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The Reliance of Syrian Jewish Immigrants to Argentina on the Rabbis of their Communities of Origin

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Abstract

Modern Jewish immigration from Syria to Argentina was part of a much larger immigration movement, in which Jews, Christians, and Muslims took part—from the Ottoman Empire and from Mandatory Syria to North and South America in 1880–1930. Although the Jewish immigrants to Argentina fit into the modern world from an economic standpoint, in sociocultural terms, they chose the old world. In the absence of an established community setting, they voluntarily established frameworks very similar to those in their cities of origin because only thus did most of them know how to be Jews. While their immigration physically distanced them from Aleppo and Damascus, it did not nullify their connection with their hometowns. The borders of these cities seemed to stretch beyond their geographical location to embrace all Jewish immigrants from the same city in every corner of the world. This article, based on the Halakhic literature from the first half of the twentieth century, examines two aspects of the integration of Jewish immigrants from Syria in Argentina: the Halakhic issues that vexed them from the beginning of their settlement in Argentina and their reliance on rabbis who came from their communities of origin. The Jewish immigrants’ connection with these sages delayed their acclimation for many years and in numerous cases somewhat prevented the blurring of their pre-immigration identity. It also promoted the preservation of the original identity among their second- and third-generation offspring.

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Notes

  1. On the Rabbinic Literature as a source for the history of the Jews of Buenos Aires, see Bejarano, Literatura Rabinica como Fuente de studio sobre los judios sirios en Buenos Aires, Los judios sirios y su diaspora en America, Memorial del congreso internacional: Los judios sirios y su diaspora en America, Ciudad de México, septiembre de 2008 (CD edition).

  2. This was indeed the case in all South America. For an extensive discussion of the nature of the “Jewish ethnic multi-national group,” see Bejarano (2008), Lesser and Rein (2008), Senkman (2008), and Brodsky 2012a, 2012b).

  3. On phenomena of co-existence between Jews and Arabs in Argentina, see Klich (1995, 1998).

  4. In recent years, the research on Jewish immigrants from Syria, especially the Aleppan Jews in Argentina, has been enriched by the work of Susana Brauner-Rogers. See for example Brauner (2009), Rodgers (2005), Brauner (2012), Brauner and Hamui Sutton (2012), Brauner and Schammah (2012), Brauner and Hamui Sutton (2011), Brauner (2008), Brauner (2000, 2003), and Bargman (2001). See also memoirs such as Teubal (1953) as well as Liniado (1994).

  5. Habima Ha’ivrit, 5, Av 1921, p. 6

  6. Habima Ha’ivrit, 5, Av 1921, p. 6. Compare this description with the description of the Aleppo community itself in the late eighteenth century quoted by Antebi (1981).

  7. On the theory of imagined communities, see Anderson (1996).

  8. As a sideline, I will suggest examining the connections between Jewish immigrants from Baghdad and the Torah center in Baghdad, and the continued appeal after the center’s destruction to Baghdadi-born rabbis like Rabbi Yitzchak Nissim and Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef in Jerusalem. See for example Ben Ya’akov (1985) and more.

  9. In exchange for the rulings of the Damascene and Aleppan rabbis in the Torah centers in Cairo, Beirut, and Jerusalem, the new immigrants who had already established themselves financed the publication of books written by Torah scholars from their community of origin. See for example Ezra Hacohen Tarab, Milei De-Ezra, Jerusalem 1924, the introduction by the author’s son regarding the gift of “our brothers from our city, the outstanding people who live in the cities of Mexico and Buenos Aires.” See also the donors from Panama for publication of Rabbi Ovadiah Hadaya’s book, listed after the introduction to his book Yaskil ′Avdi, part one, Jerusalem, 1931. On the queries sent by the Damascene community in Buenos Aires to the rabbis in Beirut, see Mizrahi (1994).

  10. On this, see two versions of regulations of the Damascene community of immigrants in Buenos Aires quoted in the book by Mizrahi, Zarah Ya’akov pp. 291–293. For an overview of the organization of the Damascene community in Buenos Aires from its inception, see Bejarano et al. (2011). On the founding of the Syrian community’s cemeteries, see Bejarano (1998).

