen by I.L.Peretz. Finally we saved the books, but not
only we saved them but at least, for a short while, we fed a dream that nurtured our
hearts. The ones, who had the opportunity of knowing the shule, the knder club, or
simply the Peretz, know about its mystic; it was our home, our daily shelter.
Perhaps, the wish of studying ICUF identity and pedagogy is part of an answer, an
answer that we would have wanted to give to Israel Zacutisnky from Lans, when
facing the lack of young people in institutions, close activists wondered how can it be
that there is no return? Thus, this book wants to reveal a story but also to gather what it
was scattered about, to return, al least in words, strokes of the vast work. In this
cartography of icufism we mark some ways, shortcuts, and why not, ponds. The main
way leads us to Villa Lynch, but there is a long way to go in order to testify so many
experiences born in such a big net of Jew progressive entities.
To understand that identity, it is essential to pay attention to three circumstances; to
Jew collectivity, to Communist Party and to Argentine education. Like a Venn diagram,
icufism appeared in the intersection, where the joints of three sets were. It was a
complex challenge. The I. L. Peretz case, on the other hand, helped us to observe in
detail the way in which the identity was translated into very specific facts and practices.
But we discovered something more; even though the activists from the club deeply
adhered to the icufist identity, at the same time the textile life of the neighbourhood
made on them a particular mark associated to Villa Lynch. Metaphorically, the case was
rich enough to show the cloth from the Jew-progressive looms. In a short time we
understood that we were also studying what the well known Meyer Kot 2 used to call,
the Peretzian surplus value.
To understand the complex scheme of the institution it was essential to start from
the history of the Jewish left ashkenaz in the country. Searching for information in the
origins, we discovered that during the first three decades of the 20th C, socialist,
communist and Zionist trends coexisted in idishist workmanship. We noticed then that
hard controversy between progressiveness and Zionism was a phenomenon which
although was never absent, had solidified during the times of Cold War. Until mid 20th
C, in the Jew street, the secular left composed by bundists, linke poaleszionists

2
I.L.Peretz activist from the first times, editor of the Annuary and a person loved by the members of
the club.
and icufists was well known as the linke (left) group. After the Second World War
and with the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, Zionism converted in the majority
trend and gathered many left and right Jew, secular and religious institutions. While
war and after war times the linke got into the Vaad Hajinuj (Educational Committee) of
the old Jevr Kadisha, which today is AMIA. Even though, in December 1952, as a
result of the confrontation between Zionists and progressives, because of the conflicts
in URSS and Middle East, the facts resulted in the expulsion of icufist schools
(progressive). At that time, the ICUF Federation gathered nearly twenty entities which
in 1955 gathered at about 20.000 3 people from all over the country and from Uruguay.
Although the lack of subsidy which involved the jerem (the excluded) from
central organizations, the Jew-progressive schools grew and developed in an
autonomous way, only backed by their associated members and their cooperative
projects. From the fifties, the ICUF institutions were the few ones or perhaps the only
ones which provided and alternative of Jew-Argentine non-Zionist and non-religious
socialization. But most bibliography consulted did not have any registration of the
history or was only reduced to communist militancy of the leaders. More than a decade
has passed since we started with the research and many works have appeared that
included icufism, as well in Jew communitarian frame as in communist and pedagogical
field 4. Even though, in this work we propose an integrated approach of three fields.

3
The amount comes from calculations made by activists in icufist institutions according to the
number of students, partners and general public. The information was taken from FREIDKES, Jos, 25
aos de Lucha en defensa de la Cultura Popular Juda en la Argentina (25 years fighting to defend Jew
Popular Culture in Argentina) in Issue N 10, November-December 1955, year III, pp. 29-33.
4
Among academic works involved in this research, in a prioritary place there are: ZADOFF, Efraim,
Historia de la educacin juda en Bue../../../../Documents and Settings/user/Mis
documentos/Nerina/Mis documentos/Publicaciones/monografia FINAL 1o de abril.doc
- _Hlk132548560 6,32407,32505,0,,Della Pergolla Sergio (1986) nos Aires, 1935-1957,
Buenos Aires, Mil, 1994; BILSKY; Edgardo, Etnicidad y clase obrera: la presencia juda en el
movimiento obrero argentino, in Estudios Migratorios Latinoamericanos, IV, N11, Buenos Aires,
CEMLA, 1989; KAUFMANN, Carolina, et.al. Shules y Ateneos, huellas de la educacin no formal
judeo-rosarina. Del Wesser a la web, Rosario, Laborde Editor, 2008; CAMARERO, Hernn, A la
conquista de la clase obrera. Los comunistas y el mundo del trabajo en la Argentina 1920-1935. Buenos
Aires, Siglo XXI, 2007; KINOSHITA, Dina Lida, O ICUF como uma rede de intelectuais in Revista
Universum, Talca, Chile, Universidad de Talca, n15, 2000, pp. 377-398; PASOLINI, Ricardo, La utopa
de Prometeo, Tandil, Universidad Nacional del Centro, 2006; MC GEE DEUTSCH, Sandra, Crossing
 The importance of studying ICUF pedagogical proposal, which was one of the
aspects which were unexplored and was based on the fact that there was a great deal of
educators related to and involved with those institutions 5. The fact attracted our
attention in order to research how the Jew-progressive legacy was performed through
many generations. We had the feeling that if first icufists stood for an integration way
from particular to general, it was not strange to observe their descendants prioritizing
an Argentine national identity over the possibility of keeping Jew particularities.
Therefore, if the first generation of icufists urged their children to compromise
themselves as Argentine citizens, it was logical for the following descendants to
participate in universities, schools, political parties, liberal professions and everywhere

