Encyclopaedia
Judaica
Jews
in Dominican Republic
First
Jewish immigration - Jewish immigration after Spanish
withdrawal - agricultural settlement and immigration wave
during World War II - no rabbis in modern times
from: Dominican Republic; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, vol. 6
presented by Michael Palomino (2008)
[The
first Jewish immigration since 1492]
[[The natives and slavery and mass murder of the natives are
never mentioned in this article]].
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, country comprising two-thirds of the
island of Hispaniola in the West Indies.
As the site of the first Spanish settlement in the New World,
Hispaniola may have had the first Jewish settlers in the
Western Hemisphere. Little is known, however, about Jews on
the island during the Colonial Period.
[[There are presumptions that Columbus was a Jew and was
looking for new land after the persecution of Jews in Spain.
Also this is not mentioned in this article. You can see the
data about Jewish
facts of Columbus here]].
Following Spanish withdrawal from the island and subsequent
Haitian-Dominican Wars, some Sephardi Jews went to Santo
Domingo. The majority of these Jews were from the Netherlands
Antilles, and, for the most part, arrived around the middle of
the 19th century. They intermarried,and most of their children
embraced the religion of their Dominican families.
The graves of those of Jewish ancestry are recognizable by the
fact that their tombstones, the oldest of which dates from
1826, bear no crosses.
[Jewish
personalities in Santo Domingo]
Descendants of Jewish settlers have been among the most
illustrious personalities in contemporary Dominican society:
Francisco Henríquez y Carvajal, physician and president in
1916; his son, Pedro Henríques Ureña, a leading man of
letters; and another son, Max, ambassador to the UN, who made
the welcoming speech when Israel was admitted to the *UN in
1949.
[1882:
plan for agricultural settlement - immigration wave
1940-1943]
In 1882 General Gregorio Luperon, former president and a
friend of the *Rothschild family, proposed to the Paris
*Alliance Israélite Universelle a plan for Jewish agricultural
settlement in the Dominican Republic. After limited public
debate, however, the proposal was abandoned without further
investigation. The present community, comprising East
Europeans, Germans, and Hungarians, began to take root after
World War I, and substantially increased in number during the
years of the Holocaust. On the eve of World War II there were
only 40 Jews in the country; by 1943 the number had risen to
about 1,000.
[[Probably there was also Jewish immigration under other
national quotas and religions which is not mentioned in this
article]].
[The
possibilities for a big immigration wave are hindered by
World War II - agricultural settlement at Sosúa]
The Dominican Republic was one of the few countries prepared
to accept large-scale Jewish immigration before and during
World War II. At the *Evian
Conference
on Refugees, convened by President Franklin Roosevelt in
1938, the Dominican Republic offered to accept for settlement
up to 100,000 refugees. The Dominican Republic Settlement
Association Inc. (DORSA) - sponsored by the *American Jewish
Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) - acquired from President
Trujillo 22,230 acres of land in Sosúa on the northern coast,
and the American Jewish Joint Agricultural Corp. (Agro-Joint)
- a subsidiary of JDC - contributed a large sum in subsidies
for the project.
The agreement, signed by DORSA and the Dominican Republic and
unanimously approved by parliament, assured the immigrants
freedom of religion and facilitated immigration (col. 160)
by offering tax and customs exemptions. DORSA, in turn,
promised a policy of selective immigration and financial
support for the settlers.
Despite the optimism of the government and the Agro-Joint,
basic difficulties preluded the ultimate success of the
project. War-time conditions made travel, especially from
occupied countries, extremely difficult. The first immigrants
did not arrive until mid-1940; by 1942 there were only 472
settlers; and by 1947, 705 persons had passed through the
settlement. Although the original objective of the project had
been agricultural development, few of the settlers were
agriculturists or even inclined toward it. Of the 373 people
left in Sosúa in July 1947, only 166 were engaged in
agriculture. The rest worked as businessmen and artisans.
It is estimated that under the colonization scheme some 5,000
visas were actually issued, thus helping many of the
beneficiaries to escape the Holocaust; but most of them never
reached the Dominican Republic.
[Numbers
of Jews after 1945]
The census taken in 1950 indicated the existence of 463 Jews
in the Dominican Republic. In 1968 there remained some 150
Jews in Sosúa and vicinity, about 100 in Santo Domingo, and
another 30 scattered in Santiago and other places.
There is a synagogue in Santo Domingo, the cost of which was
partly subsidized by Trujillo, and another one in Sosúa, but
there are no rabbis. Jewish communal life centers around the
Comité Central de los Judíos de la República Dominicana
[[Central Jewish Committee of Dominican Republic]].
[Relations
to racist Zionist Free Mason Herzl CIA Israel]
The Dominican Republic has had a generally pro-Israel voting
record at the United Nations. An Israel Embassy was set up in
the Dominican Republic in 1964, six months after the
Dominicans established their embassy in Jerusalem.
Bibliography
-- Comunidades Judías de Latinoamérica (1968)
-- A. Tartakower: Megillat ha-Hityashevut, 2 (1959), 268f.,
272
-- M. Wischnitzer, in: JSOS, 4 no. 1 (1942), 50-58
-- J. Shatzky: Comunidades Judías en Latinoamérica (1952),
163-5
-- L. Schapiro, In: L. Finkelstein (ed.): The Jewish People
Past and Present, 2 (1948), 88> (col. 161)
Sources
|
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Jews in Dominican
Republic, vol. 6, col. 160
|
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Jews in Dominican
Republic, vol. 6, col. 161
|
^