The Jews of Latin America expands the bounds of Jewish history by making visible the little known communities of South and Central America. In doing so, the book challenges the notion that Latin American societies are entirely Hispanic and Catholic. Through the life histories of Jews who emigrated to Latin America in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the author demonstrates that these societies are increasingly pluralistic in reality, if not in ideology. Judith Laikin Elkin maintains a balanced view of this nonconforming minority adjusting to the politics, economy, and social stratification of countries that have not embraced cultural pluralism as an ideal.