BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Harvard Law School//NONSGML Events//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN X-WR-CALNAME:Harvard Law School - Events X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://hls.harvard.edu/calendar/ X-WR-CALDESC:Harvard Law School - Events BEGIN:VEVENT UID:20260126T1648Z-1769446094.8112-EO-738295-1@10.73.7.213 STATUS:CONFIRMED DTSTAMP:20260526T154511Z CREATED:20260126T154233Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260519T185519Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260302T121500 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260302T131500 SUMMARY: Indissoluble Bonds: Jews\, Law\, and the Limits of the Argentine I mmigrant Nation with Lelia Stadler moderated by Tamar Herzog DESCRIPTION: In this talk\, Stadler explores how migration to Argentina sha ped Jewish law at the turn of the twentieth century. Argentina granted reli gious freedom to rebuild itself as a “Nation of Immigrants.” But this freed om was limited in ways Eastern European Jews had not encountered before. Sp ecifically\, its family law perpetuated the Catholic ban on divorce […] X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

In this talk\, Stadler explores how migrat ion to Argentina shaped Jewish law at the turn of the twentieth century. Ar gentina granted religious freedom to rebuild itself as a “Nation of Immigra nts.” But this freedom was limited in ways Eastern European Jews had not en countered before. Specifically\, its family law perpetuated the Catholic ba n on divorce and extended it to all citizens. This talk draws on newly open ed rabbinic archives\, civil court files\, and Yiddish radio and press to e xamine how rabbis and lay leaders adapted halakhah to these constraints and how Jewish immigrants developed alternative strategies to dissolve marriag es within and beyond the state framework. Ultimately\, these practices chal lenged Catholic legal dominance and redefined Jewish autonomy\, writing a n ew chapter in the social and religious meanings of marriage and divorce wit hin the broader tradition of Jewish–state relations.
Lelia Stadler is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History at Columbia University. Her research focuses on modern Jewish migration to Latin America from legal and social perspectives. Her article “Ethical and Legal Bigamy: Transatlantic Jewish Families Caught between Conflicting Legalities\, Argentina\, 1930–19 39\,” has recently appeared in Jewish Social Studies (2025).

LOCATION:Hauser Hall\; 101 Borenstein Meeting Room GEO:0;0 ORGANIZER;CN="API User":MAILTO:api@law.harvard.edu URL;VALUE=URI:https://hls.harvard.edu/events/indissoluble-bonds-jews-law-an d-the-limits-of-the-argentine-immigrant-nation-leila-stadler-moderated-by-t amar-herzog/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 DTSTART:20251102T060000 TZNAME:EST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR