Family, Food and Language Among Jewish-Argentinian Fans of Club Atlético Atlanta

Authors

  • Raanan Rein Universidad de Tel Aviv

Abstract

The Buenos Aires neighborhood of Villa Crespo and its Club Atlético Atlanta are commonly identified as ―Jewish. This article explores the place of Atlanta in the daily lives and popular culture of Buenos Aires Jews. Atlanta has served as a channel for the social integration of Jewish immigrants and their Argentine born offspring into urban life in the capital city. At the same time it allowed Jewish Argentines to conserve an ethnic identity component. Atlanta‘s stadium has provided a gathering place for tens of thousands of people, Jews and non-Jews alike, bound together by their loyalty to their sport club. Thus, Atlanta has function as an integrative public space and as a site of neighborhood identification. Similarly, one cannot ignore anti-Semitic incidents that have accompanied Atlanta‘s games and which point to football as a space of both prejudices and dialogue.

Keywords:

Football, Identities, Jews, Argentina, Villa Crespo, Atlanta, Anti-semitism