Borders, Claiming a Nation: A History of Argentine Jewish Women, 1880-1955, Texas, Duke University
Press, 2010; Other articles which refer to icufism; GILBERT, Isidoro, La Fede. Alistndose para la
revolucin, Buenos Aires, Sudamericana, 2009; KERSFFELD, Daniel, Rusos y Rojos. Judos comunistas
en los tiempos de la Comintern, Buenos Aires, Capital Intelectual, 2012; BARGMAN, Daniel,
Experiencias de inmigracin y construcciones identitarias. Los judos oriundos de Polonia en la
Argentina. Talk presented in the 13th Congress of LAJSA, Buenos Aires, Biblioteca Nacional, 30th
July 2007.SCHENKOLEWSKI-KROLL; Silvia, El Partido Comunista en la Argentina ante Mosc:
deberes y realidades, 1930-1941, in Estudios Interdisciplinarios de Amrica Latina y el Caribe, n 10,
Tel Aviv University, July-December 1999; BACCI, Claudia, Las polticas culturales del progresismo
judo argentino. La Revista Aporte y el ICUF en la dcada de 1950, Polticas de la Memoria, Buenos
Aires, Cedinci, n5, 2004; KESSLER, Beatriz, Publicaciones, libros y bibliotecas en la colectividad
judeo-progresista argentina en SOLARI T., y GMEZ J. (comp.) Biblioclasta. Los robos, la represin y
sus resistencias, archivos y museos de latinoamrica, Buenos Aires, Eudeba, 2008. Thesis not published
yet, SVARCH, Ariel, El comunista sobre el tejado. Historia de la militancia comunista en la calle juda
(Buenos Aires, 1920-1950), Maestra de Historia de la Universidad Di Tella, Buenos Aires, 2005;
DUJOVNE, Alejandro, Hay que ganar la calle juda. Dispora y Poltica: Un anlisis etnogrfico de la
izquierda juda en Argentina, Maestra de Antropologa de la Facultad de Humanidades de la Universidad
Nacional de Crdoba, Crdoba, 2006; KAHAN, Emanuel, Entre la aceptacin y el distanciamiento:
actitudes sociales, posicionamientos y memoria de la experiencia juda durante la ltima dictadura
militar (1973-2007), Universidad de La Plata, Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educacin,
2010. LOTERSZTAIN, Israel, La ideologa por sobre todas las cosas. El caso del ICUF, 1947-1957,
IDES-UNG (Passed thesis plan , 2011); Los intelectuales judos y la Guerra Fra: el caso del ICUF en
DUJOVNE, A y otros (comp.), Pensar lo judo en la Argentina del siglo XXI, Buenos Aires, Capital
Intelectual, 2011
5
See testimonies and characters in DIAMANT, Ana y FELD Jorge Feld (comp.) Zumerland,
Colonia. Proyecto y Memorias, Buenos Aires, Zumerland 50 Aniversario, 2000. For the case of Rosario,
Santa Fe y Crdoba see KAUFMANN, et.al.; op.cit.
where the Jew was no longer a distinguishing factor or spot. In this sense, icufist
identity presented the particular possibility of linking the cultural and ethnic origin to a
supportive and political interest and to a pedagogical avant-garde.
From the various possibilities that icufist universe gave us, to focus on the study of
dish school was to choose the best and most proper glass to observe and characterize
that group of people as time passed by. We should remember that education implies a
world view, a way of building subjects and conceive future. Thus, education not only
expresses culture but also the political project of the social sector that promotes it 6. So,
the questions we made ourselves were related to teaching contents;What did shule
teach? What was the purpose? What was the social subject model when a teacher was
teaching, making a program or planning? We should also consider the importance of
linguistic problem. If language builds the intellectual evolution and presents culture 7 to
students, as it was said by Vygotsky and his disciple Bruner, it is revealed to us that the
end of an dish linguistic community not only represents the end of a language but also
the end of a vast and rich cultural world. Following this idea, we wondered the
significance for the collectivity of teaching dish and the implications of assuming as
Jew, Argentine, Communist, Socialist or Zionist in each period. We realized
how those identities changed according to the period of time studied and determined the
way in which children or teenager formation went. Related to contents, it is important to
emphasize the significance of utopian tale. The utopia as a narrative projected a
happy, equal and harmonious community 8 which lived in a progressive imaginary.
And that utopia was not only linked to soviet socialism but to the fight of a world in
peace. It is remarkable the fact that idish school in Argentina started to expand and
grow after Second World War. Horror and devastation in Europe generated in local
institutions a common responsibility related to the preservation of the past and peace
challenges facing future. Fight against anti-Semitism was probably the only aim that all
collectivity entities shared. Even though, while Zionism grew assuming that anti-
Semitism would never disappear; progressiveness on the other hand, kept optimistic
and believed that living together and pluralism could be possible in a Socialist system.

