Jews Honour Dominicans'help during the Holocaust

When I went to the Jewish Museum in Sosua Trujillo was not even mentioned. There is a lot unsaid about this I would love to know about.

Scott

As a side note.

This was not the first group of Jewish immigrants to the DR.

Earlier many Spanish Jews seeking refuge also settled in the Cibao, from mainland Spain and especially from the Canary islands.

The native frindliness destroy the Community!

Statement made about the setlement of Sosua. The Jewish faith is transfer from mother to child. Most of the jewish men married dominican gentiles. The children born out of these mariages are not Jews.

Read this book

Escott said:

When I went to the Jewish Museum in Sosua Trujillo was not even mentioned. There is a lot unsaid about this I would love to know about.

Scott

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Two weeks ago I read The Dictator Next Door by Eric Paul Roorda. Historical book concerning The Good Neighbor Policy during the Trujillo regime of the years 1930-1945.

I would suggest this book to anyone that has questions about today's political culture, backgrouns to many issues , etc.

JOHN

I DO NOT WANT TO TURN THIS INTO ANOTHER RACE THREAD.
....but i do feel i have something pertinent to say/ask.

at the risk of seeming very, very cynical...wasn't trujillo's idea of bringing in all these immigrants chiefly to lighten up the local skin colour?
didn't he also do that with the japanese in constanza?

i don't believe this merits an entrance to the gates of heaven.

A 'YES', 'NO' OR 'IT'S A BIT MORE COMPLICATED THAN THAT' WOULD SUFFICE, BUT PLEASE DON'T TURN THIS INTO ANOTHER PROHIBITED THREAD ABOUT RACE/COLOUR.
- i am not shouting, it's just that i don't want to be blamed for closing this thread.

Realistically, I think Trujillo's acts might have had something to do with the amount of money, industrial expertise, agricultural expertise, etc., more than a concentrated effort to "whiten" up the population.
Not all persons of either Jeewish OR Japanese ancestory are light enough in color to be classed as "white". Skin color depends on where their ancestors originated.
Southern Island Japanese are decidedly darker in color than are their Northern brothers and amoung the Jews, it depends on whether or not the immediate ancestors were "Sabra" or not.

Just food for thought.

Texas Bill

I thought he invited the Jews to make himself appear like a "good guy" and compensate for killing the Haitians.

Our Visit to Sosua Temple

We were in Sosua on March 26th of this year for Friday night services in the temple and were fortunate enough to be there the one week out of four that the rabbi, Oisiki Ghitis, was there. I believe I see him in the photo in the article at the beginning of this thread. If I am correct, he is the man on the far right of the photo. He told us that he is the only rabbi in the Dominican Republic. We also got to meet one of the founders of the synagogue who had been there 65 years -?an elderly gentleman in his late 80?s, his name escapes me.

It was an amazing evening full of singing and verses in Spanish and Hebrew, amongst people from all over the world ? France, Canada, USA, RD, Colombia - all strangers and yet all there in that special place - a large room totally paneled with deep richly-coloured wood that smelled wonderful. I am not Jewish, but my husband is and he seemed to thoroughly enjoy the evening. We went to a lot of trouble to travel from the Playa Dorada resort area by cab on a rain-soaked evening. The cab driver waited almost three hours for us while we attended the service.

We arrived in Sosua too late to tour the museum that night, but we are planning to go back next year and it is definitely on our list of places to see.

Here are a couple pictures of the temple, although quite dark due to the pouring rain when I was taking the shots.

Here is a link to some photos we took in Sosua earlier this year. The museum visit was fascinating and moving. As Scott says Trujillo is completely absent from the exhibition there but our guide, the daughter of one of the original settlers, did speak at length about Trujillo and his role in this unusual episode in Dominican history.

The motivation for allowing the refugees into the DR is believed to be a combination of reasons mentioned in this thread: to curry favour with Roosevelt and the Allies by establishing the Dominican Republic as an enemy of Nazi Germany, as well as economic interests and of course the widely-held belief that it was all about 'whitening the race'. This is also given as the motivation behind allowing immigrants from Arab countries to the DR. The Arab influence on Dominican society is much more prominent, mainly because of the numbers involved.

...amoung the Jews, it depends on whether or not the immediate ancestors were "Sabra" or not.

