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Call The Sales Department (248) 354-7123 Ext. 209 Dungan JEWISH NEWS N MOLLY AROST STAUB Special to The Jewish News T he Caribbean's only ordained female rabbi pre- sides over a congregation in San Juan, Puerto Rico. This is the latest innovation in a Caribbean island Jewish community that's not the oldest, but claims its largest population — about 1,800, according to the United Jewish Appeal of Puerto Rico — and a fasci- nating 20th-century story set amid a 17th-century city. Rabbi Susan Friedman, originally from Westfield, N.J., is the spiritual leader of the Reform congregation Temple Beth Shalom, composed of 110 "full" members and 60 "associ- ate" members — snowbirds who win- ter here. Mainlanders constitute about 90 percent of the congregation, which was founded in 1967. The congregation's chair of the Rabbi's Search Committee, Harry Ezratty (an attorney and Jewish histo- rian) said, "There was- no resistance at all on the committee, and the rest of the congregation had no problem with a woman rabbi. I heard one member resigned for that reason but I haven't pursued it." He said the committee had been searching for an appropriate rabbi for two-and-a-half years. The island's slightly older Conserv- ative congregation, Congregation Shaare Tzedek, was established in 1966 but only found its own home in 1975. Its current leader, Rabbi Alfred Winter, arrived several months ago from Port Chester, N.Y. There are about 275 members, about 80 per- cent from Cuba and other Latin American countries. Although a few early Jews were recorded, the Spanish-Catholic colony with its inquisitional history precluded Jewish settlement until the late 19th century. A large group of Jews fleeing the Nazis in the 1930s settled there. Another group came from the United States in the '50s, when Oper- ation Bootstrap, organized to help the island nation economically, attracted Jewish businessmen and workers. The rise of the Castro regime prompted an influx of 150 Cuban Jewish fami- lies. Operation Bootstrap was responsi- ble for another attraction with a Jew- ish twist — La Casa del Libro, the House of the Book in Old San Juan. It's beautiful architecturally, with its successive arches, black-and-white marble floor and Delft tiles in the stair risers. The surprise, though, is the building's contents — a $2 mil- lion collection of 4,000 rare books. "The original collection belonged to the Jewish Dr. Luther Adler," said former director John Blackby, "who frequently vacationed in Puerto Rico. The area was a slum in the '50s when Teodoro Moscoso, an investor in Operation Bootstrap, talked him into donating his collection." In 1992, an exhibit honoring the quincentennial, "Conversos y Sepharditas," focused on Spain's Jew- The sanctuary of Temple Beth Shalom, Reform synagogue of Puerto Rico. ish connections. Among the treasures is an original 1563 Bible containing the word "Sepharad." This is the only one using this word, according to the museum's director. A polyglot Bible, printed in Spain from 1516 to 1522, is also important. Spain retained the Hebrew language after the expulsion so people could study from the original Old Testa- ment. There are a page from a 1490 Pentateuch, original books Columbus read that obviously influenced him, books published by Conversos in Spain and a reproduction of a letter written by Columbus to the Conver- so Santangel, who was a financial adviser to Ferdinand and Isabel and provided funds for the navigator's trip. Here also are original letters from Ferdinand and Isabella, written in 1493, containing the first written references to the New World. PUERTO RICO on page 134