History of the Jews in Latin America
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- For a list of individuals of Jewish origin by country, please see List of Latin American Jews.
The history of the Jewish people in the Americas dates back to Christopher Columbus and his first cross-Atlantic voyage on August 3, 1492, when he left Spain and eventually "discovered" the New World. His date of departure was also the day on which the Catholic Monarchs Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon decreed that the Jews of Spain either had to convert to Catholicism, depart from the country, or face death for defiance of the Monarch.
There were at least seven Jews (either crypto-Jews, Marranos, or sincere Jewish converts to Catholicism) who sailed with Columbus in his first voyage including Rodrigo de Triana, who was the first to sight land (Columbus later assumed credit for this), Maestre Bernal, who served as the expedition's physician, and Luis De Torres, the interpreter, who spoke Hebrew and Arabic, which it was believed would be useful in the Orient - their intended destination.
In the coming years, Jews settled in the new Spanish and Portuguese colonies in the Caribbean, where they believed that they would be safe from the Inquisition. Some took part in the conquest of the "New World," and Bernal Díaz del Castillo describes a number of executions of soldiers in Hernán Cortés's forces during the conquest of Mexico because they were Jews.
Nevertheless, several Jewish communities in the Caribbean, Central, and South America flourished, particularly in those areas under Dutch and English control. By the sixteenth century, fully functioning Jewish communities had organized in Brazil, Suriname, Curaçao, Jamaica, and Barbados. In addition, there were unorganized communities of Jews in the Spanish and Portuguese territories, where the Inquisition was active, including Cuba and Mexico, however, these Jews generally concealed their identity from the authorities.
By the mid-seventeenth century, the largest Jewish communities in the Western Hemisphere were located in Suriname and Brazil.
Today, Latin American Jewry is composed of more than 400,000 people and the community is headed for institutional professionalization. Among the central organizations that operate the region, the Jewish Culture Fund for Latin America is the most visible and the central organ for Jewish outreach.
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[edit] Argentina
Jews fleeing the Inquisition settled in Argentina, but assimilated into the Argentine society. Portuguese traders and smugglers in the Virreinato del Río de la Plata were widely considered Jews but no organized community emerged after independence. After 1810, Jews, especially Jews from France, began to settle in Argentina in the mid-19th century. In the late 1800s, just as they did in the United States, many Jews arrived from Eastern Europe, fleeing persecution; they were called "Rusos" (Russians). Between 1906 and 1912, Jewish immigration increased at a rate of 13,000 immigrants per year, with most from Eastern Europe but others from Morocco or the Ottoman Empire. By 1920, more than 150,000 Jews were living in Argentina.
Jews in Argentina quickly came to play a role in Argentine society, but were subject to waves of antisemitism. In January 1919 in Buenos Aires, pogroms fomented by the police as a response to a general strike targeted the Jews and destroyed significant property. In 1946, former Nazi officials begun immigrating to Argentina, allegedly with the authorization of President Juan Peron; in fact, Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was later captured in Argentina by Israeli agents. Jewish immigration begun to wane, while at the same time the country established ties with the state of Israel. During the military junta of 1976 to 1983, 1,000 of the people killed by the state were Jewish (estimates of the total number of victims range from less than 9,000 up to 30,000). In the 1990s, the Jewish community was the subject of two terrorist attacks. The Israeli Embassy was bombed in March 1992, killing 32 people (see Israeli Embassy attack in Buenos Aires) and in July 1994 the Jewish community center (AMIA) in Buenos Aires was bombed, killing 85 people and wounding over 200 (see AMIA Bombing).
Today, around 300,000 Jews live in Argentina, mostly in Buenos Aires, comprising the third largest Jewish community in the Americas, after that of the United States and Canada. They are legally granted the two days of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and the first two and last two days of Passover as legal holidays.
