Introduction - American Jewish Archives

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White Slavery Writings 183 prostitute as a victim. These include Samuel Eichelbaum and David Viiias, whose sympathy for the polacas and sensitivity to anti- Semitism were probably associated with their own Jewish origins. Samuel Eichelbaum7s drama Nadie la conocio nunca [No one ever knew her] (194 5 ) is, in a way, a criticism of the cultural attitudes of the privileged class." It portrays the anguished life of Ivonne, a polaca crushed by society, a true victim of social circumstance, and an out- cast. Ivonne hides her real identity behind a French name, which serves partly to improve her professional status as a prostitute and partly to protect her from persecution. The joviality of the first act of the play turns serious when Ivonne hears a group of young Argentinian aristo- crats-her clients and her lover, Ricardito-boast of having shaved the beard of a Jewish immigrant, publicly degrading him. In her own living room Ivonne witnesses a playful reenactment of the shaving, performed by the perpetrators. Responding to this racial insult, she strikes one of the offenders, thus demonstrating that she still retains some feeling for her origins. The realization that they had done this for amusement shocks Ivonne into recovering her Jewish identity. It also brings back memories of her father, murdered during the Tragic Week of 1919, when a pogrom broke out in the streets of Buenos Aires. Recalling similar pogroms in Russia, which had caused her to emigrate to Argentina, Ivonne expresses her remorse in a con- fession of her errors: "I am glad.. . that my father did not live to see me leading this life of debauchery. I thank my stars that I never had to face him looking like this. Even worse, today I feel the emptiness of my whole life, like a terrible revelation."" As a redeemed heroine, Ivonne sees herself as a representative of all Jewish women. She feels com- pelled to behave with dignity "because now, in each one of us, in our words and our deeds, the Uewish] race prevail^."'^ Her curse is that despite her understanding, she is too weak to change and will remain a prostitute. David Viiias (b. 1929), like Eichelbaum, links violence with casual amusement. In his novel En la Semana Tragica [During the Tragic Week] (1974), he exposes the thoughtless brutality of the guardias blancas (white guards), who went on a rampage of murder and de- struction against the Jewish community in 1919.'~ Violence that week was an entertainment for well-to-do youth, who alternated between whoring with polacas or francesas and beating up defenseless Jews.
184 American Jewish Archives In a later novel, Los dueiios de la tierra [The owners of the land] (1974)," Vifias's protagonist, Vicente, remembers that he and his fel- low law students used to leave the courthouse and amuse themselves "with the polacas or with the Jewesses, who after all were the same thing."z6 When he compares the different sorts of whores he has en- countered, Vicente finally decides that, contrary to public opinion, "one Jewess is worth four Frenchwomen anytime."" Significantly, both Vifias and Eichelbaum create male protagonists who, despite their expressed hatred for Jews, eventually fall in love with and marry Jewish women; yet this resolves none of their internal tensions. Mario Szichman and Moacyr Scliar During the 1970's literary accounts of Jewish prostitution became more realistic, their scope more ambitious, and their characters more three-dimensional. Cases in point are the Argentinian novelist Mario Szichman and the Brazilian Moacyr Scliar. Szichman writes in a bitter, sarcastic vein. His autobiographical novels, linked to his Jewish heri- tage, are cynical, less conciliatory than those of earlier authors. Dora, a continuing character in several of Szichman's novels, is a hardened, resourceful, unscrupulous woman who becomes a prostitute in Buenos Aires to save herself from starvation: "I discovered that the world belonged to men, and since I could not conquer it with my head, I used my tujes [back~ide]."'~ In her Yiddishized Spanish, Dora does not make any distinction between obscenity and refinement, as long as she gets what she wants. She has no qualms about openly acknowledging the link between crime and prostitution: "There was a certain polaca who whistled at the client, and lured him into the passage.. . . there they would take away his ring, his watch, his wallet."z9 Dora cynically models herself on the melodramatic heroines of tangos and milongas, as she retells the story of her life: "I don't go rolling around from here to there as I used to. There is luxury in my room. I spend as much as I wish. And no one reminds me that once upon a time I was the mud of the delta, the easy ride who was mocked on nights of carousing and of ~hampagne."~~ Dora's determination to succeed as a madam is based on her conclu- sion that prostitutes who are uncooperative and unenthusiastic about
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Volume XXXIV November, 1982 Number
