Bodies and Souls: The Tragic Plight of Three Jewish Women Forced Into Prostitution in the Americas

by Isabel Vincent

Book Overview

In the second half of the nineteenth century, several thousand impoverished young Jewish women from Eastern Europe were forced into prostitution in the frontier colonies of Latin America, South... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679311629
• ISBN13: 9780679311621
• Release Date: November 2005
• Publisher: Random House Canada
• Length: 276 Pages
• Weight: 1.24 lbs.

Customer Reviews

good read

This is an interesting, history read. It is not well written as literature but the information is facinating and worthwhile to read. The information is substantiated in Nathan Englander's Ministry of Special Cases

A much needed expose of a dark shadow

There are many responses that one can have when reading this book. I think that shock is more about our own notions, how innocent we had configured European Jews to be. In the imagination and largely written in history the most common conception is that Jews were victims, brutalized by 'the other', by Goyim, by non-Jews. Surprise! Jews could be just as nasty, cruel and heartless as any bestial person not of the tribe. I learned several key insights from this book. One was that (through ignorance and prejudice) legions of Jews both in Europe and in the America's have a share in the blame, if blame can be assessed, for the fates met by the completely unwitting and unwilling prostitutes. That share is entirely due to the complete rejection and total exclusion of the lives of these prostitutes. If a small number of them had taken the time to investigate by asking questions instead of giving into the knee jerk reaction of judging them all as evil, then not a few would have heard of the rapes, the enforcement by extreme brutality of very poor, innocent and naive Jewish girls into a life of servitude that was worse than a life sentence in jail. And what jails they did live in! It is an even greater tragedy that these women were all judged as wanton harlots whose only joys were the carnal lusts of the flesh. These judgements could not have been any more wrong and damaging. Another thing that is apparent is that Rabbi's on both sides of the ocean were aware of the suffering and did next to nothing to examine the circumstances or were motivated even in a minimal way to put an end to the practices. The riots in Poland in some of the larger cities against the houses of prostitution were an infrequent event and only resulted in the same innocent women being attacked. They simply were not given an opportunity to express their point of view. The people who did start to clamour, who began to organize an attempt to forewarn the young ladies against the white slave trade were too small in number and were marginalized and underfunded. A very heart-rending fact that Vincent continually highlights is the inexhaustible longing of the prostitutes to participate in religious and spiritual rites. Even though they knew that their own people did not know their stories and would not listen, though they had suffered unbelievable dehumanization and degradation, not even the vile hatred of their bretheren could take away their desires to see themselves as part of the larger spiritual body. In this as well, very unjustly, they were judged against. When I read this, it made my blood boil. Frankly, Jews in the America's need to read this and face the disgraceful truth. Our own people destroyed the lives of so many vulnerable poor, uneducated and naive women. Our people turned a blind eye to the vile pimps and then even worse decided that we all knew so well why these prostitutes carried on. We were wrong, dead wrong and our people should ask these de

A tragic tale told too late . . .

Vincent does an admirable job of telling the story of Eastern European Jewish girls from the shtetl being conned into sham marriages and forced prostitution by an underworld Jewish organizaton. In this book, the events take place mainly in South America, although the practice was (sadly) widespread. It's a relatively unknown story, and I'm glad that Vincent made the effort to relate it. Unfortunately, nearly everyone connected with the actual events is now long gone. The lack of anything but relatively meager links with the book's personalities is palpable, but Vincent manages to eke out just enough detail to make this book both riveting and personal. I'd love to know exactly how she managed to locate some of the book's photos and some of the more esoteric aspects of the lives of those described, given the unwillingness of nearly anyone to discuss them and (of course) the fact that many of these people led lives which made them difficult to trace. One imagines that had Vincent been able to conduct her research fifteen or twenty years earlier, a much more in-depth history would have been the result - a pity that no one thought to do it sooner. But one can't fault Vincent for her admirable efforts, and her skill as a writer. The work is partially framed around a couple of encounters with a man who tends to the graves of these now-departed Jewish prostitutes, and it's a nice technique. It's impossible to know what could have been going through the minds of these young and naive village girls as they entered a new world and a special kind of hell - Vincent is wise enough not to speculate too deeply - but the ultimate strength and unity of this community is apparent. One can't help but admire the strength of these poor women; in this sense Vincent performs a real mitzvah, by lovingly memorializing women whose own community turned against them unrepentently.

Bodies and Souls

A most fascinating book about young Jewish women from the shtetls of Eastern Europe lured away from their homes with the promise of a better life in "America," America being South America. Here they are sold or forced into prostitution, shunned by the local Jewish communities and forced to make a life for themsevles, among themselves. A wonderful read and would be great for a bookclub..

An Absolutely and Shocking History of Shtetl Girls forced into prostitution.

"Bodies and Souls" by author Isabel Vincent is a horrifying and compelling book on the young shtetl women from Eastern Europe and Poland abducted into prostitution. Isabel Vincent tells about 3 young women Sophia Chamys, Rachel Liberman, and Rebecca Freedman and the reader follows their story from the villages in Eastern Europe from where they were abducted, to the brothels of South America. The brothels were located in Rio, Buenos Aires, and Argentina. It was a terrible life that these young, innocent girls were brought into by the pimps that posed as "Gentlemen". These "gentlemen" bought or "married" the girls to entice them to South America where they were sold into White Slavery. The Commissioner of Argentina, Alsogaray, along with Rachel Liberman, brought down the empire of the Zwi Migdal who ruled the underworld of white slavery in South America. As stated in the title for this review, I found this book a shocking part of history that should not be ignored. It is required reading for history and Judaica readers. I cannot urge readers enough to go out and buy this book - it may be upsetting to read, but one should know what happened at this time in history.