History of the Jews in the Dominican Republic

Inside a Santo Domingo synagogue

The first Jews known to have reached the island of Hispaniola were Spanish. These arrived in 1492, when the island was discovered by Christopher Columbus. Anti-semitism, the Spanish Inquisition and finally expulsion caused Jews to flee Spain which had been their home for hundreds of years.

Columbus' crew set sail from Spain, the very day of the Alhambra Decree. The crew had at least five Jews on board. These were Luis de Torres, interpreter; Marco, the surgeon; Bernal, the physician; Alonzo de la Calle, and Gabriel Sanchez. Luis de Torres was the first man ashore at Hispaniola. Later, when the island was divided by the French and the Spanish, most Jews settled on the Spanish side which would later become the Dominican Republic. Eventually, Sephardim from other countries also arrived. In the 19th century Jews from Curaçao settled in Hispaniola, although they did not form a strong community. Most of them hid their Jewish identities or were unaffiliated with Jewish tradition by that time. Among their descendants were Dominican President Francisco Henriquez y Carvajal^[1] and his son Pedro Henriques Ureña.

The Dominican Republic was one of the very few countries willing to accept mass Jewish immigration during World War II. At the Evian Conference, it offered to accept up to 100,000 Jewish refugees.^[2] The DORSA (Dominican Republic Settlement Association) was formed with the assistance of the JDC, and helped settle Jews in Sosua, on the northern coast. About 700 European Jews of Ashkenazi Jewish descent reached the settlement where they were assigned land and cattle. Other refugees settled in the capital, Santo Domingo. In 1943 the number of known Jews in the Dominican Republic peaked at 1000. Since that time it has been in constant decline due to emigration and assimilation. The oldest Jewish grave is dated to 1826.

Community

The current population of known Jews in the Dominican Republic is approximately 300, with the majority living in the capital, Santo Domingo. A very high percentage of the nation's Jews have intermarried, although some spouses have formalized their Judaism through conversions and participate in Jewish communal life. There are three synagogues and one Sephardic Jewish Educational Center. One is the Centro Israelita de República Dominicana in Santo Domingo, another is a Chabad outreach center also in Santo Domingo, and another is in the country's first established community in Sosua^[3]. Beth Midrash Nidhe Israel [5], the Sephardic Educational Center, caters to those Jews who are descendents of the Sephardic Jews that migrated to Hispaniola in colonial times and later. In addition, they also provide kosher meat in the Beth Yoseph style, and supervise a small-scale kosher bakery. An "afterschool" at the Centro Israelita is active on a weekly basis and a chapter of the International Council of Jewish Women is also active. The Chabad outreach center [6] focuses on assisting the local Jewish population reconnect with their Jewish roots and (because Chabad is of the Chassidic Jewish tradition) it is a source for traditional Judaism in the Dominican Republic. In Sosua there is a small Jewish Museum next to the synagogue. On the High Holidays, the Sosua community hires a cantor from abroad who comes to lead services.

Research

A great deal of research on the subject of Dominican Jewry was done by Rabbi Henry Zvi Ucko^[4] who had been a writer and teacher in Germany until political conditions and growing anti-semitism forced him to emigrate. His travels eventually took him to the Dominican Republic, where he organized a congregation in Santo Domingo (Ciudad Trujillo) and began researching the history of Jews in the country. His research covered much of the history of the Sephardic Jews there and documented the assimilation that the population went through (and was going through) during his time. Included in his research is correspondence with Haim Horacio López Penha, a Dominican Jewish writer, who encouraged Ucko to write a history of the Jews in the Dominican Republic. President Rafael L. Trujillo Molina, pledged the interest and cooperation of the government in support of Ucko's research. More recently, the publication of the paperback book "Once Jews" has made easily available information on many early Jewish settlers in the Dominican Republic and a genetic study has commenced^[5] to examine genetic similarities between individuals with Dominican ancestry who also claim Sephardic ancestry.

Israel

Israel and the Dominican Republic enjoy full diplomatic relations.

External links

• History of Sosua, Dominican Republic
• "Once Jews"
• More about the Sosua Community
• Tropical Zion: General Trujillo, FDR, and the Jews of Sosúa by Allen Wells
• Sosua Virtual Museum

References

1. ^ [1] Biography of Francisco Henriquez y Carvajal (in Spanish)
2. ^ [2] Holocaust Encyclopedia Website
3. ^ . [3] COX Newspapers article on the Jewish Community of Sosua, Dominican Republic.
4. ^ [4] Information about the Henry Zvi Ucko papers located at The University of North Carolina
5. ^ http://www.familytreedna.com/group-join.aspx?Group=Sephardic-DomRep