THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

36 Friday, July 11, 1981

Every one of us, whatever
our speculative opinions,
knows better than he prac-
the rabbi. The president of tices, and recognizes a bet-
the community, Saul Gon- ter law than he obeys.
zales, answered all my
questions until I asked
about the history of the
community. Our conversa-
tion was conducted in
Spanish and Hebrew.
The interpreter was
BERKLEY THEATRE
one of the dozen young
2990 W. 12 Mile Rd.
men and women in this
tiny community of less
Berkley LI 2-0330
than 150 souls who have
All Seats $1.00
studied and worked in Is-
at all times
rael. When I asked about
"ATLANTIC CITY" (R)
the group's origins, the
Starring Burt Lancaster
interpreter told me in
& Susan Sarandon
Hebrew:
Weekdays & Sat. 7:30 & 9:30
"When I come to your
Sun. 3:20, 5:25, 7:30 & 9:30
synagogue I don't ask you
about your Jewish ancestry.
Zeh mafria lanu. Your ques-
BLOOMFIELD THEATRE
tion disturbs us."
Downtown
Birmingham
I apologized and contin-
ued to talk to the young man
646-0154
about Israel. My superficial
impression was that the
Prime Time Show
young people of Venta
Seats $1.50
Prieta are beginning to
"CLASH OF THE TITANS" (PG)
doubt the old folks' tales of
Fri.-Sat. 7:30 & 9:30
their Jewish ancestry,
Sun. 1:00, 3:00, 5:00, 7:00
Mon.-Thurs. 7:30 only
which is completely un-
Special late nice show
documented. But every
Seats $2.50
group needs a mythology to
"HAROLD & MAUDE" (PG)
account for its distinctive-
Fri.-Sat. 11:30 only
ness. For the young people
Mon.-Thurs. 9:30 only
their association with and
love of Israel may have re-
KEEGO CINEMA
placed the mythology.
3040 Orchard Lake Rd.
Thus they are growing
11/2 miles W. of Telegraph
closer to the Jews of Mexico
682-1900
City who also find Israel a
bastion. And as the young
ALL SEATS $1.50
people of the village finish
4 Academy Award Nominations
school and enter professions
Best Actress —
the class difference is being
Bette Midler as
"THE ROSE" (R)
bridged.
Fri. & Sat. 6:40, 9:20, 12:00
The process takes time.
Sun. 1:50, 4:20, 7:00, 9:40
At the moment the Mexican
Mon.-Thurs. 7:00, 9:40
Jews of Venta Prieta have
nothing in common with the
"foreign" Jews in the capital
WASHINGTON THEATER
except an overwhelming de-
426 S. Washington, R.O.
sire to pray to the one God
541-0082
with talit, tefilin and To-
All Seats $1.25
rah, and a love of Israel to
at all times
which a large proportion of
"CLASH OF THE TITANS" (PG)
the Venta Prieta youth
Mon.-Thurs. 7:20 & 9:40
have gone to study, to work
Fri. 7:20 & 9:45
and to serve in the Israel Sat & Sun. 1:05, 3:30, 7:20, 9:45

Mexico Jewry: 'Foreigners' Plus an Unaccepted Faction

By JESSE ZEL LURIE

We had been invited to
Mexico by the government
Tourist Council and
Aeromexico to help celeb-
rate what they called
Jewish Heritage Week.
This proved to be a publicity
gimmick to increase Jewish
tourism from the United
States which did not sit well
with the Jewish communal
leaders.
"Why pinpoit us?" asked a
Sephardi banker. "Why not
a French Heritage Week?"

MEXICO CITY (JTA) —
There are three groups of
Jews in Mexico: 43,000
Ashkenazim and Sephar-
dim in separate kehillot,
and about 150 native Mexi-
cans, who are not. recog-
nized as Jews by the first
two. All three groups try to
avoid publicity and don't
like to talk to foreign jour-
nalists, particularly Jewish
reporters from their big
neighbor to the north.