  11. Tarab, Milei De-Ezra, p. 15b. Indeed a question regarding this matter was already sent by the first Jewish settlers in Brazil to Rabbi Haim Shabbetai in Saloniki in the seventeenth century. See H. Shabbetai, Torat Haim, part 3, Saloniki, 1622, section 3. On the custom of the Sephardi community in Montevedeo in the 1930s not to say morid hagashem all year, even in the rainy season, see Ben Zion Meir Hai Uziel (1999). On the Halakhic discussion of this question throughout the generations, see Simons (1993).

  12. S. D. Sutton, Diber Shaul, Jerusalem 1928, Orah Hayyim, section 1 (p. 1ª unmarked). See also his negotiation on this question with Rabbi Aharon Helevy Goldman, quoted in Goldman’s book Divrei Aharon, Jerusalem 1981, pp. 34–44.

  13. On this, see Goldman, p. 39. On Rabbi Eliyahu Hacohen Freue, see Faur (1978). The Aleppan community’s failure to comply with Rabbi Shaul David Sutton’s ruling astonished Rabbi Yehuda Haim Hacohen Tarab-Maslaton, as his father Ezra Tarab expressed in his book, Milei De-Ezra, p18b. It could be that lack of compliance with Rabbi Sutton’s ruling and perhaps even the fact that he was not formally appointed as the community’s rabbi were not driven primarily by this controversy. Rather, some of the immigrants might have been motivated by their awareness that the rabbi’s emigration to Buenos Aires followed publication by the chief rabbi of the Aleppo community, Hakham Hizqiyyah Shabbetai, of a letter of excommunication against him. See Harel (2007), note 124. Rabbi Sutton himself explained that his reason for emigrating was his desire to join his sons who had emigrated to Argentina several years before. See Sutton, Diber Shaul, author’s introduction. On the tendency to suspect rabbis immigrating to America of fleeing a troublesome past, see Blondheim (1997).

  14. On the circumstances behind the creation of the Aleppan Torah center in Jerusalem, see Harel, Bein Tekhakhim, p. 141. Rabbi Yosef Yedid Halevy agreed to this ruling on the 12th of Iyar, 1920. The agreement appears in his book Sheerit Yosef, part 1, Brooklyn, 1974, Orah Hayyim, section 2, 255–257. See also Rabbi Hizqiyya Shabbetai’s comments in 1928 on the question of when to pray for rain in Argentina, Shabbetai (1935), section 4.

  15. Rabbi ‘Ezra Tarab-Maslaton passed away on the 28th of Shevat in 1920. See Laniado (1952). On his activity in Damascus, see Harel, Bein Tekhakhim, according to the index. On Rabbi Yehuda Haim Hacohen Maslaton Tarab, see Laniado (1980), pp. 55–57.

  16. Tarab, Milei De-Ezra, 16b–18b. And see also there the agreement of Rabbi Eliyahu Yaluz, head of the Tiberius rabbinical court, from the 5th of Nisan 1923. Hakham Eliyahu ben Ya’akov Soli’s book, Zikhron Eliyahu, was published in Brooklyn in 1992. Harav Ya’akov Mizrahi was born in Beirut in 1888. He studied in Damascus in the Tarab family’s beit midrash and was ordained as a rabbi in 1908. One year later he was invited to serve as rabbi of the Damascene community in Buenos Aires. For more information, see Mizrahi, p.11. It should be noted that this ruling is very different from accepted practice today in the Jewish world, and more specifically in Syrian communities throughout the world.

  17. Compare Tsabar (2004).

  18. Tarab, Milei De-Ezra, Orah Chaim, section 10 p. 12a. Disagreements erupted also in the Sefardi community in Montevideo on whether to shorten the musaf prayer on Shabbat by saying it aloud without the Cantor’s repetition. See Ben Zion Meir Hai Uziel (1999).

  19. Tarab, Milei De-Ez thera, p. 14b.

  20. Ibid., p. 13b.

  21. Ibid., p. 12b.

  22. Ibid., p. 15b. It is interesting to note that he sees the immigrants from his community of origin as faithful Jews and not ignoramouses or those who threw off the yoke, as the Jews who immigrated to America from Eastern Europe were perceived. See Blondheim, pp. 488–489.

