Raanan Rein (Tel Aviv University): "People of the Book or People of the (Foot) Ball? On the Pitch with the Fans of Atlanta in Buenos Aires"
Department: Jewish Studies
Date and Time: February 24, 2015 | 5:00 PM-6:30 PMEvent Location: Humanities Gateway 1010
Event Details
Raanan Rein (Tel Aviv University)
People of the Book or People of the (Foot) Ball? On the Pitch with the Fans of Atlanta in Buenos Aires
February 24, 2015 at 5pm
Humanities Gateway 1010
While most historians would agree as to the centrality of sports in general and of soccer in particular in Latin American societies, very little has been written on ethnicity and sports in such immigrant societies as Argentina and Brazil. As far as the historiography of the Jewish experience in Latin America is concerned, hardly any scholarly works exist that are devoted to popular culture, particularly that of unaffiliated Jews.
This paper focuses on the history of the Club Atlético Atlanta, located in the neighborhood of Villa Crespo. Although populated by various ethnic groups, Villa Crespo has long been considered a Jewish neighborhood. Since the 1950s there has been a conspicuous Jewish presence among the fans, administrators and presidents of the Atlanta soccer club, to the extent that fans of rival teams often chant anti-Semitic slogans during matches.
I examine Argentine football as a space of both prejudice and dialogue. One of my arguments is that for the first immigrant generation, belonging to this club was a way of becoming Argentines. For the next generation, it was a way of maintaining ethnic Jewish identity, while for the third one it has become a family tradition.
Dr. Raanan Rein is the Elías Sourasky Professor of Latin American and Spanish History and Vice President of Tel Aviv University. He is also the Head of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for International and Regional Studies. Rein is the author and editor of more than thirty books and well over a hundred articles in academic journals and book chapters, in several languages. He is a member of Argentina's National Academy of History, and former President of the Latin American Jewish Studies Association (LAJSA). His most recent books include Fútbol, Jews, and the Making of Argentina (Stanford University Press, 2015) and the co-edited volumes The New Jewish Argentina: Facets of Jewish Experiences in the Southern Cone (with Adriana Brodsky, Brill, 2013), and Rethinking Jewish-Latin Americans (with Jeffrey Lesser, University of New Mexico Press 2008).