NEW AT ARTSPACE
The Border
1938 and the outbreak of World War II,
the entire world to accept Jewish refugees.
the Jewish experience in this little-known country.
2
ing. They actually failed, and Bolivia
joined the Allies in the fight against
the Nazis."
The Jewish community in the mid-
'30s had been very small, and its
members had a small Jewish congrega-
tion based on Eastern European
Jewish life, according to the author.
When the German and Austrian Jews
came in, they found practices very
similar to what was done in central
Europe with variances from Orthodox
to quite secular.
"People asserted their Judaism more
in Bolivia during that period of time,"
Spitzer says. "It was almost kind of a
reaction to the fact that they had been
defined. as Jews by the Nazis and
therefore [returned] to their Judaism.
My parents were quite secular in
Europe, but they sent me to a Jewish
school and returned to Judaism.
"There was a kind of communal
assertion of pride in being Jewish, and
it was one of the ways people asserted
their identity as a group."
While Jews entered Bolivia fleeing
horrendous circumstances, they found
a place they could recall with many
happy emotions and spoke about
them on Spitzer's tapes. These people
will have longevity beyond the book
because the author is giving some of
his tapes to the Video Archive of
Holocaust Survivors at Yale University
and transcriptions to the Hebrew
University in Jerusalem, where there is
a large collection of Latin American
immigrant materials.
"I miss the closeness, intense
friendships and the communal life
expressed through the Austrian Club,
MILTON AVERY
ROBERT MOTHERWELL
HANS ARP
ROBERT WILBERT
PHILIP SMITH
TONY SMITH
GORDON NEWTON
STUART DAVIS
LESTER JOHNSON
ROY LICHTENSTEIN
BRENDA GOODMAN
ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG
SAM FRANCIS
ARTSPACE I
'303 I:. MARL BIRMINGHAM. MICJIIGAN 48009
T.248 258 1540 F. 248 2'58 8814
TO CONSIGN. CALI LOIS PINCUS COHN
Leo Spitzer: "Bolivia took more refugees
in a short period of time than Canada,
Australia, New Zealand and the British
Commonwealth countries combined"
Jewish Community Center and the
Jewish schools," says Spitzer, who has
kept in touch with former neighbors
in Bolivia. "I also miss a lot about the
country. It was an extremely beautiful
place, and I'm very fond of many
Bolivians and their culture.
"People saw this as a very impor-
tant part of their lives. The vast major-
ity arrived in dire straits, and Bolivia
gave them asylum. Over time, some
did quite well economically and other-
wise. Many tell of negative experi-
ences, struggles they had to go
through, but as a whole, they look
back on Bolivia as a very positive
experience." Fl
Leo Spitzer will speak at the Jewish Book Fair at 1 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 11,
at the D. Dan & Betty Kahn Building of the Jewish Community Center in
West Bloomfield, co-sponsored by American Friends of Hebrew University,
Michigan State University's Jewish Studies Program and Michigan
Coalition of Secular and Humanistic Jews (Birmingham Temple, Jewish
Parents Institute, Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring and Sholem Aleichem
Institute). (248) 661-1000.
•
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340 East Maple Road
Birmingham, Michigan 48009
p: 248.593.9085
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w: http://www.unicahome.com
11/5
1999
Detroit Jewish News
85