Spring-Summer 2011 El Salvador Jewish Community Emerges from Centuries of Isolation and Assimilation
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Vol. 18 No. 2 Spring-Summer 2011 El Salvador Jewish Community Emerges From Centuries of Isolation and Assimilation By Rabbi Aaron Rehberg Introduction by the Editor In addition to the approximately 60 families which make up the mainstream Jewish community of El Sal- vador, there are three smaller groups of Jews living in the south-central part of the country in the towns of Armenia, San Salvador and Nauisalco. Here 260 men, women and children, most of whom are descended from Spanish/Portuguese émigrés fleeing the Spanish Inquisition, have embraced their Jewish roots and are following an orthodox life style. The rest are Jews by choice. For the past 12 years, community leaders have taken to the Internet to learn how to follow Jewish law, how to pray, how to celebrate Jewish holidays and how to prac- Rabbi Aaron Rehberg with El Salvadoran Jewish children. Photo courtesy of A. Rehberg IN THIS ISSUE tice Jewish traditions and ritual. As with the emerging Jewish community of Cameroon discussed in the last El Salvador’s Jewish Emergence ..................1 issue of the Kulanu newsletter, the Internet has pro- vided the means for this small community to reach out Remembering Lynne Elson ..........................7 and reconnect with its Jewish heritage. Bene Ephraim Notes ...................................8 In March of this year, Kulanu sent Rabbi Aaron Reh- Planned Giving ......................................11 berg of Jerusalem to visit the community for one month to instruct community members in Jewish observance, Abayudaya Anti-Poverty Project ................12 law and ritual practice. Rabbi Rehberg, himself a de- Book Review: SHOAH: Turkey, US, UK .....14 scendent of anousim (Crypto-Jews), had visited the Rendezvous with History ...........................16 community for four days in 2008 on a fact finding mis- sion and was the perfect choice for community mentor Technology & Long-Distance Learning .......19 and teacher. Not only had he visited the community Donors ......................................................20 before and knew its members, but he could relate his own journey of return to Judaism with the path being Volunteer Opportunities ............................22 followed by these sincere and devoted individuals. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 El Salvador, C ONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Rabbi Rehberg describes his month with El Salvador Jewish Community members (February 27 to March 27) : "Rabbino, Shalom!” (Rabbi, hello) greets me as I arrive at the Comalapa International Airport in El Salvador. It takes about half a minute for my eyes to adjust to the bright sun, which seems always to be at its height in this equa- torial region. Once I can see clearly, I recognize 15 people Synagogue interior from Armenia who have come and exterior. to welcome me to El Salvador. Photos by A. Rehberg “Como estan?” I ask, ‘how are you’ in the plural form, very that it is rude to in- aware of my conjugation after quire after the age of completing two online Span- my elders, so I never ish study programs during the asked him his exact month leading up to this trip. age), who is one of the As I am originally from New community’s found- Mexico, Spanish was a required ing fathers. Mikhael subject in school. I also picked grew up in an anous up a little from my abuelita (grandmother). But El Sal- (Crypto-Jewish) family that remembered few Jewish vador is my first immersion in a completely Spanish- traditions. His parents never told him that they were speaking environment and I have been communicating Jewish, only that they were not Christian. His mother with the community mostly through translators. used to light a make-shift oil lamp on Fridays. When he asked as a child why she did that, she said that her “Anna, Anna!”* everyone begins to chant, not quite in mother had taught her to do it but she didn't know unison. With that I am led to meet my volunteer transla- why. tor for this trip. Anna Wilson, a petite British lady a few _________________ years older than myself, greets me with joy emanating from her eyes and good will written all over her face. Mikhael began to suspect that his I immediately begin to use whatever Spanish I know mother was lighting Shabbat candles. in order to communicate with community members, _________________ while Anna acts as a walking dictionary, correcting my grammar and translating. Her presence is a welcome When Mikhael learned about Judaism as a teenager, he relief and will help me make the transition from Israel began suspecting that his mother was lighting Shabbat and Hebrew to El Salvador and Spanish. (Sabbath) candles and that his family was most likely descended from Jews