“Towards the East, Towards Jerusalem”: Orientations in Jewish Religious Practices in the southern Argentinian Chaco

Abstract

In this paper, archaeo- and ethnoastronomical methods are used to investigate the orientation of synagogues, graves and prayer among Ashkenazi Jewish communities in the central-northern part of the Argentinian Province of Santa Fe, in the southern Gran Chaco region of South America. These communities have their origin in Jewish agricultural colonies, which were established by immigrants from central and eastern Europe who arrived during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The study shows the complexity of the logics involved in the construction of the meaning of spatial orientations in local Jewish religious practices, and also the necessity of ethnographic surveys as a complement to quantitative studies of orientations.