6
GIROUX, Henry y MC LAREN, Peter, Sociedad, cultura y educacin, Mio y Dvila, 1998, p. 250.
7
BRUNER, Jerome, La educacin, puerta de la cultura, Madrid, Visor, 1997.
8
BACZKO Bronislaw, Los imaginarios sociales. Memorias y esperanzas colectivas. Buenos Aires,
Nueva Visin, 2005, p.8
The ICUF school reflected that utopian optimism.
When we were researching we had to work mainly with primary sources. We
discovered that low rate references of icufism in academic studies made by Jew-
Argentine collectivity was related to the fact that there was a general trend to interpret
past as prologue of a present related to the State of Israel. The main problem related
to the approaches mentioned before is that the information they use is given by
communitarian organizations but they represent a minor sector of Jew population 9. To
give an example; if we consider that during first Mutual AMIA elections in 1949 only
10,000 people voted in 40,000 members associated 10, and approximately 310,000 Jews
lived in Argentina 11, statistics results can give us poor information related to the way in
which collectivity thought in terms of political facts in the fifties. If nowadays we
considered orthodoxy as reference, regarding the fact that has mayor representation in
AMIA, to measure the trends of Jew-Argentine people, we could say that the latter
reflect on the former but the conclusion is not accurate at all. There are new studies that
question that point of view, but they are still very few if we consider what Paul
Warszawski 12 used to say fifteen years ago:

Whoever wants to analyze the very interesting essays about life and history of Jew
community in Argentina which have appeared in last ten years, will realize that there are
many important sectors related to history which have been left aside. I refer, for example, to
the ICUF or BUND influence that at the time were movements much more important than
13
Zionism. Later Zionism won and history began to be written in another way []

This book agrees with Raann Rein interpretation related to the fact that studying

9
A detailed analysis related to this problem can be found in the article by Raann
and LESSER, Jeffrey, Los conceptos de etnicidad y dispora en Amrica Latina: la
perspectiva juda in Estudios Sociales, Santa Fe, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, n
32, primer semestre 2007.
10
AMIA, Comunidad Juda de Buenos Aires 1894-1994, Buenos Aires, Mil, 1995, p. 222.
11
JMELNIZKY, Adrin y ERDEI, Ezequiel, La Poblacin juda de Buenos Aires,
Buenos Aires, Joint-AMIA, 2005.
12
Director of Latin American Jew Congress (CJL) between 1976 and 1981.
13
WARSZAWSKI Paul, Conferencia, 1 Coloquio Para el Desarrollo Integral de la vida
comunitaria judeo- argentina, Buenos Aires, CJL, 1999, p. 87.
non-institutionalized Jews, or the ones who had been left aside from communitarian
narratives, is a necessary contribution in order to know other ways of Jew socialization
in the country 14. So, ICUF and entities, in general, are mentioned as intra-
communitarian alternatives which competed with Zionism during the first half of 20th C
in researches that related to PCA (Communist Party in Argentina) and stressed on the
Jew presence in it; or as an avant-garde educational space which joined to the national
pedagogical field. In this work, as we have already mentioned, we want to pay attention
to the amalgam. In order to do such a thing we started a field work in which we
obtained written sources and alternated with interviews complementarily to get
information. Marc Bloch said that a document is a testimony; but it does not speak by
itself if the historian does not know how to question it 15; so, to write the
questionnaire, we had to compare the sources which belonged to ICUF with others,
such as the left Zionists, communist supporter leadership or antifascist organizations.
Related to interviews, we also had to undergo comparative instances. We know memory
plays a fundamental role in dialogue, but does not work under registry mechanisms, but
under selective mechanisms. So, at the moment of the interview, the informer as well
as the researcher are judging the past with present perceptions. So, the validation of oral
source to check a fact, was held if crossing it with other register it proved to be real.
However, the interviews allowed us to see how the characters rebuilt past situations or
how they reacted facing a political event 16. Under some circumstances, the resistance to
tell about adhesion or conflicts related to the PCA limited the content of dialogues. The
persecution story to communism taught militants and fans to be careful with the
information they gave and in spite of the fact that 25 years had passed from the fall of
the Wall and after 30 years of democracy in Argentina, it logically still produced
distrust and sometimes contradictory versions emerged. For example, while for an
activist, the ICUF had been a project built and motorized by the PCA; for another, the
Party was marginal in institutions, except for few activists who were also militants. The
distance between one and the other version was solved when, because of written
sources, we discovered that antifascist circumstances convened to a wide sector of the