[edit] Brazil
Jews settled early in Brazil, especially when it was under Dutch rule, setting up a synagogue in Recife - the first synagogue in the Americas - as early as 1636. Most of these Jews had fled Spain and Portugal to the religious freedom of the Netherlands during the re-establishment of the Inquisition in first Portugal, Spain, and again Portugal. Amsterdam and a few other Dutch towns soon had small Jewish communities. However, Jews were barred from almost all guild trades and faced limited opportunities. The community soon had more members than it could support.
To open up trade opportunities and provide a home for Jews unable to support themselves in Amsterdam, the Dutch merchants pushed for an expedition to take Brazil and its rich sugar plantations from Portugal (which was then weakened and under Spanish rule). Despite several years of advance warning from spies, the Dutch expedition easily took control of Brazil and Recife in the Second Battle of Guararapes. For twenty years, the colony prospered and the Jews with it. Despite resentment from Dutch and Portuguese Christians, the Jews were vital to trade as they were the only ones who spoke both Dutch and Portuguese from the beginning. Unlike Amsterdam or Portugal, the Jews of Recife experienced extraordinary religious toleration, including being allowed public processions, a synagogue, religious schools, and a mikvah. A civil war, supported by the Spanish crown, soon racked the colony as Portuguese Brazilians, who were Roman Catholic, fought to remove the Protestant Dutch. As the guerrilla fighting ruined the sugar trade, many Jews returned to Amsterdam, leaving a fraction of the community behind.
The war between the Portuguese and Dutch over Brazil culminated in the surrender of Recife on January 26, 1654. The capitulation agreement provided for a period of safe-conduct for 3 months for Dutch subjects who wished to leave Brazil. While the Jews' safety was guaranteed, they must have been uncomfortable with living under the eye of the Inquisition and having soldiers billeted in their synagogue. Since shipping space was extremely scarce, the victorious Portuguese general extended the safety for Christians and Jews who never had been baptized past the allotted three months. By the April 26th deadline, it appears all Jews residing in Brazil had left for Holland, Dutch colonies in the Caribbean, or North America.
Jews resettled in Brazil in the 1800s after independence, and immigration rose throughout the 19th and early 20th century. In the late 1880s, members of the Zionism movement considered settling many Jews in Brazil to escape Russian pogroms, but strict immigration laws and political strife led to this plan being abandoned. The immigrants who did come to Brazil arrived from many different Jewish communities around the world, making the community in Brazil very diverse, in many ways a microcosm of Brazilian society in general. Generally, the community has escaped major persecution, despite the government banning all organizations of immigrant communities including Jewish communal organizations for a time during World War II.
There are about 200,000 Jews in Brazil today, and they play an active role in politics, sports, academia, trade and industry, and are overall well integrated in all spheres of Brazilian life. The majority of Brazilian Jews live in the state of São Paulo but there are also sizeable communities in Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul and Paraná.
[edit] Dominican Republic / Santo Domingo
Sephardic Jewish Merchants arrived to southern Hispanola fleeling the inquisition. Over time, this Jews assimilated into the general population. Despite this, Jews still remain from this early infusion of Sephardim Today there remains a functioning Synagogue in Santo Domingo, "Centro Israelita de la Republica Dominicana"
Sosua is a village in the north of the Island which was founded by Ashkenazic Jews fleeing the Nazis. Trujillo invited Jews to the island less for humanitarian reasons, and more for their skills. Sosua has a Synagogue and a Museum devoted to this amazing phenomena. Also in costanza also in the north of the Dominican Republic have a jewish poppulation of sephardic and ashknezic jews and their descendants in these two towns during the 1940's and early 50's
[edit] Mexico
Due to the strong Catholic presence in Mexico, few Jews migrated there until the late 1800s. Then, a number of German Jews settled in Mexico as a result of invitations from Maximilian of Mexico settled in the country, followed by a wave of Ashkenazic Jews fleeing Russia. A second large wave of immigration occurred as the Ottoman Empire collapsed, leading many Sephardic Jews to flee. Finally, a wave of immigrants fled the increasing Nazi persecutions in Europe.
