Kugel and Frijoles: Latino Jews in the United States

Kugel and Frijoles: Latino Jews in the United States analyzes the changing construction of race and ethnicity in the United States through the lens of contemporary Jewish immigrants from Latin America. Since Latino Jews are not easily classified within the U.S. racial and ethnic schema, their ethnic identity and group affiliation challenge existing paradigms.

This presentation introduces the stories of Latino Jewish immigrants and lays out the important questions surrounding ethnic identity: How do Latino Jews identify? Can they choose their identity or is it assigned to them? How is ethnicity strategic or instrumental?Presenter Laura Limonic illustrates how groups can be constructed when there is a lack of a perfect host group and detail the ways different factors influence ethnic identity and shape membership into ethnic groups affecting the trajectory of immigrant incorporation.

Presenter: Laura Limonic is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the College of Old Westbury of the State University of New York. Her research is in the area of contemporary immigration to the United States and the integration trajectories of ethnic and ethno-religious groups. Her recent book on Latino Jews in the United States was honored as the 2019 best book by the Latin American Jewish Studies Association. The book explores issues of ethnicity, race, class and religious community building among Latino Jewish immigrants in Boston, New York, Miami and Southern California. Her work has been supported by the Berman Foundation and the Association of Jewish Studies.Limonic is currently working a new project funded by the Templeton Trust’s Global Research Religion Initiative. This research examines the rise of Chabad-Lubavitch in Latin America and the role played by transnational migrants within the movement. ​

Limonic received her PhD in Sociology from the CUNY Graduate Center in 2014. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Latin American Studies from Brandeis University and a Master of International Affairs degree from Columbia University.

Code of Conduct

For questions, please email Eliscia Cirrone, ecirrone@lilrc.org.

Professional Development Hours: 1 (.1 CEUs)

FOR OUR PARTICIPANTS - We have implemented a two step verification process for security purposes and to maintain accurate attendance records.  You will need both a LILRC and a Zoom account. 

If you do not already have a LILRC account you will be prompted to create one (if you have forgotten your password, and need help resetting it you can email Eliscia at ecirrone@lilrc.org).   

If you do not already have a zoom account you will be prompted to do so upon logging into the meeting.  If this is the first time you are using Zoom, after you have created an account, you can join the meeting by entering the Meeting ID/ Password provided to you in the confirmation email.  You can access all subsequent Zoom meetings by clicking the meeting link in the confirmation email.