Article: Sosua's Jewish History

[Bryanell]

Jews came by boat before 1940, when the last DORSA settlers came before the post 1945 group. The reason only 600 Jews came to Sosua is the danger posed by the UBoats.

Two points:

1.One of Trujillo's main incentives, apart from those already mentioned here, was that he was paid US$5,000 by DORSA and the Joint Distribution Committee for every visa he issued, so he issued 100,000 visas.....do the math yourselves.....

2. After the Evian conference in 1938, it became ever-increasingly more difficult for Jews to leave Germany for overseas, I'm sure that if given the choice, there would have been no shortage of takers for the rest of those 100,000 visas.

But, as also previously mentioned, whatever the motivation and whatever the cost to those Jewish relief organizations, the fact remains that when almost all other nations had closed their doors or had restricted entrance to all but a token few, Trujillo's Dominican territory remained practically the only safe haven for those unfortunate refugees. The other fact that remains is that the small Jewish community made such a huge contribution to life in Sosua, perhaps not so much in the way that Trujillo originally wanted or hoped for but nevertheless it did change the future for more than just those people from Germany who settled there.

 

[exeurodominican]

It's a well-known fact that jews from Europe dominated the Caribbean slave trade but did any of the victims end up in the DR?

Caribbean and Suriname[edit]
The New World location where the Jews played the largest role in the slave-trade was in the Caribbean and Suriname, most notably in possessions of the Netherlands, that were serviced by the Dutch West India Company.[105] The slave trade was one of the most important occupations of Jews living in Suriname and the Caribbean.[108] The Jews of Suriname were the largest slave-holders in the region.[109]

According to Austen, "the only places where Jews came close to dominating the New World plantation systems were Cura?ao and Suriname."[110] Slave auctions in the Dutch colonies were postponed if they fell on a Jewish holiday.[111] Jewish merchants in the Dutch colonies acted as middlemen, buying slaves from the Dutch West India Company, and reselling them to plantation owners.[112] The majority of buyers at slave auctions in the Brazil and the Dutch colonies were Jews.[113] Jews allegedly played a "major role" in the slave trade in Barbados[111][114] and Jamaica,[111] and Jewish plantation owners in Suriname helped suppress several slave revolts between 1690 to 1722.[109]

Jewish views on slavery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Outside of jews landing in Sosua after slavery was abolished the data is sketchy.

Thank you for your observations, however I missed the connection with the Jews in Sosua.
BTW, you forgot to mention the British, Spain, Portuguese and Muslims who hunted slaves to sell them.

Does this make you feel better now? Hope so.

 

[Gabriela]

Don't know how many visas were issued. The Joint and DORSA screened would-be immigrants so carefully that only 600 were accepted. Some were rejected. :-(