ABSTRACT
Immigration’s role in changing Argentina’s social structure prior to the 1930s has been discussed often; the part played by ethnic or racial elements in the Peronist mobilization of native but neglected underclasses has been discussed less. Nevertheless, both are important to the context, and both have been important to Argentine Jewry. They are treated more specifically, reviewing and evaluating a crypto-Marxian theory of intergroup relations marked by its assertion that in order to explain prejudice against certain center-bound minorities, it is necessary to concentrate on their socioeconomic performance. The tenor of accusations against Argentine Jews has been familiar enough: Jews were money managers in a society where money should not matter, covering constant profit searching with the pretense of unique religious practice. In matters combining class with status group, a hallmark of the middleman minority is that economic activity takes a preindustrial capitalist form, oriented to rational profit seeking but bound by kinship, nepotism, and group particularity.