Page 4 and 5:
Contents I33 Introduction Judith La
Page 6 and 7: Introduction Exactly ten years ago,
Page 8 and 9: Introduction I3 5 The bizarre adven
Page 10 and 11: Introduction 137 and offering to ho
Page 12 and 13: Historiographical Problems I39 been
Page 14 and 15: Historiographical Problems 141 pear
Page 16 and 17: Historiographical Problems I43 judg
Page 18 and 19: Historiographical Problems 14 5 ica
Page 20 and 21: Historiographical Problems 147 the
Page 22 and 23: Historiographical Problems I49 and
Page 24 and 25: 11. Ibid., pp. 42-47. 12. Liebman,
Page 26 and 27: Jose Diaz Pirnienta: Rogue Priest J
Page 28 and 29: Rogue Priest ISS ferred to a conven
Page 30 and 31: Rogue Priest IS7 graven images in t
Page 32 and 33: Rogue Priest I59 idea whether the p
Page 34 and 35: Rogue Priest I 61 When Pimienta app
Page 36 and 37: Rogue Priest I 63 thor of The Jews
Page 38 and 39: Search for Identity 165 contemporar
Page 40 and 41: Search for Identity 167 important,
Page 42 and 43: Search for Identity 169 viewed by t
Page 44 and 45: Search for Identity 171 Almost from
Page 46 and 47: Search for Identity 173 As portraye
Page 48 and 49: Search for Identity 175 questions h
Page 50 and 51: Search for Identity 177 Encyclopedi
Page 52 and 53: White Slavery Writings Albert Londr
Page 54 and 55: White Slavery Writings I 8 I agains
Page 58 and 59: White Slavery Writings 185 their wo
Page 60 and 61: White Slavery Writings 187 microsco
Page 62 and 63: White Slavery Writings 30. Szichman
Page 64 and 65: Early Zionist Activities 191 number
Page 66 and 67: Early Zionist Activities I93 came i
Page 68 and 69: Early Zionist Activities 19 5 gram
Page 70 and 71: Early Zionist Activities I97 sponde
Page 72 and 73: Early Zionist Activities I99 smalle
Page 74 and 75: Early Zionist Activities 20 I Djaen
Page 76 and 77: Early Zionist Activities 203 come t
Page 78 and 79: Early Zionist Activities 20.5 3 I.
Page 80 and 81: Just Passing Through his exile spir
Page 82 and 83: Just Passing Through It shares othe
Page 84 and 85: Just Passing Through 21 I passing a
Page 86 and 87: Just Passing Through until they saw
Page 88 and 89: Just Passing Through 21 5 that hero
Page 90 and 91: Aspects of Intermarriage 217 mous J
Page 92 and 93: Aspects of Intermarriage Table I: S
Page 94 and 95: Marriage Cateaorv Aspects of Interm
Page 96 and 97: Aspects of intermarriage 223 Paulo
Page 98 and 99: Aspects of lntermarriage 225 Table
Page 100 and 101: Aspects of Intermarriage 227 points
Page 102 and 103: Aspects of Intermarriage 229 Conclu
Page 104 and 105: A Demographic Profile of Latin Amer
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A Demographic Profile Table I: Esti
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A Demographic Profile 23 5 ted by S
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A Demographic Profile 23 7 Birth ra
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A Demographic Profile 23 9 crease,
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A Demographic Profile 241 males and
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A Demographic Profile 24 3 encing a
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A Demographic Profile 24 5 during t
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A Demographic Profile 247 born. Thu
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Book Reviews Murphy, Bruce Allen. T
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Book Reviews 251 But how can Murphy
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Book Reviews 25 3 Kalechofsky, Robe
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Book Reviews 25 5 as official separ
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Book Reviews 257 long, unbroken par
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Brief Notices Best, Gary Dean. To F
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Brief Notices 261 Rabbi Plaut's aut
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Abolitionism, 123 Abrahams, Lionel,
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Bene Kedem (Argentina), 191, 198, 1
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Congregation B'nai Israel (Davenpor
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Federal Theatre (WPA), 29 Federatio
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Hirsch, Maurice De, I 16 Hirsch, Sa
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Jewish identity, 160, 164-165, 17-1
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Luz, La (Buenos Aires), 197 Luzzatt
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Oral history, 132 Order of St. Greg
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Rodgers, Richard, 5, 7, 17, 21, 25,
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Syrian Jews, 193, 194, 196, 198, 19
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influence on popular music, 5, 7, 3
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Introduction - American Jewish Archives

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