Entre Shtetl y Colonia: Sholem Aleichem, Alberto Gerchunoff, and the Image of Loss

Abstract This article is a comparative study of representations of small-town Jewish life in the works of Sholem Aleichem and Alberto Gerchunoff. It begins by characterizing the shtetl and its effects on the representation of Argentina in the work of Sholem Aleichem. Next, it tracks the reception of Sholem Aleichem in essays by Alberto Gerchunoff, and reads the representation of the Jewish colony in Los gauchos judíos in line with Gerchunoff’s broader appreciation of Sholem Aleichem. The article highlights the ways Gerchunoff’s Jewish colony recreates the familiar shtetl of Sholem Aleichem’s works, while also breaking from it to recast the Jewish colony in terms of a uniquely Argentine experience of urbanization and modernization. Juxtaposing representations of shtetl and colony in the works of these authors, the article highlights the setting of small-town Jewish life as a central element in the literary engagement with early twentieth-century Jewish migration narratives.