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ABSTRACT
In 1963, a total of 4,500 Argentines immigrated to Israel. Most were from the middle or lower middle classes and had a Jewish and Zionist education, seen as an advantage for adaptation in the new country. However, they had been driven primarily by economic factors, and during Israel’s recession in 1966 a substantial portion of them returned to Argentina. In order to understand the migrant experience of these people this article analyzes their return, arguing that class and work were more pertinent variables than Zionist ideology. It is based on the experience of unemployed Argentine immigrants in Ashdod, the struggles of those who hoped to own their own business without sufficient funds, and a reconstruction of the return voyage aboard the ship Jerusalem. The Zionist hegemony in Israeli society prevented a thorough understanding of the material needs, and motivations of Jewish-Argentine migrants, therefore, the narrative on their arrival emphasized the ideological motivations. In contrast, their socio-economic background and needs received less attention. The case presented in this article demonstrates how the state narrative about the arrival of migrants to the country might deeply affect the narrative about the number who would not stay.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Moreno, “Beyond the Nation-State,” 6.
2. On Jewish emigration from Palestine during the pre-state period, see, for example Kaniel, “Meimadei ha-yerida” and Alroey, “The Jewish Emigration from Palestine.”
3. Cohen, “Migration Patterns to and from Israel,” 119; Blejer and Yitzhak Goldberg, “Return Migration”; Beenstock, “Failure to Absorb”; Waxman and Appel, To Israel and Back; Engel, “Comparison between Americans Living in Israel and Those Who Returned to America,” part I&II.
4. Cohen, “From Overt Rejection to Enthusiastic Embracement”; Idem, “From Nation to Profession”; Idem, “Come Home, Be Professional”; Idem, “State, Migrants, and the Negotiation of Second-Generation Citizenship”; Idem, “Rights beyond Borders.”
5. Yinon Cohen, “Israeli-Born Emigrants: Size, Destinations and Selectivity,” 46.
6. Lamdani, “Emigration from Israel,” 462–78.
7. Alroey, An Unpromising Land.
8. Gold, “From Nationality to Peoplehood”; Cohen, “Economic Assimilation in the United States”; Cohen and Haberfeld, “The Number of Israeli Immigrants in the United States in 1990”; Cohen and Tyree, “Palestinian and Jewish Israeli-Born Immigrants in the United States”; Cohen and Haberfeld, “Self-Selection and Return Migration”; Harpaz, “Ancestry into Opportunity”; Remennick, “Transnational Lifestyles among Russian Israelis”; Gold and Hart, “Transnational Ties During a Time Of Crisis.”
9. On the contrary, many personal accounts and literary works reflect Jewish-Argentine return migration from Israel. For some personal accounts, see Nillni, Guerrillero y Soldado [A Guerrilla and A Soldier: a Life between La Plata and Beersheva]; Itsigson, Una Experiencia Judía Contemporánea [A Contemporary Jewish Experience: Memories and Reflections]; Elnecavé, Crisol de Vivencias Judias [Melting Pot of Jewish Experiences]. Argentine returnees have also expressed their Israeli experience in literary works. See, for example: Feierstein, El Caramelo Descompuesto [Rotten Candy]; Goldberg, Donde Sopla La Nostalgia [Where Nostalgy Blows]. In addition, returnees from Israel have appeared in literary fiction, for example: Birmajer, Tres Mosqueteros [Three Musketeers] and in documentaries and movies, for example: El Abrazo Partido, [Lost Embrace] directed by Daniel Burman and the documentary El Año Que Viene… en Argentina [The Next Year… in Argentina] directed by Schlomo Slutzky.
10. Roniger and Babis, “Latin American Israelis.”
11. Raijman and Ophir, “The Economic Integration of Latin Americans in Israel.”
12. See, for example, Roniger et al., Exile, Diaspora, and Return.
13. Lesser and Rein, “Challenging Particularity: Jews as a Lens on Latin American Ethnicity.”
14. DellaPergola, “National Uniqueness and Transnational Parallelism.”
15. Klor, Between Exodus and Exile.
16. “Con Valiosa Carga Humana Zarpó el Flaminia Rumbo a Jaifa” [The Flaminia left for Haifa carrying valuable human resources],” La Luz, March 15, 1963, 17.
17. “Kvutzat ha-olim” [The Group of Immigrants], Davar, March 21, 1963, 6; “Ha-aliyah m-America ha-latinit” [The Aliyah from Latin America], Ha-tzofe, April 1, 1963, 1.
