If you’re the kind of person who buys a travel guide but doesn’t open it until you’ve arrived at your destination, consider yourself warned: Ben Frank’s “A Travel Guide to the Jewish Caribbean and South America” is more of a research tool than a travel guide, for those travelers who enjoy a lot of planning before a trip.
Ben Frank, author of travel guides to Jewish Europe and Jewish Russia and Ukraine, takes on the history and culture of the vibrant Jewish community of the Caribbean and South America while guiding travelers through the region’s Jewish sites, synagogues, museums and kosher restaurants.
Frank traces history back to early civilizations and Jewish communities from Argentina to Uruguay, thoughtfully covering aspects of religious, cultural and socioeconomic life while articulately describing the surroundings.
The history is animatedly written and thorough, but unless you like to spend your vacation evenings studying up, you should probably read it on the plane or, better yet, before you leave.
Readers should think of it as a travel supplement, not a guide. It’s comprehensive on history, but its travel tips are mostly limited to things Jewish, and you probably won’t get by without bringing another (likely just as large and heavy) guide to the Caribbean and South America, complete with maps, directions, hotel listings (Frank lists few) and the like.
The listings of Jewish facilities are exhaustive, but often inconsistently described, some in great detail and some with only an address and phone number. Unlike your typical travel guide that aims to narrow options and reduce stress, Frank’s occasionally extensive lists of synagogues and kosher restaurants are for those who are serious about putting in the work to find the perfect Shabbat morning service or Saturday night meal.
The author does list hundreds of Jewish organizations with addresses and phone numbers, but often leaves unasked the question on many prospective travelers’ minds: Do they speak English?
Readers of this guide will, however, be rewarded with anecdotes and tidbits that any Jewish traveler can appreciate. Where else could you learn that Santiago, Chile, has an all-Jewish volunteer fire department? Or that early Jewish immigrants to Argentina called gauchos (cowboys) rode the range with a rope, a knife, baggy trousers and a wide silver belt?
“A Travel Guide to the Jewish Caribbean and South America” by Ben Frank (560 pages, Pelican Publishing Company, $25).