  23. Ibid., ibid. For a similar question asked regarding the matter of Shushan Purim in Montevideo, see Uziel, p. 20.

  24. In 1936, the Jews who immigrated from Syria and Lebanon already comprised 4.3% of the overall Jewish population in Buenos Aires, and 5.4% of the Jews born outside of Argentina were Arabic-speaking. See Mirelman (1988).

  25. Maslaton, Vezot Liyehuda, Hoshen Mishpat, p. 179.

  26. Sutton, Diber Shaul, Yore De’a, section 1 p. 1a. See also Goldman, pp. 83–84.

  27. Tarab-Maslaton, Vezot Liyehuda, Yore De’a, section 21 pp. 58–61. Cairo’s rabbi, Rabbi Refael Aharon ben Shim’on, also permitted the use of modern methods for pumping water to ritual baths. The rabbis of Damascus and Aleppo also related to the question of ritual baths in Egypt. For more information, see Zohar, Masoret Utmura, pp. 231–239; 278–280.

  28. Zadoff, Hinukh Yehudi Beamerika Halatinit, Tel Aviv, 1994, p. 9.

  29. Ibid., pp. 31–49.

  30. These schools also served as a means for enabling graduates to become Argentinians. See Brodsky (2012a, b). It deserves to be mentioned that all the Jewish schools during the immigration period—except for those built in the colonies—were supplementary schools, since even the private schools were required to teach the general curriculum. Since private education was quite expensive and the public schools provided a good education, most of the Jewish children were sent to public schools and attended Talmud Torah as a supplement. Yesod Hadat was the first Jewish School in Buenos Aires to offer a curriculum that integrated general and religious studies.

  31. Habima Ha’ivrit, 5, Av 1921, p. 6.

  32. Habima Ha’ivrit, 5, Av 1921, p. 6

  33. Habima Ha’ivrit, 5, Av 1921, p. 6. On the founding of Talmud Torahs and schools of the non-Ashkenazi communities in Buenos Aires, and their development over the years, see Brodsky, pp. 33–52, Zadoff (1994), and Rogers, Yehudei Halab Beargentina, pp. 83–93. See also Rabbi Shaul David Sutton’s introduction to his book Diber Shaul.

  34. Maslaton, Vezot, Yore De’a, section 23, pp. 62–63.

  35. Maslaton, Vezot, Yore De’a, section 23, p. 64.

  36. Some hoped that Zionism would be a unifying force for the Sefardim and Ashkenazim in Argentina. See Dayan and Lewis (2007).

  37. See Brauner, Yehudei Haleb, pp. 132–133.

  38. Teaching in Hebrew by the immigrants from Jerusalem in the Talmud Torah founded then in Buenos Aires was in no way problematic. See Habima Ha’ivrit, Elul-Tishrei, 1922, p. 12.

  39. Habima Ha’ivrit, 1, Nissan 1921, p. 10.

  40. Habima Ha’ivrit, 1, Nissan 1921, p. 10. Those who oppose the use the Modern Hebrew distinguished between the Modern and the Holy language. Holy language, a pure and perfect entity distinct from all other languages in its divine nature never changes, whereas “Modern Hebrew” is an impure and crude language created by human beings to spread secularism and heresy.

  41. Habima Ha’ivrit, 1, Nissan 1921, p. 11. Rabbi Hizqiyya Shabbetai, defined as an “enthusiastic Zionist,” left his rabbinic position in Aleppo in 1920, and subsequently traveled around the world both for recreation and for community needs. He stayed in Argentina for about 2 years. See Habima Ha’ivrit, 9, Shevat-Adar 1922, p. 15; Ibid., 10, Nisan-Iyar 1922, p. 20; and ibid., 4, Kislev-Tevet 1924, p. 16.

  42. It deserves to be mentioned that all of the speakers in Rabbi Danon’s farewell event, including Rabbi Shaul David Sutton, spoke in Hebrew. See Habima Ha’ivrit, 7–8, Heshvan-Kislev 1923, p. 53. On Rabbi Nissim Danon, see Gaon (1938).

  43. This apparently refers to the Sharkh, the translation of the Torah to the Jewish Arabic used in Aleppo.

  44. The Damascene Or Torah school was the first to change its language of instruction from Arabic to Spanish. See Brodsky, p. 45, note 60. On the multidimensional factors influencing the acculturation of the Jews in Buenos Aires, see Fernanda Astiz (2010).

