Explore "Insecure Whiteness: Jews Between Civilization and Barbarism, 1880s–1940s" by Sandra McGee Deutsch on Textopian.
Jews absorbed the importance of identifying with whiteness and civilization in classrooms in rural settlements and cities alike. The public school system bore the mark of the educator president, Sarmiento. Here Jews learned about Sarmiento's belief in immigration, the melting pot, and civilizing the country through education, ideas which resonated with their experiences and desire for acceptance and upward mobility.
Acquiring these lessons and realizing their insecure racial status, many Jews felt a need to perform their whiteness, and there was no better place to do so than in the countryside. By taming the wilderness and sinking roots into the soil, Ashkenazi farmers could defy the stereotypes and prove that they were agents of civilization. While not always consciously so, their remarks seemed designed to convince themselves and the elite of their racial identity.