Jewish Museum Milwaukee has opened an exhibit focused on the sixth largest Jewish population in the world.
“I don’t think that there’s an awareness of that,” said Molly Dubin, curator for Jewish Museum Milwaukee. “There’s this huge, vibrant Jewish population there.”
Called “Southern Exposure: The Jews of Argentina,” the exhibit features artifacts like the outfit a Jewish cowboy would wear and Argentine Jewish art. It also teaches history, with displays detailing how Argentina has served as a Jewish refuge, but that Jews there have faced anti-Semitism and violence.
The exhibit, which runs through Jan. 17, also includes information on Jewish immigration and development.
Argentina’s Jewish community is generally recognized as the sixth largest in the world and the biggest in Latin America. There are an estimated 250,000 Jews in Argentina.
The goal of the exhibit is to give visitors a sense of Argentine Jewish life and an awareness of broad communal ties, cultural contributions and ongoing challenges. Argentina was neutral during World War II and attendees will learn how this affected both Nazi and Jewish immigration.
“It really was this alternate narrative for so many Jews,” Dubin said. “Argentina was for many Jews the only option if they couldn’t get to the United States or Palestine, what is now Israel. This was the alternative.”
Jewish Museum Milwaukee, including “Southern Exposure: The Jews of Argentina,” is a program of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation.
“Southern Exposure: The Jews of Argentina” is not a traveling exhibit. It was created locally.
The museum, at 1360 N. Prospect Ave., has additional exhibits on Jewish Milwaukee, Israel, the Holocaust, and Tikkun Olam (repairing the word), among other topics.
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