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Adriana Brodsky

Adriana M. Brodsky is Professor of Latin American and Jewish History at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Her book Sephardi, Jewish, Argentine: Creating Community and National Identity, 1880-1960 appeared in 2016, and her most recent publication is a co-edited volume called Jews Across the Americas (2023, with Laura Leibman). She has written on Argentine Sephardi reactions to the Holocaust, Sephardi food, schools, beauty contests, and Latin American Jewish history in general. She is currently finishing a manuscript on Argentine Jewish Youth between 1940 until the military dictatorship in 1976. She is co-President of the Latin American Jewish Studies Association (LAJSA).

Articles by this author

Bruria Benbassat de Elnecavé

Bruria Benbassat de Elnecavé was an ardent activist who dedicated her life to educate Jewish Argentines in general and Jewish Argentine women in particular about Zionism and the State of Israel. 

Argentina: Sephardic Women

Argentina’s Sephardic community included Jews from all over the Sephardi diaspora. Immigrant women often worked alongside their fathers or husbands in general stores, as well as doing household chores and raising children. As Sephardic communities became more established, women’s educational opportunities expanded, and women played important roles in philanthropy and Zionism.

Argentina: Zionist Activities

Argentine Jewish women were important players in Zionism, from early women’s committees of male groups to independent female ones. They carried out significant work on behalf of WIZO (Women’s International Zionist Organization) to help women and children in the Jewish community of Palestine and later in Israel, and participated in other Zionist organizations.

Argentina: Philanthropic Organizations

Three Jewish women’s philanthropic organizations emerged on the scene in early 20th-century Argentina to support orphans and poor children in the community. The Society of Israelite Beneficent Women was responsible for the Jewish Girls’ Orphanage that opened in 1919. The Yiddish-speaking Women’s Aid Association formed the Jewish Infants’ Home to help new mothers and ran a Kindergarten. The Women’s Commission helped run the Jewish Boys’ Orphanage.

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How to cite this page

Jewish Women's Archive. "Adriana Brodsky." (Viewed on June 15, 2026) <https://qa.jwa.org/encyclopedia/author/brodsky-adriana>.