Jewish in South America. Part II

Colombia

Marranos fled the Iberian peninsula in search of religious freedom and escaping from persecution during the 16th and 17th centuries. It is estimated that some of them escaped to northern areas of Colombia, which at the time was known as New Granada. Most if not all of these people assimilated into Colombian society, although traces of Sephardic Jewish rituals are to this day, often unknowingly, practiced. In the 18th century, practicing Spanish and Portuguese Jews came from Jamaica and Curaçao.

These Jews started practicing their religion openly at the end of the 18th century, even though it was not officially legal to do so. Once Judaism was made a legal religion after independence, the government granted the Jews a plot of land for a cemetery. Many Jews who came during the 18th and 19th centuries achieved prominent positions in Colombian society but were forced to either abandon or play down their Jewish identity. These included author Jorge Isaacs of English Jewish ancestry, the industrialist James Martin Eder (who adopted the more Christian Santiago Eder when he translated his name to Spanish) originally of the Latvian Jewish community, as well as the De Lima and Lobo families of antillean Sephardim.

Coincidentally, all of these persons and their families settled in the Cauca Valley region of Colombia where they continue to be influential members of society in cities such as Cali, although over the generations almost all of their descendants converted to Catholicism.

During the early part of the 20th century, a large number of Sephardic immigrants came from Greece, Turkey, North Africa and Syria, after that Jewish immigrants began to arrive from Eastern Europe. A wave of Ashkenazi immigrants came after the rise of Hitler in 1933, including more than 7000 German Jews. From 1939 until the end of World War II immigration was put to a halt by anti-immigrant feelings in the country and restriction on immigration from Germany. The Jewish population grew dramatically in the 1950s and 1960s, when several institutions such as synagogues, schools and social clubs were established throughout the largest cities in the country.

In the present, most of the Jews in Colombia are concentrated in Bogotá, with about 7,000 members and Barranquilla, with about 6,000 members. There are smaller communities in Cali and Medellín and some Jewish presence in resort cities such as Cartagena, Santa Marta and the island of San Andrés. The size of the Ashkenazi and Sephardic population is about the same. There are nine official synagogues throughout the country. In Bogotá, the Ashkenazi, Sephardic and German Jews each run their own religious and cultural institutions. One organization, Confederación de Asociaciones Judías de Colombia, located in Bogotá, is the central organization that unites all Jews and Jewish institutions in Colombia.

Because of the unstable economy and rising situation of violence and kidnappings suffered in the country during the final decade of the 20th century, many members of Colombia's much appreciated Jewish Community chose to emigrate. Most settled in Miami and other parts of the United States. However, many of Colombia's Jews are coming home thanks in large part to the success that the so-called Democratic Security Policy has had in drastically reducing violence in the rural areas and criminality rates in urban areas as well as in spurring the economy. The situation in Colombia has taken such a turn that many Venezuelan Jews are now seeking refuge in Colombia, among other countries, in order to escape the changing circumstances in Venezuela.

Recently, a group of Colombians have converted to Judaism. 

 Ecuador

Many Jews in Ecuador are of Sephardic ancestry and many still speak Judaeo-Spanish (Ladino) language. Some assume that they were among the European settlers of Ecuador. Others came from Germany in 1939, on a ship called the "Koenigstein". During the years 1933-43, there were a population of 2,700 Jewish immigrants. In 1939, the Jewish population, mostly German and Polish Jews, were expelled by a decree of the Italian influenced government of Alberto Enriquez Gallo. The antisemitism spread in the population, but was stopped by the intervention of the American embassy. In 1945, there was a population of 3,000. About 85% of them were European refugees.

The rise of Jewish immigration to Ecuador was when the Holocaust started. In 1950, there was an estimation of 4,000 persons living in Ecuador. Most of the Jewish communities in Ecuador are from German origin. The majority of Ecuadorian Jews live in Quito and Guayaquil. There is a Jewish school in Quito. In Guayaquil, there is a Jewish Community under the auspices of Los Caminos de Israel called Nachle Emuna Congregation. Now in Ecuador there are only 300 Jews in the country. "Among the Jewish immigrants who came to Ecuador were also professionals, intellectuals and artists, some of whom were professors and writers. Other Alberto Capua, Giorgio Ottolenghi, Aldo Mugla, Francisco Breth, Hans Herman, Leopold Levy, Paul Engel, Marco Turkel, Henry Fente, Benno Weiser, Otto Glass, Egon Fellig, and Karl Kohn. Olga Fis valued and spread the Ecuadorian folk art, Constanza Capua conducted archaeological, anthropological and colonial art.

From Sephardic ancestry were Leonidas Gilces and his younger brother Angel Theodore Gilces whom helped many immigrants such as Charles Liebman who reach the capital with his library, which became the most important of the capital. Simon Goldberg who had a library in Berlin, Goethe library of old books that contributed to the dissemination of reading. Vera Kohn was a psychologist and teacher, tasks that at mid-century were not of interest of Ecuadorian women who used to live in their homes given away, devoid of intellectual curiosity and only care about social life. They were not interested in politics, with the exception of Paul Beter, belonging to the second generation of Jews, who became Minister of Economy and Central Bank President.

El Salvador

Alsatian-born Bernardo Haas, who came to El Salvador in 1868, was believed to be the country's first Jewish immigrant. Another Jew, Leon Libes, was documented as the first German Jew in 1888. Sephardic families also arrived from countries such as Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia Spain and France. De Sola helped to found the first synagogue and became an invaluable member of the Jewish community. In 1936, World War II caused the Jewish community to help their ancestors escape from Europe.

Some had their relatives in El Salvador. But some were forced to go into countries such as Brazil, Ecuador, Guatemala and Panama. On July 30, 1939, President Martinez barred an entry of fifty Jewish refugees going to El Salvador on the German ship Portland. On September 11, 1948, the community started and continues to support a school "Colegio Estado de Israel". According to the latest Census, there are currently about 100 Jews living in El Salvador, mostly in the capital city of San Salvador. Most of them have Sephardic roots.

                         Honduras

During the 20th century-1980s, Jewish immigrants came to Honduras, mainly from Russia, Poland, Germany, Hungary and Romania. There were also immigration from Greece, who are of Sephardic origin and Turkey and North Africa, who are of Mizrachi origin. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, it has been absorbed a huge number of Jewish immigrants from Israel. Through the past two decades, the Honduras experienced a resurgence of Jewish life. Communities in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula grew more active. In 1998, the hurricane Mitch destroyed the synagogue, which was part of the Jewish community center in the Honduras. But the Jewish community contributed money to re-build the temple. Most Honduran Jews live in Tegucigalpa.