14
REIN Raann y LESSER Jeffrey, op.cit.
15
BLOCH, Marc, Pour une histoire compare des socits europennes en Mlanges historiques,
Pars, S.E.V.E.N., 1963, p.67
16
SCHWARZSTEIN, Dora (comp.) La historia oral, Buenos Aires, CEAL, 1991.
left Jews, in which it existed a Communist atmosphere, the bonds to the PCA were
not clear nor explicit. Both interviews could be certain, it was a personal interpretation.
Although there was a collective agreement according to Maurice Halbwachs, a social
paint of memory 17, which took back to the foundational years of ICUF, it was
individual memory which appeared to explain that past. So, we saw working what
before we considered memory selective mechanisms.
One of the main obstacles to explain the ICUF identity was that the public
developed different activities. They shared an ideological position but while some of
them devoted to journalism, theatre, arts or literature, others to recreation, sports or they
were simply frequent members or visitors of the library. At this point we decided to
prioritize political and pedagogical matters. Even though, other dimensions are still
pending of research; other provincial and Latin American institutions; as well as some
years, particularly the ones from the seventies to nowadays. In that sense we chose to
omit extension and prioritize analytical profoundness. A second problem was to access
the documents in dish. Although from mid fifties nearly all issues were bilingual or in
Spanish; in the thirties and forties they were in dish. With great patience, dedication
and love, lererke Martha Kogan helped us to interpret the language.
Finally, the book is divided into two parts. The first called a set painting, presents
a diachronic way among chapters 1, 2 y 3 and synchronic in chapter 4. The second part,
based on the case study, is composed by two synchronic chapters and chronological
regarding internal structure. Historical work expose international, national, local and
regional levels. The play of scales implies the exercise to use every tool available to
observe the past. The way in which our dear teacher, Fernando Devoto, understands it,
if we observe reality with a microscope we will see some phenomena but if we observe
it with a telescope, we could see others, to combine and confront different scales
increase the understanding of the research object 18.
In the first chapter we present school icufist backgrounds in the twenties and until
1937; from the times of International Communist until the emergence of Popular Fronts.
We recognize Jew immigrants ashkenazes socialized in the European left culture. In
that frame, three groups offered complementary schools for a Jew-secular, socialist,

