Over the centuries Latin America has been a sanctuary for Europe’s Jews fleeing the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal, pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe, and the Holocaust.
Over the tumultuous centuries since Spain discovered the New World, peaceful co-existence and intense anti-Semitism have existed (sometimes simultaneously) throughout Central and South America. While synagogues established in the 1600s flourished in some areas (especially those that came under Dutch control), the Inquisition arrived in other parts of South and Central America forcing Jews to again flee, convert or hide their Jewish identity.
In the late 1800s, Jews fleeing pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe again looked to Latin America as a refuge. And according to the Holocaust Encyclopedia of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, most Latin American nations were relatively open to immigrants from 1918 to 1933. Though most governments reduced immigration during the Holocaust, some 84,000 Jewish refugees arrived in Latin American countries during those years. After the war, many displaced persons also settled in Latin America.
The various waves of immigration and varied acceptance of Jews created diverse areas of rich Jewish culture and vast populations of Crypto-Jews, who outwardly converted to Christianity while continuing to practice Judaism in secret. These are the experiences of the people featured in our cover story this month – each story with a different twist but a hauntingly familiar refrain. On the following pages, we profile several individuals who share their stories of Jewish life in Latin America and the lives they have built in Arizona.
