Jewish life in the Americas stretches back to the very beginnings of European colonization, though often in hidden form. In the late 15th and 16th centuries, following the expulsions from Spain (1492) and Portugal (1497), some Sephardic Jews and conversos (Jews who had converted to Christianity, often under pressure) arrived in the New World with Spanish and Portuguese expeditions. Because open Jewish practice was forbidden under the Inquisition, these early communities remained largely clandestine, particularly in colonial centers such as Cartagena, Lima, and Mexico City.
A more visible and enduring Jewish presence emerged much later. From the mid-19th through early 20th centuries, large numbers of Jews arrived from Eastern Europe (Ashkenazi Jews from Lithuania, Poland, and Russia) as well as from the Ottoman Empire (Sephardic Jews from the Balkans, Syria, and Turkey). They settled primarily in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Uruguay, building synagogues, schools, and communal institutions that still define Jewish life in the region today. And here are five of Latin America´s most significant Jewish places to visit:
Buenos Aires
This metro area of around 15 million is home to Latin America’s largest Jewish community (around 200,000), shaped largely by immigration between the 1880s and 1930s. Its epicenter is the Balvanera/Once district just west of the city´s historic core, and the institutional heart of Argentine Jewish life is the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AIMIA, top), a venerable community center founded in 1894. It was rebuilt after being devastated by a suicide bombing in 1994 linked to Iran and the Lebanese Islamic group Hezbollah, and symbolizes both the resilience and continued vitality of the community, while the surrounding neighborhood remains filled with kosher bakeries, bookstores, and synagogues. Visitors can tour the building and its interpretation center.
Coro, Venezuela
The historic center of Venezuela´s second oldest city (founded in 1527) out on the western Caribbean coast (a 6½-hour drive from Caracas but you can cut it down to just over four by flying), holds UNESCO World Heritage status, and it was one of the earliest points of entry for Sephardic Jews in Spanish America, particularly in the 19th century, when merchants from the nearby island of Curaçao and elsewhere settled there. The Cementerio Judío de Coro, established in 1832, is the oldest Jewish cemetery in continuous use in South America. Its weathered tombstones, set against a stark, arid landscape, offer a quiet but powerful reminder of a once-thriving trading community that connected the Caribbean and the South American mainland.
Mexico City
In this vast metropolis of more than 20 million people, Jewish life is both historic and contemporary. The modern community largely dates from the early 20th century, when Jews arrived from Eastern Europe and the Middle East. The Sinagoga Monte Sinaí, opened in 1923 by Sephardim from Syria and Lebanon, reflects the diversity of Mexico’s Jewish population and the way different traditions took root side by side in the capital. Located on Calle Justo Serra in the historic center, it remains an active congregation and a link to the city’s early 20th-century Jewish immigrants.
Moïses Ville, Argentina
Up north on the pampas of Santa Fe province, just over six hours´ drive from Buenos Aires, this town of around 3,000 was founded in 1889 by Jews fleeing pogroms and persecution in Russia and Eastern Europe, and became one of the earliest Jewish agricultural colonies in the Americas - and yes, there were Jewish gauchos! The Jewish population these days is only about ten percent, but their legacy remains in the form of three synagogues (including the Sinagoga Barón Hirsch, above), the Kadima cultural center, with a theater hall and library, a hospital, a Hebrew school, Argentina´s first Jewish cemetery (1891), and a museum which showcases the town´s history and Jewish culture. It´s on UNESCO´s tentative list of World Heritage Sites.
Ricardo André Frantz/Tetraktys
Recife, Brazil
In the country´s northeast, this city of about 1.6 million preserves one of the earliest chapters of Jewish life in the Americas. The Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue, founded by Portuguese and Spanish Sephardim in 1636 when Recife was very briefly a Dutch colony, is often considered the first synagogue in the New World. Although the original community dispersed after the Portuguese reconquest and the snagogue eventually torn down in the early 20th century, the site has been rebuilt as a museum in Recife’s historic center, where colonial streets and colorful buildings evoke the era in which Jews were briefly able to practice openly. Although the city´s Jewish population is currently just a few hundred, there are also currently four other synagogues here, although some function more as community centers or heritage sites, with intermittent religious services.
For more information, check out TurismoJudaico.com.
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