Encyclopaedia Judaica

Jews in Guatemala

Jewish immigration - anti-Jewish laws - Jewish immigration after 1945 - cultural life

from: Guatemala; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, vol. 7

presented by Michael Palomino (2008)

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[The first Jewish immigration since 19th century]

[[The natives and slavery and mass murder of the natives are never mentioned in this article]].

<GUATEMALA, Central American republic, population 4,863,520 (1968), Jewish population c. 1,100.

Documents in the archives of the Mexican Inquisition attest to the presence of Marranos in Guatemala during the colonial period. The origins of the present Jewish community, however, are to be found in the mid-19th-century immigration from Germany. The community formed by these immigrants was small and isolated from the Jewish world, and its descendants are no longer Jews. The most prominent members of this community were the Stahl family, which established cotton mills and for 30 years attended to the government's banking and financing needs.

Jewish immigrants arrived at the beginning of the 20th century from Germany and Middle East countries, followed in the 1920s by East European Jews. Many of the latter came via Cuba and considered Guatemala only a transit stop until they could obtain visas to the United States.

[Guatemala government forcing Jews to emigrate since 1932 - anti immigration law in 1936 - huge Jewish immigration after 1945]

Guatemala was not favorably disposed to Jewish immigration, which it attempted to limit. In 1932 the government ordered the expulsion within one month of all peddlers; although the actual expulsion was averted, peddling was prohibited, and many Jews faced ruin and were compelled to emigrate. The Jewish community was reduced to only 800 souls in 1939.

In 1936 under the influence of the substantial German community in Guatemala, legislation was enacted to curb immigration of all people of Asian origin (among whom were included the Poles). Although never formally abolished, these laws have rarely been enforced since World War II, and after the war many Jewish refugees entered the country.

[[There is no number indicated in the article]].

The majority of the Jews live in Guatemala City, the remainder in Quetzaltenango and San Marcos. According to the 1965 census, out of 1,030 Jews, 276 were engaged in industry and commerce, 66 in the free professions, and 7 in agriculture. The same census indicated that the community had 74 mixed marriages, accounting for 27.2% of the Jewish population.

[Structure and cultural life]

The community comprises three main groups:
-- the German,
-- the Sephardi,
-- and the East European,

each with its (col. 956)

own institutions - the Sociedad Israelita de Guatemala and Bet-El (reform) [[Israeli Guatemala and Reform Society]], Maguen David, and Centro Hebreo [[Hebrew Center]], respectively - and its own synagogue. Other organizations, unified under the Comté Central, include *B'nai B'rith, *Wizo, and two youth groups, the Maccabi and Guafty (the latter a Reform youth movement).

The Organizaciónn Sionista de Guatemala [[Zionist Guatemala Organization]] comprises all [[racist]] Zionist groups. A Jewish school, called Instituto Albert Einstein, founded in 1957, is authorized by the Ministry of Education and has an enrollment of 100 children from kindergarten through preparatory levels. The Jewish press is all but nonexistent. The Spanish-language monthly, which appeared previously, ceased publication, and only a single communal information bulletin is published occasionally.

Guatemala has traditionally maintained excellent relations with Israel. Its representative to the United Nations in 1947, Jorge García Granados, was a member of the U.N. Special Commission for Palestine (UNSCOP) and worked tirelessly for the establishment of a Jewish state in part of Palestine. His book The Birth of Israel [[racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl Israel]] was published in 1949.

[[Racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl Israel has the aim to create a "Greater Israel" with the borderlines at the Nile and at the Euphrates, according to 1st Mose, chapter 15, phrase 18. Add to this Herzl stated in his book "The Jewish State" that the Arabs could be driven away as the natives in "America" had been driven away]].

The two governments have engaged in various projects cooperatively. Guatemala maintains an embassy in Jerusalem and in 1949 Israel established its embassy in Guatemala City.


Bibliography
-- J. Beller: Jews in Latin America (1969)
-- F. Tenenbaum (ed.): La comunidad Judía de Guatemala [[The Jewish community of Guatemala]] (1963)
-- A. Monk and J. Isaacson: Comunidades Judías de Latinoamérica [[Jewish communities of Latin America]] (1968), 86-88
-- JJSO, 7 (1965), 3.2-3
-- J. Shatzky: Yidishe Yishuvim in Latiaynamerike [[Yiddish Jewish residents in Latin America]] (1952)> (col. 957)

Sources
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Guatemala, vol. 7, col. 956	Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Guatemala, vol. 7, col. 957

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