18. Rein, Argentine Jews or Jewish-Argentines; Avni Argentina & the Jews; Lewin, Cómo fue la inmigración judía en la Argentina.
19. Rein, Argentine Jews or Jewish-Argentines, 27.
20. The number of Jewish victims is still unknown. Mirelman, “The Semana Trágica of 1919 and the Jews in Argentina.”
21. Rein, Argentina, Israel, and the Jews.
22. Rein, “The Eichmann Kidnapping.”
23. Ibid., 85; Rein, Argentine Jews or Jewish-Argentines, 77, 85.
24. Ibid., 193.
25. “Total Immigration to Israel by Select Country by Year,” Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, April 19, 2019, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/total-immigration-to-israel-by-country-per-year. Accessed December 6, 2022.
26. Rein, Argentine Jews or Jewish Argentines, 31. See also Avni, “The Impact of the Six-Day War on a Zionist Community.”
27. Romero, A History of Argentina in the Twentieth Century, 207–8.
28. Ibid., 136.
29. Klor, Between Exodus and Exile, 137.
30. Ibid., 138.
31. Ibid., 142, 199.
32. Rivlin, The Israeli Economy, 21‒2.
33. Honig, “The Reparations Agreement between Israel and the Federal Republic of Germany”; Lewan, “How West Germany Helped to Build Israel.”
34. Aiming to achieve the highest results at the national-collective level in the long term, the government applied a policy that required acquiescence at the citizen-individual level in the short term. In order to settle the country, the state committed itself to “population dispersal,” which meant, in reality, assigning immigrants to specific locations within Israel. Almost two-thirds of this group started their life in Israel in kibbutzim and development towns, while the remaining third settled in big cities or in the center of the country. However, the immigrants’ departure rate from kibbutzim was high, and most Argentines who left Israel in 1966, attracting the attention of policymakers, Zionist leaders, and the press, had moved to new development areas. See Brawer, “The Image of Israel’s Geographical Transformation,” 152–59; Dash, “Israel: Urban Development Achievements and Future Plans,” 1607–10; Khazzoom, “Did the Israeli State Engineer Segregation?”.
Klor, Between Exodus and Exile, 140.
35. Sarly, “Failure of the New Towns,” 612–16.
36. Ibid.
37. Ibid.
38. Karmon, “Ashdod: A New Mediterranean Port in Israel,” 254–58.
39. Yacobi and Tzfadia, “Multiculturalism, Nationalism, and the Politics of the Israeli City.”
40. On ethnic differentiation within Israeli society, see Smooha, Israel; idem, “The Mass Immigrations to Israel.”
41. Warren, “The Five Schools Project,” 623–24.
42. “Olim dejan el país,” [Immigrants leave the country], Aurora, March 25, 1965, 1.
43. Anna Goren, “Olim me-Argentina yordim” [Argentine Immigrants Emigrate], Haaretz, September 20, 1965.
44. Ibid.; on prices and immigration, see Lach, “Immigration and Prices.”
45. “Protesta pública de Latino Americanos en Ashdod,” [Latin Americans’ public demonstration in Ashdod], Aurora, December 9, 1965, 8; Teodoro Ducach, “¿Porqué se van? En el puerto de Ashdod,” [Why they leave? In Ashdod’s port], Aurora, December 23, 1965, 7; “Representantes de la Agencia Judía en Ashdod,” {Jewish Agency’s officials in Ashdod], Aurora, December 30, 1965, 2.
46. Teodoro Ducach, “La agencia cometió serios desatinos,” [The Agency made several mistakes], Aurora, December 30, 1965, 7.
47. Teodoro Ducach, “¿Porqué vuelven los Sudamericanos?” [Why are returning the South American?], La Luz, March 4, 1966, 9–11.
48. S. Z. Shragai to A. Cygel, September 11, 1966, Central Zionist Archives [CZA], S62/316.
49. A. Cygel to S. Z. Shragai, November 2, 1966, CZA, S62/316.
50. “Posible cierre del Puerto de Ashdod,” [Possible closing of Ashdod’s port], Aurora, February 1, 1966, 8.
51. “Disturbios en Ashdod y Dimona el 1 de mayo por desocupación.,” [Unrest in Ashdod and Dimona during May 1 due to unemployment], Aurora, May 6, 1966, 2; “Pan y Trabajo,” [Bread and Job], Aurora, May 6, 1966, 3.
52. “Obreros despedidos de Layland impiden vuelta al trabajo,” [Workers fired from Layland block return to labor], Aurora, May 6, 1966, p. 8.
