dominican-jews....

But you don't live here, do you?

The Dominican Jewish community is very close knit. In Sosua, the remnants of the immigration in the late 30s and early 40s are eithe dead or have left the country. Their children, in general, have also left for the United States.

There ARE some remaining. Mr. Koch and the Wellisches are two that I have known for some time. I am sure that there are more. In Santo Domingo thee are several prominent families that are or were Jewish: the Coens, the Cohens, the L?pez-Penha are just a few.

For you do do this project, you will have to come and live here for several months...meet them and learn about their history.

As for the "how" they interact with Dominicans? Heck, that's easy...

Just like everybody does. There is no "Jewish-Dominican" relationship...it is just a Dominican relationship...


I won't comment on your writing, but you had better do better..

HB

Hillbilly-Would you know?

Hillbilly said:

The Dominican Jewish community is very close knit. In Sosua, the remnants of the immigration in the late 30s and early 40s are eithe dead or have left the country. Their children, in general, have also left for the United States.

There ARE some remaining. Mr. Koch and the Wellisches are two that I have known for some time. I am sure that there are more. In Santo Domingo thee are several prominent families that are or were Jewish: the Coens, the Cohens, the L?pez-Penha are just a few.

For you do do this project, you will have to come and live here for several months...meet them and learn about their history.

As for the "how" they interact with Dominicans? Heck, that's easy...

Just like everybody does. There is no "Jewish-Dominican" relationship...it is just a Dominican relationship...


I won't comment on your writing, but you had better do better..

HB

Click to expand...

How was the land "given" to the original settlers? At what point was it titled or deeded? How was one choosen to have a parcel? How large? Any information regarding the land, subsequent sales, deeding etc would be of interest.
Many thanks in advance

JOHNE

johne said:

How was the land "given" to the original settlers? At what point was it titled or deeded? How was one choosen to have a parcel? How large? Any information regarding the land, subsequent sales, deeding etc would be of interest.
Many thanks in advance

JOHNE

Click to expand...

I've sent you a PM with a link to some more info.

johne said:

How was the land "given" to the original settlers? At what point was it titled or deeded? How was one choosen to have a parcel? How large? Any information regarding the land, subsequent sales, deeding etc would be of interest.
Many thanks in advance

JOHNE

Click to expand...

In Sosua, adjacent to the synagogue is a museum that chronicals the move from Germany of the Jews to Sosua.
Originally, the Jews migrated as part of a co-op, similar to an Isreali kibbutz.
This co-op placed the immigrants in farming jobs even though most were of either business or professional background. Many didn't know which end of the cow to milk.
Later, as the co-op began to fail, individuals branched out and formed private business concerns along with ownership of personal property.
Many became sucessful in Sosua, others moved to the U.S. after the war.

If you go to the museum, you will see many of the Dominican as well as the international documents concerning this time. During the beginning of Hitlers' tyranny, the Dominican Republic ammended its immigration laws to grant any Jew the right to Dominican citizenship. This was during the period of time the U.S. was turning away ship loads of Jews. The dominican dictator's motives were not totally pure. There was both a political and financial side to the story. The dictator was facing world criticism for treatment of the Haitians.
The bottom line is that many Jewish lives were saved.
Go to the museum to learn more.

Search the DR1 forums - there have been a number of threads on this topic, with contact information for the Sosua and Santo Domingo communities.

It must have been interesting and challanging to settle here in the 30's. I can imagine that it was very very backwards and quite the hardship after living on the most advanced continent.

When I took the tour of the Jewish Museum I had a lot of questions answered by one of the original settlers and a child of a settler that I couldnt find answered before on the web. One thing that was missing and not even mentioned was Trajillo. Not even one mention of him and of that they wouldnt give an answer to.

I was told that of the population that originally moved to the DR only a few were successful. Since there was nothing else to do with money here in the 30's and 40's they bought real estate and mainly from each other. The unsuccessful ones move out of the DR first and the successful ones remained. They struggled with different businesses and farming. Imagine, Jews in the Pork business when they won't even eat it? They were unsuccessful as a whole because this is a different place than from where they came.

This museum is something I would recommend to any history buff. I found it fascinating!

Escott

Escott said:

It must have been interesting and challanging to settle here in the 30's. I can imagine that it was very very backwards and quite the hardship after living on the most advanced continent.

When I took the tour of the Jewish Museum I had a lot of questions answered by one of the original settlers and a child of a settler that I couldnt find answered before on the web. One thing that was missing and not even mentioned was Trajillo. Not even one mention of him and of that they wouldnt give an answer to.

I was told that of the population that originally moved to the DR only a few were successful. Since there was nothing else to do with money here in the 30's and 40's they bought real estate and mainly from each other. The unsuccessful ones move out of the DR first and the successful ones remained. They struggled with different businesses and farming. Imagine, Jews in the Pork business when they won't even eat it? They were unsuccessful as a whole because this is a different place than from where they came.

This museum is something I would recommend to any history buff. I found it fascinating!

Escott

Click to expand...

In addition to that, much of the products the Jews were producing had a market on this island, but it was in Santo Domingo.