Today, there are between 40,000 and 50,000 Mexican Jews. There are several sectors in the Jewish community in Mexico. The biggest of which are the Ashkenazi Community (descended from Central and Eastern Europe), the Maguén David and Monte Sinai Communities (descended from Syrian immigrants) and the Sepharadic Community (primarily descended from Turkish immigrants). While most Jews in Mexico are concentrated in Mexico City, there are subtantial Jewish communities in Guadalajara, Monterrey and more recently in Tijuana and Cancún. The "Centro Deportivo Israelita" is a social, cultural and sporting institution which includes members from all Jewish communities.
The Jewish community in Guadalajara is continually shrinking and has approximately 150 families. The community is made up of almost an equal number of Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews. Originally the two groups had separate synagogues and didn’t intermarry; eventually the two groups united and almost all of the younger families are made up of mixed Sephardic-Ashkenazi marriages. There is a community center, similar to that of a J.C.C., which is the center of Jewish life in the city. The center has a sports facility, a Jewish day-school, and also houses the synagogue. In recent years the community, called La Comunidad Israelita, became Modern Orthodox, which caused a sizeable part of the community to break-off and form a new Conservative community; dividing this already small community. Because the Jews of Guadalajara rarely marry outside of the Jewish community, most of the young adults who are interested in getting married are inclined to move to Mexico City, which has a larger Jewish population. This is the main cause of the diminishing population of the community, a similar problem facing the Jewish community of Monterrey which is almost of identical size.
There are also some Mexicans who consider themselves descendants of Conversos, Jews who converted to Catholicism to escape the Inquisition, but retained some Jewish heritage (like lighting candles on Friday nights). For example, the famous painter and Converso descendent Diego Rivera wrote in 1935, "Jewishness is the dominant element in my life. From this has come my sympathy with the downtrodden masses which motivates all my work."
[edit] Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico is currently home to the largest Jewish community in the Caribbean, around 3,000 Jews, supporting three synagogues in the capital city of San Juan: one each Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox. Jews were prohibited from settling in Puerto Rico through much of its history; a several arrived during the 1800's from different parts of Europe like France, Holland and possible some hidden Jews from Spain and the Canary Islands, many of these European Jews came after World War II, but the majority of the current population are descendants of Jews(Jewban) who fled from Cuba (once home to 15,000 Jews) after Fidel Castro's Cuban revolution in 1959. But in the late 1800's during the Spanish-American War many American Jews servicemen gathered together with local Puertorican Jews at the Old Telegraph building in Ponce to held religious services. Many of those Puertorican Jews were descendents of migrants from France, Holland, St Barts and Curazao. Many of the family names that are found in PR from those migrants are: Bravo, Beauchamp, Duprey, Morenu, Ledeé, Leduc, ...
Like many former Spanish colonies founded soon after the Spanish Inquisition, there is some population of Puerto Ricans who are crypto-Jews (some prefer to be called anusim, or coerced), descendants of forcibly converted Jews. Some of these maintain elements of Jewish tradition, although they themselves are Christian; this includes some members of families with last names like Rodríguez, Gómez, Méndez, Cardoso and Aguilar. [1]
Though, many Jews lost their identity by ways of assimilation. Generally speaking, Anti-semitism in Puerto Rico is very low due to the openness of the people to other cultures.
[edit] Venezuela
The history of Venezuelan Jewry most likely began in the middle of the 17th century, when some records suggest that groups of marranos lived in Caracas and Maracaibo. Although many scholars say there is no evidence yet discovered to prove that a Jewish community existed in Venezuela as early as the 17th century, Venezuelan popular belief claims that groups of marranos went from Caracas to the city of Tucacas in 1693, and vanished without leaving behind any records. However, due to Venezuela's geographic proximity to countries that did have organized Jewish communities, such as the Dutch colony of Curaçao, it can be assumed that Jews from Curaçao traveled to Venezuela to trade. After the disappearance of Jews from Tucacas, Jews did not begin to settle permanently in Venezuela again until the middle of the 19th century.