  45. The book Darka shel Torah, bound with ‘E. Tawil, ‘ET Sofer’, Jerusalem 1928, p. 1ª. See also Zohar (2013).

  46. For an extensive description of this revolution, see Harel (2002).

  47. See Habima Ha’ivrit, 3, Adar beet 1929, p. 19. Rabbi Goldman’s response to Ya’akov Sutton, in which he forbade teaching Hebrew, while trying nonetheless to reconcile the conflicted parties. See Goldman, pp. 84–86.

  48. Brauner, Yehudei Halab, p. 133.

  49. For an extensive review of relations between Jews and Gentiles, see Mirelman, Buenos Aires (Hebrew), pp. 46–75.

  50. For more information on the issue of mixed marriages in Buenos Aires, see Mirelman, Buenos Aires (Hebrew), pp. 102–109. For a public discussion of this issue, see Habima Ha’ivrit, 4, Tamuz 1921, pp. 1–2.

  51. For a description of Halakhic negotiation vis a vis acceptance of converts in Buenos Aires, see Goldman (Hebrew), pp. 86–98.

  52. On the circumstances that led to the enactment, see Zemer (1988) and see recently Zohar (2012). See also the pamphlet providing agreement of the chief rabbis of Eretz Yisrael, the rabbinic courts of the Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Aleppan communities in the holy city of Jerusalem, the rabbinic courts and rabbis of Aleppo, to maintain and strengthen Rabbi Shaul Sutton’s ruling prohibiting the acceptance of converts in Argentina, in his book, Diber Shaul published by Makhon Haketav in Jerusalem in 1991, pp. 14–21. On dissemination of the enactment to additional communities in the Aleppan diaspora, see S. Roffé, An Analysis of Brooklyn’s Rabbinical Takana Prohibiting Syrian and Near Eastern Jews from Marrying Converts, in Harel (2015a, 2015b).

  53. See Zohar, pp. 202–203.

  54. Hadaya, Yaskil ‘Avdi, part 4, Yore De’a, p. 45b

  55. Hadaya, Yaskil ‘Avdi, part 4, Yore De’a, pp. 45b–46ª/

  56. And see also pp. 10–34, the responses of additional rabbis to the question, including Rabbis Yitzchak Isaac Halevy Herzog and Zvi Pesah Frank, head of the Jerusalem rabbinic court. For a summary and analysis of Rabbi Hizqiyya Shabbetai’s stance, see Zohar, pp. 204–206. See also Bejarano (2013) and Hamui Sutton (2013). As an aside, we should note that this enactment, which spread throughout Aleppan communities world-wide, continues to the present day to generate distress and controversy.

  57. See Goldman, pp. 45–56.

  58. Sutton, Diber Shaul, Orah Hayyim, section 4, pp. 1b–5b.

  59. See Bartal (Hebrew), p. 513.

  60. Maslaton, Vezot Liyehuda, Yore De’a, section 1, p. 37.

  61. Indeed, Rabbi Dr. Yosef Hai Panizel from Jerusalem served as rabbi of the community between the years 1938–1946, and he was followed by Dr. Amram Blum. On the reasons for appointment of these university-educated rabbis, see Brauner, pp. 134–135. For more information on Rabbi David Moshe Sutton and his books see Blei (1999), Harel (1997), and Laniado (1980). On Rabbi Chehebar, see Harel, Sifre, p. 412 and Y. Chehebar, Yitzchak Yeranen, Buenos Aires 1991, in the unnumbered preface.

  62. For an extensive discussion, see Brauner, Zehuyot, pp. 164–166.

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Correspondence to Yaron Harel.

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I am grateful to my esteemed colleagues, Prof. Zvi Zohar, Dr. Margalit Bejarano, who read and commented on earlier drafts of this article. I am also grateful to Dr. Susana Brauner for many discussions about the Jews of Syria in Argentina.

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Harel, Y. The Reliance of Syrian Jewish Immigrants to Argentina on the Rabbis of their Communities of Origin. Int J Lat Am Relig 3, 390–412 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41603-019-00087-x

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