Remember, there was no Autopista Duarte, only a two lane highway connecting Santiago with the Capital. The trajectory was very very long. I remember before they built the Autopista it used to take around 3 hours to reach the Capital from Santiago!

However, the Jews did made alot more of what they had than the Dominicans who had already lived in the area. Some dominicans resented the success of the jews and began to encroach on the jews land. Authorities did little to stop it (kind of like the Haitain deal today with them coming in as if the island is one united place and authorities ignoring the situation).

Before long, many Jews became disgruntled and at their very first chance of leaving they packed up and left, unwillingly.

By the time the 1980s rolled through, Sosua's jewish population shrank considerably and their place was being taken by the expat community that has grown substancially since then up to this day.

This is as far as I know about their existence here.

Other than that, there was a previous influx of jews, but this was in th 1500 and/or 1600s and most of those were serphardic jews. Those settled in Santo Domingo and some cibao towns and became known for being shrewd businessmen along with the marinite christians who came here from Lebanon and Syria.

bellamabella said:

i want to further explore..how dominican and jews interact.

Click to expand...

My wife and I have been happily married for 8 years now. We get along pretty well.

Nal0whs said:

In addition to that, much of the products the Jews were producing had a market on this island, but it was in Santo Domingo.

Click to expand...

This was not the case as it was told to me. They said that they had tried a lot of things but for one reason or another they just weren't successful in the process and not the marketing. That really stuck to my mind when I brought vegatable seeds from the states but they didn't do well.

The people that left, left because of hardship and because they were NOT successful according to the discussions I had. Glad that some were able to succeed and that there is a museum such as this in Sosua. I only went once but it was enlightening mostly because there were a few people that moved to the States here on vacation and I was able to get their take on things.

Escott said:

This was not the case as it was told to me. They said that they had tried a lot of things but for one reason or another they just weren't successful in the process and not the marketing. That really stuck to my mind when I brought vegatable seeds from the states but they didn't do well.

The people that left, left because of hardship and because they were NOT successful according to the discussions I had. Glad that some were able to succeed and that there is a museum such as this in Sosua. I only went once but it was enlightening mostly because there were a few people that moved to the States here on vacation and I was able to get their take on things.

Click to expand...

I suppose your version is much closer to what really happened, given that it came from the mouth of an actual descendant of the jewish immigrants.

Thank you for that extra info. Sometimes information get slightly distorted.

Depends on what grade you're in

bellamabella said:

now...why not comment on my writing?


now...how is my writing now?

Click to expand...

I think what Hillbilly meant was that your use of capital letters, sentence structure and contracted words could use some improvement. I think your O.P. has led to some interesting responses.

JOHN

the fact still remains that the domincan republic opened its doors to jewish refugees.

Click to expand...

My understanding is that the acceptance of Jewish refugees by Trujillo was a private deal between 'El Jefe' and US President (Franklin D.) Roosevelt, for which Trujillo profited a pretty penny while Rooselvelt avoided a political (electoral) embarrassment at home. Actually, the refugees' expectation was to arrive in NY.

L'etat c'est moi

Although Trujillo could have realistically stated "L'etat c'est moi", just like Louis XV, it's stretching it a bit to say that the Dominican Republic opened its arms to Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. After the boat carrying the imigrants languished for over three months in open waters, Trujillo held them for ransom until the refugees themselves payed to disembark in the DR. Again, it was the farthest thing in the minds of the refugees to arrive in the DR. Actually, during WWII Trujillo profited by fueling German submarines and allowing a German military radio transmitter to operate from a hospital in San Pedro de Macor?s.

I was on the same guided tour as Escott. Apparently Trujillo was willing to receive thousands more Jewish refugees but for one reason or another the arrivals stopped at several hundred.

An elderly family friend who hails from SPM told me about the German radio transmitter in the hospital, too. Despite his fascist inclinations, Trujillo knew which way his bread was buttered, and so declared war on Germany - much to Hitler's amusement, the story goes. Accepting Jewish refugees may have been an attempt to whiten the race, as many claim, as well as to curry favour with Roosevelt.

But Mirador, were they really sailing around on a boat waiting for a port that would allow them ashore, like in Exodus, or was their journey to the DR pre-arranged from their home countries? I recall documents on display at the museum which suggest it was the latter.

Prearranged

Chirimoya said:

I was on the same guided tour as Escott. Apparently Trujillo was willing to receive thousands more Jewish refugees but for one reason or another the arrivals stopped at several hundred.

An elderly family friend who hails from SPM told me about the German radio transmitter in the hospital, too. Despite his fascist inclinations, Trujillo knew which way his bread was buttered, and so declared war on Germany - much to Hitler's amusement, the story goes. Accepting Jewish refugees may have been an attempt to whiten the race, as many claim, as well as to curry favour with Roosevelt.

But Mirador, were they really sailing around on a boat waiting for a port that would allow them ashore, like in Exodus, or was their journey to the DR pre-arranged from their home countries? I recall documents on display at the museum which suggest it was the latter.

Click to expand...

It was the latter at $5000. a head payable in gold from Jewish International in New York. (Information as reported from an article in Sosua-News.)