At the turn of the 19th century, Venezuela and Colombia were fighting against their Spanish colonizers in wars of independence. Simon Bolivar, considered Venezuela's liberator, found refuge and material support for his army in the homes of Jews from Curaçao. Jews such as Mordejai Ricardo and brothers Ricardo and Abraham Meza offered hospitality to Bolivar as he fought against the Spanish, thus establishing brotherly relations between Jews and the newly independent Venezuelan republic. Several Jews even fought in the ranks of Bolivar's army during the war. The ties between Jews in the Dutch island colonies and Venezuela increased more dramatically between 1819-1821 after its new constitution called for religious freedom. In 1820, the first Jewish family settled in the town of Core, which has a Jewish cemetery with tombstones dating back to 1832. Other Jewish communities began springing up in Caracas and Puerto Cabello in the 1840s. In 1844, groups of Jews from Morocco came to the town of Barcelona and, in 1875, they were granted permission to establish a Jewish cemetery.
In 1827, a group of Jews emigrated from the tiny island of Curacao to the nearby mainland port city of Coro, Venezuela. Twenty-eight years later, violent rioting drove the entire Jewish population – 168 individuals – back to Curacao.
Toward the end of the 19th century, the Venezuelan Jewish community was in dire need of a permanent place of prayer. Assimilation proved to be a large problem for the fledgling community. The Portuguese Jewish immigrants who came to Venezuela by way of Curaçao had a loose-knit communal life, and religious tolerance and acceptance of Jews was not continuous throughout the country. These three factors contributed to the growing assimilation of the community and, by the end of the 19th century, the Dutch portion of Venezuelan Jewry had all but disappeared. Small Jewish communities could be found in towns such as Port Hair, Villa de Cura, Carupano, Chico River, Maracaibo, and Barquisimeto. It was not until the arrival of North African and eastern European Jews in the 1920s and 1930s, however, that the Jewish community began to fully develop.
According to a national census taken at the end of the 19th century, 247 Jews lived in Venezuela as citizens in 1891. In 1907, the Israelite Beneficial Society, which became the Israelite Society of Venezuela in 1919, was created as an organization to bring all the Jews who were scattered through various cities and towns throughout the country together. Jewish prayer and holiday services took place in small houses in Caracas and towns like Teques and Guaira. By 1917, the number of Jewish citizens rose to 475, and to 882 in 1926. Jewish immigration from Eastern and Central Europe increased after 1934, but, by then, Venezuela had imposed specific restrictions on Jewish immigration, which remained in effect until after the 1950s.
By 1943, nearly 600 German Jews had entered the country, with several hundred more becoming citizens after World War II. By 1950, the community had grown to around 6,000 people, even in the face of immigration restrictions. With the fall of dictator Perez Jimenez in 1958, more than 1,000 Jews immigrated to Venezuela from Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Salonica, Turkey, and even from Israel. An unknown number of Jews also immigrated from other Latin American countries, which raised the size of the community to more than 15,000 Jews by the 1970s.
Currently, there are more than 35,000 Jews living in Venezuela, with more than half living in the capital Caracas. Venezuelan Jewry is split equally between Sephardim and Ashkenazim. All but one of the country's 15 synagogues are Orthodox. The majority of Venezuela's Jews are members of the middle and upper classes.
[edit] Current Jewish populations
| Rank (Worldwide) |
Country | Jewish Population |
% of Jews |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 </th>
<td> Argentina </th> <td align="right"> 395,379 </th> <td> 1% </th> |
<tr bgcolor=#F0F8FF>
<td align="center">11 </th>
<td> Brazil </th>
<td align="right">2000s: 200,000
