work that analyzes and describes the varied ecology, ethnicity, traditions, and policies that characterize Jewish life in more than twenty Latin American nation-states. Inserting Latin America into Jewish history expands the traditional boundaries for surveying global Jewish diasporas. In counterpoint, as Professor Elkin writes, “....viewing Latin American societies from a Jewish perspective challenges the traditional notion of these societies as unalterably Hispanic and Catholic, a notion that perpetuates the nationalist view of Jews as disturbers of some ideal society. It is becoming more and more apparent that non-Latin, non-Iberian immigrants played a role in the evolution of the Latin American republics, and that their societies are increasingly pluralistic in reality if not in ideology. Jews are a part of this new reality, and uncovering their life stories reveals the modernizing dynamic they brought with them.”

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