53. The moshav was originally founded in 1950 by Iraqi immigrants and was abandoned during the economic crisis of 1952.
54. Amos Jadad, “Yordim me-moshav Kochav be-Lakish,” [Emigrants from Moshav Kochav in Lakish], Haaretz, June 1, 1966, 3.
55. C. Levanon to M. Kramer, June 9, 1966, CZA, S39/2379.
56. M. Kramer to C. Levanon, June 23, 1966, CZA, S39/2379.
57. Exodus 16:3 “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt!“ they said. “There we sat by pots of meat and ate our fill of bread, but you have brought us into this desert to starve this whole assembly to death!“. The expression was incorporated into Zionism by Herzl who used it in his foundational text. He wrote: “If we leave Mitzraim (Egypt) again, we will not forget the pots.” Herzl, The Jewish State, 81.
58. “Va’ada le-meniat yeridat olei Drom Amerika” [Commission to Stop the Yerida of Latin American Olim], January 28, 1964, CZA, S39/2379.
59. Rozin, “Israel and the Right to Travel Abroad, 1948–1961.”
60. S. Z. Shragai to B. Shitrit, August 20, 1965, CZA, S62/316.
61. B. Shitrit to S. Z. Shragai, October 10, 1965, CZA, S62/316.
62. “Raiti, shamati: breihat olim” [I Saw, I Heard: Immigrants’ Escape], Haaretz, August 10, 1966, CZA, S62/316.
63. José C., interview with the author, April 23, 2016.
64. Aviva Sten, “Exodus 1966,” Ha-yom, June 14, 1966. Ha-yom was published between 1965 and 1969 and was linked to the Gahal party (Herut-Liberal Block) led by Menahem Begin. Naor, “Yomonei miflagot ha-yamin.”
65. Shraga Erguil, “Ha yordim ba-onia Yerushalaim” [The Yordim in the Ship Jerusalem], Ma’ariv, August 31, 1966, 3.
66. “50 Yordim mitoch 340 taiarim le drom amerika” [50 Yordim among 350 Travelers to South America],“ Davar, September 2, 1966, 14; Partió el Jerusalem en viaje a Sud América’, Aurora, September 3, 1966, p. 3. Aurora’s director Aryeh Avidor, interview with the author, July 18, 2017.
67. Y. Dominitz to S. Z. Shragai, August 31, 1966, CZA, S62/351.
68. A. Lebanony to E. Akbas, September 2, 1966, CZA, S39/2379.
69. Ibid.
70. For similar encounters of newcomers and frustrated immigrants in the port of Haifa at the beginning of the twentieth century, see Alroey, Unpromising Land.
71. For more information on the Jews of Uruguay, see Porcezansky, El Uruguay Judío. [Jewish Uruguay]
72. A. Gozik to P. Shamir and S. Mizrahi, September 22, 1966, CZA, S39/2379.
73. “Carta abierta de los yordim que viajan en el barco Jerusalem al pueblo de Israel,” [Open letter written by the emigrants on board the Jerusalem to the Israeli people], September 20, 1966, CZA, S39/2379.
74. “Va’adat shlihim” [Emissaries’ Meeting], September 23, 1966, S62/351, CZA.
75. A. Bar-Kahan to B. Duvdevani, September 26, 1966, S62/351, CZA
76. Ibid.
77. A. Cygel to Absorption and Immigration Committee, September 27, 1966, CZA, S62/316.
78. Ibid.
79. A. Koblovitz, “Uvdot al ha-yerida” [Facts about Yerida], Jerusalem, 1968, CZA, S61/10,200.
80. Ibid.
81. Ibid.
82. “Ha-mishtar lo mukhan le-klitat olim me-Drom Amerika” [The Regime is not Prepared for the absorption of South American Immigrants], Herut, December 2, 1965, CZA, S62/351.
83. For a thorough elaboration on this estimation, see Adrián Krupnik, Between Two Homelands, (Tuscalosa: The University of Alabama Press: Forthcoming).
84. Gold and Hart, “Transnational Ties during a Time of Crisis,” 196.
85. See for example Cohen, “From Overt Rejection”; idem, “From Nation to Profession.”
86. “Jews from Troubled Argentina Seeking a Better Life in Israel,” Israel21c.org, March 4, 2002, https://www.israel21c.org/jews-from-troubled-argentina-seeking-a-better-life-in-israel/ (accessed January 17, 2018).
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Adrián Krupnik
Adrián Krupnik, Dr, obtained his Ph.D. in history at Tel Aviv University. During his stay at Universität Potsdam and Freie Universität Berlin he will be completing his first book manuscript, Between Two Homelands: Argentine Migration to and from Israel.