About the Book

Combining the skills of journalist and scholar, Jacob Beller presents the first comprehensive first-hand study of the Jewish communities of Latin America. Both highly readable and factually meticulous. This title, originally published in 1969, is available on-demand only.

“Interesting and well-written this book definitely fills a need in both South American and Jewish collections.”
--Library Journal

“Interesting and informative.”
--B’nai Brith Hillel Foundation

About the Author

Jacob Beller was born in Grodzisko, Galicia, in 1898. He attended the yeshiva in Rzeszow and later the Hebrew Teachers’ Seminary in Lemberg and the Export Academy in Vienna. In 1922 he was engaged as Hebrew teacher by the ICA in Argentina, in the colony of Narcisse Lewin.

Dr. Beller started his journalistic career with Di Presse and later wrote for El Diario Israelita and Habimah Ha’Ivrith I in Buenos Aires. He later served as Latin American correspondent of the Israeli newspaper Davar, managing editor of the Toronto Daily Hebrew Journal, and Latin American correspondent for the Toronto Globe & Mail and the New York Daily Jewish Forward. In 1955, he was awarded the Surovitch Prize by the World Congress for Jewish Culture in recognition of his monumental study entitled Across Twenty Latin American Countries.