who had reached El Salvador It is energizing to be back with this remarkable com- while fleeing from the Spanish Inquisition. A visit to munity. Why is this community so special? Perhaps it a synagogue in Guatemala with his then-employer, an is the determination and the commitment that seems Ashkenazi Jew from San Salvador, piqued his interest. to permeate the atmosphere and lives of its people. A His employer entered the synagogue to participate in noteworthy example is the story of Mikhael Alvarado, the service, but as a non-Jew, Mikhael was denied en- a man in his mid to late 50s (I was instructed as a child try. Although he had the feeling at the time that he was ___________________ descended from Jews, he had yet to declare himself. *Anna Wilson, a British citizen and professional trans- At the same time, he continued to pursue Jewish learn- lator with an interest in far-flung Jewish communities, ing. Eventually, he was circumcised and went to the met Kulanu president Harriet Bograd in England last mikvah (ritual bath), in this case, a natural body of year and volunteered to serve as translator for the first water. Throughout his life, Mikhael has received more eight days of Rabbi Rehberg’s stay in El Salvador. CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 2 El Salvador, C ONTINUED FROM PAGE 2 discouragement than encouragement cooling in the heat. Most from mainstream Jews. But despite cities don't. The neigh- many negative experiences, he contin- boring city of Sonsonate, ues to be one of the pillars of his com- for example, has many munity's growth and education and is cheaply painted brick and fully committed to his Jewish heritage. concrete structures reek- It is his fondest wish to one day visit Is- ing of car exhaust, which rael. permeates the walls of lo- cal houses and buildings. The welcoming committee brought Worst of all is the capi- Anna and me to Mikhael’s home in Ar- tal. After twenty minutes menia, as he was to be our host dur- there, my head feels like it ing our stay in El Salvador. The family Rabbi Rehberg and two young men from will explode from the auto served us a lunch that in their world the community. Photo by A. Rehberg fumes. was like a banquet meant for kings. Sit- ting in the house I could feel an aura of welcome and But the mountains are gorgeous and the volcanoes are hospitality exuding from its walls. What I felt was the covered in thick forest reaching toward the heavens. truth as every Shabbat the house is filled with guests. From their summits, one can look down into valleys Even during the week Mikhael's hospitality is extended below and see lakes and streams, fields of corn, forests to the poor of his community who can come and eat at of wild mango and coffee as well as poor overcrowded his table. It is clear that he and a couple of other self- villages and deserts of asphalt and concrete soaked employed construction contractors are the financial with the choking smoke from vehicles that would have backbone of the community, and they are neither shy been retired from the roads decades ago in a more de- nor haughty in taking care of their less fortunate broth- veloped country. ers and sisters. _______________ Another one of the community's supporters is stone The mountains are gorgeous and the mason Mijael Guzman, who is currently working on a volcanoes are covered in thick forest. plan to aid other community members fulfill their hopes _________________ of financial stability and independence. Mijael’s goal is to purchase two stone cutting machines and expand Our meals here always consist of a corn product, most- his business. He would buy stone at wholesale prices ly tortillas. But these are not the thin yellow tortillas and then do the cutting as well as the actual masonry. we are used to in the more northern reaches of Latin He believes this business would create about 15 new America, nor those imported into the USA. Rather the jobs for community members, many of whom are out tortillas here are the size of small pita and made of a of work due to the economic problems in the country. softer, finer, white corn meal. A bean paste usually ac- companies each meal. Here the beans are first ground Mikhael's house has two bedrooms, a dining room before being cooked because it cuts down on cooking separated from a small kitchen, a front room with a time, which is important in such hot weather and limits sofa (used as a living room) and a covered patio with the use of expensive fuel. unique, asymmetric wood chairs made by local Native Americans. The simple plastered brick walls are paint- In Armenia, the Jewish community has its own mill. ed with a fresh coat of bright, coral blue paint. Heat Often, one of the more well-off community members radiates off the tin roof, whose only purpose is to keep will buy corn and beans in bulk, grind the meal and dis- the rain out.