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w argentynskich burdelach.

Argentine Jewry's dark secret

New book reveals story of Jewish association of pimps that operated in country in late 19th and
early 20th century, and was involved in women trade and rape. 'This is a silenced story, ' author
says, 'The Jewish community in Argentina remembers it well, but badly wants to keep it under wraps'

Rona Kupferboim Published: 05.25.07, 15:43 / Israel Jewish Scene/Reuters

Superintendent Julio Elsogray was a strange kind of Buenos Aires cop because he would not take
bribes from the pimps who dominated the city in the early 20th century. Eventually, therefore, he
was the man who managed to stop them. He did that thanks to a brave whore named Rachel Lieberman,
who dared file a complaint against the Zwi Migdal Organization - an association of Jewish women
traders.

Thus, in 1930 the two managed to shut down the only association of Jewish panders in the world after
60 years of activity. The Zwi Migdal group was an organization that traded in women while its
members wore tefillin and built themselves a synagogue, and their story is both embarrassing and
exciting. It involved loads of money, corrupt politicians, violent sex, international women trade,
hard brutality, rape, and cheating, all lightly spiced with yiddishkeit and God-fearing traditions.

"This is a silenced story," said writer and poet Ilan Sheinfeld, whose book "The Tale of a Ring"
relates the story of that dark period. "The Jewish community in Argentina remembers it well, but
badly wants to keep it under wraps because it is a disgrace. There is very little material in Hebrew
about this affair."

Buenos Aires. Women import business blossomed

Intermittently researching his book for 11 years, Sheinfeld traveled to Buenos Aires twice, learned
Spanish, and "established ties with Argentinean Jews who knew about the story. I had to peel off
layer after layer, convince people to talk, and obtain materials. When you closely examine the
affair, you can tell why it was kept secret so far."

Remonta - Fresh flesh shipment

Argentina of the second half of the 19th century was an attractive destination for Jews who fled
Russian

and Polish pogroms and poverty, headed for the New World. In those decades, Buenos Aires grew
rapidly and with it, the Jewish community. A Hevra Kadisha was established and a newspaper named
Mundo Israelita was published as the Jewish community members strove to settle down and become part
of the new place. They wished to establish themselves as law-abiding and moral people.

This, however, did not apply to all of the Jews. Hundreds of Jewish immigrants chose a different
path and became rufianos - pimps, prostitution peddlers. Given that at the time, there was one woman
for 10 men, sexual services were in high demand. The temptation to make a profit in this area was
plain to see. So the Jewish rufianos stepped in, supplied the demand, and soon enough seized control
over the entire prostitution business in Argentina.

"Jews were very prominent among women traders, both as dealers and as employers of prostitutes,
particularly in Argentina, Brazil, Poland, and Galicia (Russia)," wrote Yehuda Rimerman in
"Prostitution and the Deviant Girl," a book that reviews the history of Jewish prostitution in the
modern era. The Argentinean pimps created a total, most effective world, with predefined codewords,
rules, and methods of operation. For example, a trip abroad to bring a new shipload of fresh girls
was called remonta, a term taken from the horse market.

Here is how it worked: A well-mannered and elegant man would appear one day in a Jewish shtetl in
Poland or Russia. He notified the local community and posted an ad in the shul saying he was looking
for nice young women to work in the houses of rich Jews in Argentina or even marry them. Despairing
with the pogroms and dreadful economic situation, the girls' parents would respond favorably and
give their daughters away, hoping to give them a new start.

The girls, mostly aged 13 to 16, packed a small bag, bid their families a sobbing farewell, and
boarded the ships to Argentina accompanied by a stranger, certain they are off to a better future.
Their training period often started on the way there, on the ship, and was always a cruel and brutal
affair. The young virgins were broken in - raped, beaten, starved, and locked in cages. Some of them
were married off to local men so that they could obtain entry visas. Far from their families,
without friends or knowledge of the language, they started serving men, their bodies belonging to
the Jewish rufianos.

A cemetery fit for pimps

The largest bordellos of Buenos Aires housed 60 to 80 sex slaves. There were bordellos all over
Argentina, but most of them were in the big city, in the Jewish quarter, on Junin Street.

Yet, as the whorehoses and pimps prospered, the Jewish community rejected them. Articles in the
local press condemned them and, in 1885, the community established a Jewish Association for the
Protection of Women and Girls. Ads posted on the walls in the Jewish quarter called on the locals
not to rent their shops to the rufianos. On their part, the pimps very much wanted to be part of the
community. The wealthiest among them used to pick a new girl every night and take her out to the
theater, "which was the center of cultural life in the city. Jewish theater was very successful
then," Sheinfeld said.

"The Jewish communities used to throw fund-raising parties, importing European star performers. The
pimps would show up every night because they intended to show off their merchandise, wished to
maintain their status, and also wanted be like everybody else. This is why they made donations,
which made the community deliberate whether it wanted their money. On the one hand, the community
needed money to build public buildings, but on the other hand, it was 'dirty' money and by taking it
they feared they would be legitimizing or tacitly accepting the criminals' exploitation of women.
This ended one night when Nahum Sorkin, a well-known Zionist activist, stood outside the theater and
physically stopped the rufianos from entering. Next, they were banned from the synagogues, and to
top it all, they were refused burial in the Jewish cemetery.

This was too much for the rufianos. It is one thing to be banned from the theater or community
balls, but eternal rest is a different story. They formed an association of charity among its
members. On 7 May 1906, when there were already half a million Jews in Argentina, the Jewish pimps
registered legally as the Zwi Migdal Association, named after one of its greatest contributors.
Naturally, the group later split and the splinter, led by Simon Rubinstein, established its own
society named Ashkenazum. Once officially recognized, both associations bought plots of land on the
outskirt of Buenos Aires and established their own cemeteries there.

The Zwi Migdal Organization reached its peak in the 1920's, when some 430 rufianos controlled 2,000
whorehouses with 4,000 women. The network was well organized and its members cooperated closely to
protect their interests. Prostitutes that failed to satisfy their clients were beaten, fined, or
taken to work in provincial houses. Every business transaction was logged. The rufianos even held a
meat market where newly arrived girls were paraded naked in front of traders in places such as Hotel
Palestina or Cafe Parisienne. These activities went on undisturbed because they were frequented by
government officials, judges, and reporters. City officials, politicians, and police officers were
paid off. The pimps had powerful connections everywhere.

The hijo de puta judge

The rufianos' audacity eventually led to their demise. It happened when they refused to forgo their
income from the work of one woman, Rachel Lieberman from L