Editing Alberto Gerchunoff

{{Short description|Argentine writer (1883–1950)}}
[[Image:Alberto Gerchunoff.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Alberto Gerchunoff]]

'''Alberto Gerchunoff''' (January 1, 1883 – March 2, 1950), was an [[Argentine]] writer born in the [[Russian Empire]], in the city of [[Proskuriv]], now [[Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine|Khmelnytskyi]], [[Ukraine]].

==Biography==
His family emigrated in 1889 to the Argentine Jewish agricultural colony of Moïseville, now [[Moisés Ville]], [[Santa Fe Province|Santa Fe]]. His father, Rab Gershon ben Abraham Gerchunoff was murdered by a [[gaucho]] on February 12, 1891. After a few months the family moved to [[Rajil]], another Jewish settlement near [[Villaguay]], [[Entre Ríos Province|Entre Ríos]]. The colony was founded by [[philanthropy|philanthropist]] Baron [[Maurice de Hirsch]] as a haven for [[Jew]]s fleeing the [[pogrom]]s of Europe. Later, he lived in Argentina's capital, [[Buenos Aires]]. [[Jorge Luis Borges]] described him thus:

::He was an indisputable writer, but his reputation transcends that of a man of letters. Unintentionally and perhaps unwittingly, he embodied an older type of writer ... who saw the written word as a mere stand-in for the oral, not as a sacred object.

Although he worked primarily as a journalist for Argentina's leading newspaper ''[[La Nación (Buenos Aires)|La Nación]]'', he also wrote many important novels and books on Jewish life in Latin America, including ''[[The Jewish Gauchos]] of the Pampas'' ({{ISBN|0-8263-1767-7}}), which was produced [[Los Gauchos judíos|into a movie in 1975]].

For most of his life Gerchunoff espoused [[Jewish assimilation|assimilationism]] for the Jews of Argentina, though altered his stance with the rise of Hitler, eventually advocating for the establishment of the state of Israel before the United Nations in 1947.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0007_0_07194.html|title= Alberto Gerchunoff}}</ref> He is said to have collaborated with [[Wilhelm Reich]] on a version of his [[orgone box]] designed to preserve the core of Jewish [[Cultural memory|cultural memories]], many of which were collected by him as oral histories and published under the title ''Héroes de los Intersticios'' in 1948.<ref>{{cite book |title=Passion of Youth |author=[[Wilhelm Reich]] |date=12 July 1994 |isbn=1569249296}}</ref>

==Bibliography==

*Los gauchos judíos. La Plata, 1910. [English translation: The Jewish Gauchos of the Pampas, Nueva York, 1955]
*Nuestro Señor don Quijote. Buenos Aires, 1913.
*El nuevo régimen. Buenos Aires, 1918.
*Cuentos de ayer. Buenos Aires, 1919.
*El cristianismo precristiano. Buenos Aires, 19[20?].
*La jofaina maravillosa; agenda cervantina. Buenos Aires, 1922.
*La asamblea de la boardilla. Buenos Aires, 1925.
*Historias y proezas de amor. Buenos Aires, 1926.
*El hombre que habló en la Sorbona. Buenos Aires, 1926.
*Pequeñas prosas. Buenos Aires, 1926.
*Enrique Heine, el poeta de nuestra intimidad. Buenos Aires, Madrid, 1927
*Las imágenes del país. Azul, 1931.
*Los amores de Baruj Spinoza. Buenos Aires, 1932
*El hombre importante, novela. Buenos Aires, Montevideo, 1934.
*La clínica del doctor Mefistófeles; moderna milagrería en diez jornadas. Santiago de Chile, 1937.
*El problema judío. Buenos Aires, 1945.
*Entre Ríos, mi país. Buenos Aires, 1950.
*Retorno a Don Quijote. Buenos Aires, 1951.
*Argentina, país de advenimiento. Buenos Aires, 1952.
*El Pino y La Palmera. Buenos Aires, 1952
*La Lechuza, n.d.

==See also==
* [[Jewish gauchos]]
* [[Jewish Colonization Association]]

==References==

{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*[http://libx.bsu.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/BSMngrph&CISOPTR=25&CISOBOX=1&REC=2 ''Argentina's Jewish Short Story Writers''], Rita M. Gardiol, 1986.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gerchunoff, Alberto}}
[[Category:1883 births]]
[[Category:1949 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Santa Fe, Argentina]]
[[Category:Jewish Ukrainian writers]]
[[Category:Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Argentina]]
[[Category:Naturalized citizens of Argentina]]
[[Category:Argentine people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Jewish Argentine writers]]
[[Category:Argentine male journalists]]
[[Category:20th-century Argentine journalists]]
[[Category:Argentine male writers]]
[[Category:Argentine novelists]]


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