12 Friday, February 8, 1980
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Thriving Jews of Dominican Republic Are Intermarrying
By SIMEON BAKER
NEW YORK (JTA) — In
July of 1938, during the
Evian Conference, called by
30 nations to deliberate the
fate of the Jews in Hitler
Germany, the "strongman"
and dictator of the Domini-
can Republic, Rafael
Trujillo. came forth with an
offer to permit immigration,
resettlement and absorp-
tion of 100,000 Jews into his
republic.
His declaration was met
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with great enthusiasm, in
view of the fact that none of
the other nations — large
and small — including the
United States, at whose in-
itiation the conference was
convened, was ready to
admit them and had their
borders tightly shut to all
the unfortunates.
As a result of the
Trujillo offer, the Joint
Distribution Committee
(JDC) formed a special
agency in New York to
deal with the resettle-
ment of the Jewish refu-
gees in the Dominican
Republic and named it
the Dominican Republic
Settlement Association
(DORSAL
In January 1940, DORSA
and the Trujillo govern-
ment signed a contract to
admit the first group of ref-
ugees. Trujillo was very
proud of his deed and im-
mediately assigned a spe-
cial area in his country
where these new immig-
rants would engage in farm-
ing. At the same time, he
managed to procure shares
in the undertaking, thus be-
coming a partner in the
project.
The tract of land was
bought for $50,000 in the
then wilderness of the vil-
lage of Sosua, near the town
of Puerto Plata, in the
northern region of the coun-
try. The first group of 35
refugees, all of them skilled
workers, arrived directly
from Germany in May of
1940. The later groups
came, via Portugal, in Sep-
tember and December of the
same year from Switzerland
where they were kept in
special refugee camps under
the auspices of the JDC.
Of the 100,000 refugees
Trujillo promised to admit
only 700 or 800 actually
came. At the beginning,
most of these arrivals set-
tled in Sosua and started
their agricultural experi-
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ment, patterned after the
kibutz system of Israel, and
failed. "The reason for this
failure," explained Judith
Kibel, who was a kitchen
worker in the Sosua settle-
ment, "was our lack of
idealism and the overabun-
dance of materialism."
Later, they turned to
private farming, follow-
ing the example of the Is-
raeli moshav, and started
to sell their meat and
dairy products to fac-
tories. Today, these col-
onists own a dairy fac-
tory which produces
many kinds of cheese,
butter, yogurt and choco-
late drinks. They also
have a meat factory
where they make various
sorts of sausage, hot dogs
and ham.
Sosua, wh: ' now has a
population of 10,000 and
can be reached in 31/2 hours
by automobile from Santo
Domingo, is famous for its
beautiful beaches and pic-
turesque landscape.
The meat and dairy fac-
tories of Sosua belong to 49
farmers, 75 percent of whom
are the Jewish colonists.
Their sale of meat and dairy
products amounts to $7 mil-
lion annually and 4,000
people are employed in the
factories built by the Jewish
refugees from Germany and
Austria.
There is continued specu-
lation as to what prompted
Trujillo, who was assassi-
nated in 1961, to welcome
these Jews into the Domini-
can Republic.
Of the first - group of 35,
only three remain. A
number of them died and
others migrated to the
United States. A similar
fate befell the members of
the other groups who set-
tled in Sosua in the
course of 1940.
Of these groups there are
at present only 36 Jewish
families. In Sosua there are
only six or seven all-Jewish
families, with the rest in-
termarried. The people con-
sider intermarriage a very
"natural" phenomenon, jus-
tifiable by the fact that "the
non-Jews also attend the
synagogue."
Of the 50 Jewish families
now residing in Santo
Domingo, there may be only
about ten of them who have
Profile on Yigael Hurwitz
JERUSALEM (ZINS) —
Israel's new finance minis-
ter, Yigael Hurwitz, was a
member of the Labor party
(Mapai) for many years. He
became disillusioned with
socialism however and
sought to organize a politi-
cal party of his own in col-
laboration with the late Dr.
Benjamin Lubotsky.
Thereafter, he turned his
talents to making money
and became a multi-
millionaire, thanks to the
peculiar conditions of Is-
rael's industry. He became a
specialist in taking over and
nursing back to health com-
panies that were on the
verge of bankruptcy.
Yigael Hurwitz is a
cousin of Moshe Dayan; his
mother was a sister of Day-
an's father. He is regarded
as an extremist in foreign
affairs.
In the first months of
the Likud regime he
served as minister of
YIGAEL HURWITZ
commerce, but resigned
from that post because he
was opposed to the Camp
David accord. Yigael's
brother, Adar, is a hawk
who serves as a member
of the Knesset on the
Labor Party list. His
other brothers and sis-
ters live in kibutzim.
With the appointment of
Hurwitz as finance minister
the hawks in the Likud gov-
ernment have been greatly
strengthened.
Colombia Has 11,000 Jews
NEW YORK (ZINS) — It
is estimated that there are
11,000 Jews in the whole of
Colombia with Jewish
communities to be found in
Bogota, Baranquilla,
Medellin and Cali. It is be-
lieved that the descendants
of the Marranos in the
Antiquia region have main-
tained a number of customs
which are characteristically
Jewish.
It is believed that a
number of aristocratic Col-
ombians are descendants of
these Marranos. Jews
started to arrive in the mid-
dle of the 19th Century from
the Caribbean Islands in
the port cities of Colombia.
However, they later con-
verted and assimilated.
The present contempor-
ary Jewish community was
made up first of Sephardi
Jews from the Mediterra-
nean and later of Jews from
Eastern Europe (mainly Po-
land). The last group to ar-
rive in the country was the
German Jews who settled in
Colombia between the two
wars.
The different divisions of
the Jewish community of
about 7,000 people in
Bogota are organized under
the umbrella organization
Federacion General de
Comunidades, which is
affiliated with the World
Jewish Congress. It is made
up of three congregations,
the Sephardi, Ashkenazi
and the German congrega-
tion, each with its own
communal institutions.
There is one Jewish school,
the Colombo Hebrew School
in Bogota, with 1,000 stu-
dents.
Music is the language of
praise.
not intermarried. The 80-
seat synagogue, built in
1954, is located in the vicin-
ity of the Israel Embassy
and is used mainly on Rosh
Hashana and Yom Kippur.
As in Sosua, this commu-
nity, too, has no rabbi, no
ritual slaughterer or
mohel. Their prayers
conducted in the Orthodox
manner.
The relationship be-
tween the Jewish com-
munity and the govern-
ment is excellent, as are
the diplomatic relations
between the Dominican
Republic and Israel.
Unlike most foreign gov-
ernments, whose embassies
are located in Tel Aviv, the
Dominicans have their em-
bassy in Jerusalem. This
republic's friendship
towards Israel is often
demonstrated by its posture
in the United Nations in
favor of the Jewish state.
The attitude of the entire
Dominican society is most
friendly toward Israel and
Jewry as a whole. President
Antonio Guzman is a
staunch friend of the Jewish
people and his government
is particularly grateful to
Israel for the help of its ag-
ricultural experts, who
have contributed so much to
its land development.
With very few exceptions,
the Dominican Republic has
no diplomatic relations with
any of the Communist or
Arab countries.
Jordan has an honorary
consul in Santo Domingo
and Lebanon is represented
by its ambassador in Ven-
ezuela. At present there is
an accord with Egypt on
being represented dip-
lomatically by its Ven-
ezuelan ambassador.
The Foreign Ministry
of Santo Domingo de-
clared that in view of the
new developments be-
tween Egypt and Israel it,
too, is ready to resume
friendly relations with
that country.
The Santo Domingo tele-
phone directory abounds in
Jewish names, such as
Cohen and Levi. However,
none of these are names of
Jews. They are just the re-
sult of romantic involve.
ments of young Jewish men
with Gentile women whose
offspring carry the Jewish
names.
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