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e
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•

(There is a substantial
French community in
Mexico City with a French
Lycee to which some Jewish
parents send their chil-
dren.)
"Why not?" we asked.
"Perhaps we in the
United States can learn
something from you. We
are told that almost
three-fourths of your
children attend Jewish
day schools, that they
graduate fluent in He-
brew, that most or many
of them spend at least a
year after graduation in
Israel, and that the small
group in this room has
just raised $2 million for a
new building on the He-
brew University campus
on Mt. Scopus."
We are meeting in the
magnificent home of Dr.
David Brucilovsky, a prom-
inent internist and head of
the Mexican Friends of the
Hebrew University. A new
group of young couples in
their thirties had just been
organized by the Friends
and the two generations
were meeting together for
the first time, one of the
younger men, a doctor wear-
ing the brown tunic of the
Mayo Clinic where he had
interned, answered my
questions.
"First of all, we are a very
small community, 43,000 in
a population of 70 million,
not even a tenth of one per-
cent. We are a very young
community. The
Ashkenazim came here only
one generation ago and the
Sephardim are here a little
longer."
(They came with little
more than shirts on their
backs. The Ashkenazim
were escaping from Hitler's
Europe and the Sephardim
were fleeing from the Otto-
man Turkish rulers of the
Levant. They began as
peddlers making the rounds
of primitive villages with
clothing and Christian
figurines. They went into
manufacturing, trade and
stores. The second and third
generations opened super-
markets, auto agencies and
property developments.
(Some of them amassed
great personal wealth
and their children be-
came academics — some
five percent of the faculty
of the University of
Mexico are Jews — or
achieved rapid promo-

•••

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FREE • •• • • • •

• • •• • • • •
• •
ADMISSION
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•

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•
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• WASHINGTON THEATER • •
•
•
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•
•• • ■ • • • • • • • ••• • ■ • • • • •

THIS AD WILL ENTITLE THE BEARER TO ONE FREE ADMISSION
SUNDAY THRU THURSDAY- NO ADDITIONAL PURCHASE NECESSARY

OFFER EXPIRES SEPTEMBER 10, 1981

426 S. WASHINGTON — ROYAL OAK
541-0082

tion

in the civil service —
the head of the North
American desk in the
Foreign Office who ac-
companied President
Lopez Portillo to Wash-
ington last month is 36-
year-old Andres Rozen-
tal — or entered the pro-
fessions like the young
doctor who was talking
to us.)
"We haven't really put
down roots yet . . ." the doc-
tor continued. "But what
are you afraid of?" I broke
in. "Anti-Semitism of
course. We see what is hap-
pening in Argentina. We
are Mexican citizens. We
love our country. It has been
good to us. But we are still
foreigners . . ."
A young lady interrupted.
"I am the fourth generation
born here and I am still con-
sidered a foreigner. My
daughter is the fifth genera-
tion and her daughter will
be the sixth generation and
she will still be called a for-
eigner."
There is another group of
Jews in Mexico who will
never be called foreigners
but most of the Jews in
Mexico City refuse to recog-
nize them as Jews. Their
center is Venta Prieta, a vil-
lage about 65 miles north of
Mexico City.
Commonly called the
Indian Jews, they resent
both the name and most
of the articles written
about them. Visiting
journalists, photo-
griphers and historians
depicted them as exotic
primitives and derided
their mythology of being
descended from secret
Jews who hid in the
mountains during the
18th Century to escape
the Inquisition.
They are no more Indian
than the rest of the Mexican
population. Almost all Mex-
icans are a'rnixture of Euro-
peans and Indian. To call a
Mexican an Indian is con-
sidered an insult. It is a
pejorative name meaning
lazy, unwashed and drunk.
I visited Venta Prieta
with Rabbi Samuel Lerer, a
Conservative rabbi and a
member of the Rabbinical
Assembly. He is the only
American rabbi in Mexico
City and the only one that
will provide rabbinical serv-
ices such as marriages, Bnai
Mitzva and circumcision to
Venta Prieta.
Since I accompanied
Lerer, I was received cor-
dially and allowed to photo-
graph their "Shaharit" ser-
vice, which included the
naming of four little girls by

76ers Sold

PHILADELPHIA
Harold Katz, founder of the
Nutri-Systems Inc. chain of
weight-loss clinics, has pur ;
chased the Philadelphia
76ers basketball team for
$12 million.
The
44-year-old
entrepreneur hopes to
change the fortunes of the
team, a talented collection
of players who win consis-
tently during the regular
season, but falter during the
play-offs.

MOVIE
GUIDE

army.

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Your Hosts: HELENI ANDY ZERVAS of

DELICATESSEN — RESTAURANT

29556 ORCHARD LAKE RD. Just North of 13 Mile • Farm. Hills

851-,5444

• BREAKFAST • LURCH • DINNER
I101:DIURS. 8 II 9 p.m.
FRI. I SAT. I to 10 p.a., SUN 8 813 p.m.

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Senior Citizens 10%

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TRAY CATERING OUR SPECIALTY

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358-4950
574-9670

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