3 Aesthetics, politics and the complexities of Arab Jewish identities in authoritarian Argentina Silvina Schammah Gesser and Susana Brauner Declassiied documents in Argentine archives dating from 1975–1984 include names such as Carlos Alberto Abadi Shammah, a psychology student who was kidnapped in the city of Buenos Aires 1 ; David Moaded Laniado, 2 a young Zionist linked to a guerrilla organisation who was killed in a raid; Cesar Alberto Antebí, 3 attorney and advocate for political prisoners, who disappeared together with his wife; Celia Ester Hanono Sacca, 4 political activist in the Juventud Peronista (Per- onist Youth Party) and Mónica Masri, 5 a literature and arts student. Their stories and those of many others shed light on the life experiences of young Argentinians of Arab Jewish descent who shared their views, interests and aspirations with their fellow nationals in the conlictive 1960s and 1970s. During these decades, Argen- tina went through a period of increasing political violence and instability: a series of military authoritarian regimes; the rise of la nueva izquierda (“the new left”); the return of the legendary leader Juan Domingo Perón from exile; democratic elections held in early 1973. A inal military coup three years later tore Argentine society apart and the country sank into an unprecedented state terrorism, a night- mare euphemistically known as the “Process of National Reconstruction”. The path followed by many young members of the second and third generations of Argentinian Jews from the Middle East contradicts deep-rooted assumptions about the so-called “homogeneity” and “religiosity” of the Arab Jews. Such persis- tent stereotypes have overlooked the transformations undergone by these cohorts in the Argentine soil. Indeed, since the early 1960s, the major cities of Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Rosario proved to be thriving intellectual and ideologically oriented urban environments. Whether in high school, local clubs, study groups or at university, informal meetings, political acts or street protests, the young came across different political programs, ad hoc forms of mobilisation and revolutionary formulas. The novel forms of youth socialisation became a natural scenario where a plethora of meanings and ideals such as “political commitment”, “empower- ment” and “a new left” confronted contested notions of Argentineness. Against this background, members of ethnic minorities such as young cohorts of Arab Jewish descent who took part in those forms of socialisation joined their fellow country- men in their search for a more just and egalitarian society. And, in so doing, they