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Texas Bill, a Sabra is a Jewish person born in modern-day Israel. We are talking about a time (1940) when the state of Israel did not yet exist. The Jews who came to Sosua were mainly from Germany and Austria, and therefore would certainly have fallen within anyone's definition of 'white'. Had they been from Yemen or Ethiopia it would have been another case!

Anyway I recommend you visit the museum, among other things it has some fantastic photographs taken of the early days of the settlement.

Chiri

I'd imagine there were a lot of dominican men who impregnated Jewish women while

the refugees were there, so I suppose there are still a lot of Jewish children in the sosua area.

-Lee

Narcosis said:

As a side note.

This was not the first group of Jewish immigrants to the DR.

Earlier many Spanish Jews seeking refuge also settled in the Cibao, from mainland Spain and especially from the Canary islands.

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My wifes family "Mieses" were Jews from Spain

Chiri,

Thank you for the link to your beautiful pictures. Now I see what we missed when we were at the temple on such a rainy night. We couldn't see anything outside at all, nothing but sheets of rain.

Thank you again.

Vee

Forbeca, before 1947, israel was palestine and Jews lived with arabs in harmony. Those middle eastern jews look exactly the same as arabs, thus, they are called "semites".
Now getting back to subject: Yes I agree with Mariaobetsonov (spelling) that many earlier jew have gotten married to dominicans and have lost their religious identification. I know many dominicans with names like "goldberg" etc who claim to be christain yet they comfirm that their gandfathers were jews from germany or Austria. I personally know one of the founders of Sosua who happen to (still) live in sosua, Mr. Kock. he must be over 90 yrs old and yet, he is still active in his daily life. He is one of the most pleasant men I have ever met in DR who is a living treasure when it comes to knowing about the early existance of sosua. he will give you detailed account of his arrival and development of what is known today as "sosua". I hope he is still alive and active in his jewish representation of holocaust survivals in sosua.
AZB

I was quite fascinated when I first learnt of the existence of and the supposed reason for the existence of the Jewish community in Sosua. I think it could make a fascinating historical novel or a factual history. Any writers amonst us that would like to do the research and write it up?

vee said:

Chiri,

Thank you for the link to your beautiful pictures. Now I see what we missed when we were at the temple on such a rainy night. We couldn't see anything outside at all, nothing but sheets of rain.

Thank you again.

Vee

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You're welcome, Vee, but I can't take the credit for taking the photos, they were taken by Mr Chiri, who is a real photographer.

Chiri

Chris said:

I was quite fascinated when I first learnt of the existence of and the supposed reason for the existence of the Jewish community in Sosua. I think it could make a fascinating historical novel or a factual history. Any writers amonst us that would like to do the research and write it up?

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It would. If I lived up there I would be busy getting testimonies from the surviving settlers before it's too late. Anyone interested in a collaboration? I am serious.

Chiri

Chiri, I am so interested - time is a problem, we're really busy - and Project Damalbi is currently not getting enough of my attention..... I'm nevertheless going to think about this over the weekend and see if I can get some of my work reasigned (a new staff member possibly). I'll pm you. This is simply a story that needs to be told.

Chirimoya said:

It would. If I lived up there I would be busy getting testimonies from the surviving settlers before it's too late. Anyone interested in a collaboration? I am serious.

Chiri

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Pictorial History of the Jewish People

I am in California, I a, a teacher in my books I have a book that should be in a Jewish School. by Nathan Ausubel. Its was publish in 1955 by Crown Publishing.Inc New York. The settlement of Sosua (according to my grandfather who happen to be one of Trujillo childhood friends, and confidant when he was president) was intended to bring new ideas and other method of farming.
Dominican method of farming was and still is done by lunar calender.in most area that have people living who a over 85-105. I have family menbers in this age group I am still surprise, that even a coconut is not remove in the new moon.
He hate the Hispanic where classified as non-white by Hitler.
Sorry for errors I type without glasses.

mariaobetsanov said:

Statement made about the setlement of Sosua. The Jewish faith is transfer from mother to child. Most of the jewish men married dominican gentiles. The children born out of these mariages are not Jews.

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Shalom Maria!

Yes indeed the ultra jewish lecturers think that only the offspring of a jewish mother and a gentile would be able to claim his-hers rights as a jew not viceversa, but as my Jewish mother once told me "not all jews think alike" should provide ampled room for arguement on this issue.

By the way, Sosua was only a landing pad for many jews that did come during the exodus from Europa, many later moved to other parts of the country as they were made to feel at home.

Yom tov! :chinese: