To Migrate or Not to Migrate: Sephardic Zionist Groups in Argentina, 1960s and 1970s

This paper will focus on two Sephardi responses to Zionist activism in Argentina:  Tejezakna/Baderej, and the Movimiento Sefaradí Sionista.   Born in the 1950s, in the euphoria spurred by the presence of Jewish Agency delegates, the first group developed a distinct take on Zionist activism: Jews, young Jews in particular, had to move to Israel to help build the new State.  They joined the Hashomer Hatzair movement in the early 1960s, (movement that had originally been created in Eastern Europe) and, with the help of Hashomer representatives, they organized their migration to Israel, where they settled in a kibbutz.  From Kibbutz Gazit, these young men and women continued to participate in these transnational projects: they encouraged other Argentine Sephardim to migrate to Gazit, continued to support the Hashomer Hatzair work in Israel, and even travelled to Yugoslavia, where they put up a show for Marshall Tito and Socialist youth groups featuring native Argentine dances.  Movimiento Sefaradí Sionista, on the other hand, also founded in the early 1960s in the context of intergenerational struggles, developed an understanding of Zionism that was not incompatible with remaining in Argentina.  They encouraged migration to Israel, but did not see it as the exclusive alternative to being a committed Sephardi Zionist. 

            Using Hashomer Hatzair correspondence, Tejezakna/Baderej publications and oral interviews, and Movimiento Sefaradí Sionista’s newsletter, the paper seeks to uncover how these two seemingly contradictory positions regarding Jewish identity among Sephardic Argentine Jews engaged in conversations with each other and offered these alternatives to these communities.