17
HALBWACHS, Maurice, Les cadres sociaux de la memoire, Pars, Libraire Felix Alcan, 1925.
18
DEVOTO, Fernando, Historia de la inmigracin en la Argentina, Buenos Aires, Sudamericana,
2004, p.13.
Zionist-socialist and communist public. We will see how the Argentine scenario
changed in order to give them integration frames combined with expulsion frames and
how urban, mainly cunteniks and workmen, adapted to new a society which was
starting. Repressive policy which started with 1930 coup reset Jew-Bolshevism myth
and in 1932 the Special Section to Repress Communism closed most idishist schools. In
1935, with the anti-fascism surge and the communism call to constitute Popular Fronts,
we observed that revolutionary anti-middle-class preach reduced, to give place to a
speech of democratic and progressive alliances with roots in Argentine liberal tradition.
In chapter two we focus on Second World War and post-war period. To cover the
wide range of facts the period was divided. First part analyses common collectivity
conflicts. It is explained the way in which the military-ecclesial ideology was linked to
Argentine nationality and catholic religion was set in public schools, while news related
to Nazi anti-Semitism hit on Jew street. Peronism deserves a special reference, the
constitution of Organizacin Israelita Argentina (Argentine Israli Organization :OIA),
which was pro-official, and foreign policy regarding the creation of the State of Israel.
Second section reveals differences in the heart of the community. The evolution of three
left lines mentioned before and the join to Vaad Hajinuj (Education Committe) which
belongs to AMIA. Afterwards, the creation of new Hebrew state in 1948 modified
horizons and the map of Jewish left. While left socialists and Zionists accepted new
Israeli political conditions, progressive or icufist Jews were resistant to change. From
this part on we focus on the development of icufism. We analyze ICUF exclusion in
1952 from central organizations and the consequences. While Zionism concentrated on
corporate field with new educational programs considering migration to the State of
Israel (ali); progressive Jews declared themselves as Argentine from Jewish origin
and kept the net of complementary schools in dish linked to communist culture.
Chapter three involves the scenario of Cold War and it focus on tensions related to
icufism. Time period involved is between the summit and fall of complementary
schools. We analyze damages suffered by icufism, mostly from 1956, as a result of
Jruschev declarations in PCUS 20th Congress and during Six-Day War, in 1967. In
national field, political difficulties that identification with communism caused to ICUF
were explored, as well in the second Peronism as from the 1955 coup and also at
Frondizian times with Coninte Plan. During Arturo Frondizi govern, there were three
conflict focuses which affected and scattered about a good number of young members;
the fight for secular or free, Cuban Revolution and anti-Semitism springs as a result
of the capture of Eichmann. From the thinking of Rubn Sinay, emblematic character of
the Israeli Commission of CP we rebuilt the ICUF position during Cold War. Socio-
cultural transformations in the sixties decreased every year the public in complementary
schools; we could observe this problem in the debate in the 20th ICUF Congress in
1968.
Chapter four closes first part of the set, giving some relevant examples of
pedagogical and cultural frame of the institutions involved. Organizational frames of
ICUF Federation are explained here and through Argentine Israeli Youth Federation of
Institutions (FIJIA) and ICUF Female Organization (OFI) youth and women roles are
analyzed. On the other hand hybrid model which featured icufist education in which
elements from idishism, normalism, escolanovism and collectivist pedagogy gathered
is explained. We explored Shul-Rat or ICUF Education Commission work and finally
we considered the most avant-garde experience recognized in the field, the summer
colony Zumerland. A short story of the characters, one of the most remarkable ones was
the director, Abraham Pepe Pan, who would reflect intergenerational problems.
Villa Lynch I. L. Peretz case is analyzed in the second part of the book. Chapter
five is dedicated to explore conditions that made Jews to set with their looms in the
neighborhood between 1935 and 1945. Socialization nets among textile workers are
described and conflicts which emerged when they became employers and they took the
place of patrons. We also mention the surge or cooperatives that were born to
collaborate with schools and small companies of textile workers. Villa Lynch was
offered as a scenario where Jews became camouflaged with textile jobs and institutions
created by themselves, such as the Zionist case and progressive case. We searched the
way in which activists in icufist school I. L. Peretz, and Zionist school Tel Aviv n5,
ideologically were different and they competed for students and adhesion of families in
the neighborhood but they mixed their lives in factory life.
In chapter six we get inside I. L. Peretz school, according to characters was the
capital of icufist optimism. We plan a trip from origins to the fall, and the end of dish
language. The history of Leike and Samuel Kogan (Tzalel Blitz) shows the close
relationship between European heritage and militant force of activist immigrants. We
expose the similarity that I. L. Peretz had with Jaim Zhitlovsky school in Villa del
Parque, also created in 1940 and which adhered to ICUF. We explore the relation both
schools had with Vaad Hajinuj and state school authorities. Afterwards we explain the
three teaching levels of the school; kindergarden (kinder-gortn), primary (shule), and
secondary school (mitl-shul). The growth of shule and mitl-shul in the fifties was fast, it
was as fast as the decay and fall in the late sixties; kindergarden as kinder-club, lasted at
least for two more decades. We observed how social transformations, and Peretzian
public interested in sport activities rather than educative and cultural ones related to
dish. Finally we analyzed the way in which immigrants complained and demanded to
young members of the community because of the fact that they became distant and not
involved in the institution. That generation was responding to their ancestors teachings,
to integrate themselves to Argentine society. To conclude, we demonstrated that icufist
identity was built as an ethnic variable in the PCA orbit, a left secular option in the
environment of Jewish collectivity and a pedagogical avant-garde in the Argentine
educational field.