Yiddish South of the Border

Alan Astro has compiled the first anthology of Latin American Yiddish writings translated into English. Included are works of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay, and Cuba, with one brief memoir by a Russian rabbi who arrived in San Antonio, Texas, in 1910.

Literature has always served as a refuge for Yiddish speakers, and the Yiddish literature of Latin America reflects the writers’ assertions of their political rights. Stories depicting working-class life in Buenos Aires are reminiscent of the work of New York writers like Abraham Cahan (founder of Jewish Daily Forward) or Henry Roth (author of Call It Sleep).

In Latin America, Ashkenazic immigrants—Jews from France, Germany, and Eastern Europe—explore their possible links to the Crypto Jews who came to the New World to escape the Inquisition. Yiddish South of the Border features these themes of identity that permeate this literature and so much more.