Chilean Jews and Pinochet: Latent Memory: Human Rights and Jewish Identity in Pinochet's Chile. By Maxine Lowy,. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2022. Pp. xxi, 297. Notes. Index. $79.95 cloth.

Latent Memory: Human Rights and Jewish Identity in Pinochet's Chile. By Maxine Lowy. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2022. Pp. xxi, 297. Notes. Index. $79.95 cloth.

This is a book with a purpose. After several years spent interviewing Chileans of Jewish descent, Maxine Lowy wove their memories into a narrative that goes along with primary and secondary documents related to the abuses of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship. The stated goal of the book is to “harness the latent memory of both Jewish and Chilean history” (5) as a way to start healing past wounds. Specifically, that means publicly recognizing the ways in which the Jewish community remained quiet during the Pinochet dictatorship, thereby accepting human rights abuses. Lowy argues that those memories are suppressed, with too many people reluctant to acknowledge them. It is a compelling and, of course, sobering read.

Lowy first traces the Jewish experience of exodus. A trickle of...