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PHOTO: Children’s Chapel, Centro Hebreo Synagogue, Guatemala City, Guatemala
As we get ready to celebrate Passover, my mind wanders to Guatemala, wondering what food the Jewish families will eat at their “Passover Seder,” will they read the Seder in Spanish or Hebrew, and which Passover traditions have survived the years.
Some people may be surprised to hear that there is a Jewish community there. If you read Sandra’s post over in International Adoption, you might already be aware of this.
Unfortunately, we did not have time to visit the Synagogue in Guatemala City while we were there picking up our daughter. It is already on my “places to visit” list for our next trip to Guatemala.
According to the Virtual Jewish Library , Jews have had a presence in Guatemala since colonial times, but the present day community has its origins in German immigrants arriving in Guatemala in the mid 19th century.
The community formed by these immigrants was small and isolated from the rest of the Jewish world, and its descendants are mostly no longer Jewish. The most prominent members of that community were the German Stahl family, which established cotton mills and for 30 years attended to the government’s banking and financing needs.
Later on, more Jewish immigrants arrived who managed to preserve their traditions.
Jewish immigrants, whose Jewish traditions are still present, arrived at the beginning of the 20th century from Germany and Middle East countries, followed in the 1920s by East European Jews. Many of the latter came via Cuba and considered Guatemala only a transit stop until they could obtain visas to the United States.
I wish I could say that the Jewish immigrants were welcomed in to the community with open arms, but this was not the case.
Guatemala was not favorably disposed to Jewish immigration, and it attempted to limit their arrival. In 1932, the government ordered the expulsion of all peddlers, the overwhelming majority of whom were Jewish; although the actual expulsion was averted, peddling was prohibited, and many Jews faced ruin and were compelled to emigrate. In 1936, under the influence of the substantial German community in Guatemala, legislation was enacted to curb immigration of all people of “Asian origin,” among whom were included Poles, most of whom were Jewish. Due to the restrictive laws, the Jewish community was reduced to only 800 people in 1939. Although never formally abolished, these laws have rarely been enforced since World War II, and after the war many Jewish refugees entered the country. The majority of the Jews lived in Guatemala City, the remainder in Quezaltenango and San Marcos.
…to be continued…..
