attention, all tombstones without crosses are Jewish ones. There are many Christian graves here nowadays. Never mind. The place is Jewish." He showed me the tombstones one by one: Pardo from Amsterdam, Marchena from Curacao, and so forth. We as- cended the steps to a large mau- soleum with a high monument of Christ. "Look here," said Mr. Lo- pez, "all tombstones have crosses, but this one has not. Here rests my father. HO was buried with full observation of the Jewish rites, in his tallith. I put a trian- gle over his name, because he was a Mason." I looked puzzled and asked myself: should I take off my hat to honor the Christian tombs or keep it on as we Jews do in the cemetery? Then walk- ing home my Dominican mentor told me the whole story. Later I spoke to many Jewish descend- ants in Ciudad Trujillo and made inquiries in the modern Archivo Nacional. This is what I found out. When in 1799 the Spanish Real Audiencia — a kind of supreme court—moved from San Domingo to Cuba, Jews could enter the country freely' and some Saphar- dic Jews came over from Curacao (Dutch), Jamaica (British), and St. Tomas (Danish) to Santo Do- mingo. They were good merchants and in a short time they made fortunes. But political conditions were uncertain in Santo Domin- go; besides, they were orthodox people and worried about their spiritual welfare, because there was no real Jewish community in Santo Domingo. When they grew older, they longed for the Jewish life which existed on the i s lands they had left. Therefore many families left Santo Domingo, but often at least one or two younger members of the family stayed on to continue business. This younger generation settled quickly in the new country. Cut off from strong Jewish centers, they began to lose connection with the faith of their fathers. There was no synagogue, no rab- bi in Santo Domingo. People were young and among the Dominican Creoles there were beautiful girls. It is not strange that they began to mingle. The parents in Cura. cao or St. Tomas were deeply shocked. They objected and ar- gued, and grave dissensions often resulted between father and son. Sometimes the Dominicans dis- agreed to; they mistrusted any other religion than Catholicism. But the young folk had no scru- ples and strange things happened, as for Instance, one young cou- ple married with a double cere- mony, Christian and Jewish, to satisfy both the parents. It should be remembered that the 19th cen- tury was the time of religious liberalism. Masonry began to play an important part in the life of the Dominican Republic. People discarded dogmatic doctrines and clung to a liberal belief in gene. ral human love. Religious prob- lems were not in vogue, general. ly, for the principal interest of the island was the struggle for independence, which it only got in 1844. And • in this struggle the Jews participated wholeheartedly. The door towards assimilation was open. The Jews were white, good patriots, punctual payers and not very. scrupulous in regard to their own religion. The Domi- nican people liked and esteemed them. So did the Government. There is a letter in the National Archives of Ciudad Trujillo, an answer of President Santana (1846) to an anti-Semitic peti. tion of some envious competitors, Friday, September 27, 1946 DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle Page Sixteen which contains not only a warm apology of the Jews, but extols them as an example for the Do- minicans. Few countries are able to show a similar governmental document. favorable—c-undi- Under tions, assimilation progressed rap- idly and radically. The Dominican Jews by no means represent the disagreeable type of apostate who only wants to hide all traces of his Jewishness. They never con- cealed their descent. Nevertheless, they were freethinkers. Although the first generation which settled in the Dominican Republic never were converted, they did not at- tach great importance to the fact that their children accepted Cath- olicism. The more devout Dr3ni- nican wives wanted it and the Jewish husbands tolerated it. At least Catholicism was the gene- rally recognized national religion in the Dominican Republic. There. fore the second generation was christened, but remained proud of belonging to the Hebrew "race." The grandsons of the first Jewish Immigrants reached the highest political and even clerical posi- tions. Though Catholics, they called themselves and all people called them "hebreos." Today, there are few traces of this Sephardic immigration. The assimilation was complete and without repercussions. The actual descendants of the Sephardic im- migrants know little about their history. But when you speak to them or to their non-Hebrew compatriots, you will learn that these hebreos were always con- sidered an aristocratic caste of the Dominican population, indus- trious and honorable men. Courtesy of "Congress Weekly" SAMUELS BROS. Restaurant 1 2493 Russell St. LaGuardia Assails Use of German Police As DP Camp Guards Rosh Hashonah Greetings To All • By VICTOR FRIEDMAN GENEVA, (JTA) — The use of "armed Nazis" to guard Jewish DP camps in the American zone MARSHALL £ RENCHARD of Germany was assailed here by UNRRA Director Fiorello La- Guardia, addressing the Council MERCHANT TAILORS of the organization. LaGuardia, who toured t h e Established 1898 camps last week, cited the inci- dent at Wolfrathausen, where a 408.412 DAVID WHITNEY BUILDING German policeman shot and killed a displaced Jew, and said that he did not believe that any Germans should be armed for a genera. tion. 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